September 8 –Prairie View A&M University alumnus, Corylee Thomas, a December 2011 Agriculture graduate, has been named the State Resource Inventory Coordinator (Natural Resources Specialist) with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service, Temple, Texas, effective August 3. He will be hired at the GS-11 level with promotion potential to GS-12. His primary responsibilities will be coordination and leadership in the collection of National Resources Inventory (NRI) onsite and local data within the state, and coordination and communication with the Resources Inventory and Assessment Division (RIAD), the Regional Remote Sensing Laboratory and other units involved in the NRI survey process.
Thomas said he is very excited about this opportunity. In his new role, he said he will be able to specialize and work with plant identification and interpret information — moving from a focus on programming activities to specializing in soils and plant identification.
“It’s going to be something I’ve been looking forward to wherein I can switch job duties and focus more on soils rather than conservation programs,” he said.
“I look at it as an opportunity to promote growth for myself and an opportunity to reach back and not forget where it all started and looking forward to the future. I think it’s a good step in the right direction, and I can show younger generations that it can be done — that hard work does pay off,” Thomas said.
As an agriculture major with a concentration in Agronomy, Thomas said Prairie View A&M University helped him to be well rounded and prepared him for his career and this position by teaching him leadership and the different areas of agricultural science from animal science to plant and soil sciences as well as the economic side of the agricultural industry.
Thomas’ prior work experience includes internships with the USDA Forest Service and the Texas Cooperative Extension Service while a student at PVAMU, and he served as a Soil Conservationist in Cooper and Pearsall, Texas, prior to becoming a District Conservationist in Michigan and subsequently transferring back to Livingston, Texas.
Thomas is a first-generation graduate of PVAMU, where he served as President of the Exhibition Team with the Livestock Club and a member and treasurer of the PVAMU Chapter of Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS). Of three siblings, he was the first to graduate from a four-year higher education institution. He is married to Krystal (Blakemore) Thomas (College of Agriculture and Human Sciences Class of 2011 and 2013). They are the parents of two children, Mack and Drew.
Wash Jones, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
wajones@pvamu.edu
(936) 261-2538