It was a hot, muggy afternoon at Sanford Stadium.
Lance Palmer, draped in a black graduation robe on the field alongside fellow faculty members, was having trouble staying engaged as the event wore on.
“I admit I was dozing off ever so slightly,” he recalled, smiling sheepishly at the now decade-old memory.
About that time, his new dean, Linda Kirk Fox, barely a year into her tenure, approached the podium to address graduates from the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.
“She started talking about very specific programming at FACS, and she mentioned the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program I’m a part of,” Palmer said. “Sometimes that first year you don’t really see the dean that much, but I realized then Dean Fox knows what we do and she cares about what we do, and it was really exciting. That woke me up fast.”
During her 10-year career as FACS dean, Fox developed a reputation as a meticulous, forward-thinking leader. Under her leadership, enrollment in the college increased by 20 percent, funded research doubled and the number of endowed professors grew from five to 15.
The college was “transformed by Dean Fox’s extraordinary vision and compassionate leadership,” UGA President Jere Morehead said upon her retirement in August 2021.
Team-first approach
Fox, who spent her entire 40-year-career in higher education at land-grant universities, said she was drawn to the system’s “future-focused” mission and emphasis on teamwork.
“I really enjoyed witnessing other people think bigger systems – it’s not all about me, it’s what can we all achieve together,” Fox said. “I see that as a system and a culture that not only do I appreciate, but I find it most successful.”
Fox’s reputation as a national leader was widely known even before she arrived in Athens, and her impact on the college immediate.
“She definitely had a presence and a national reputation,” said Allisen Penn, the college’s associate dean for Extension and outreach. “You know how some people when they walk in a room they just have that sense of self and that sense of comfort in who they are? She always seemed to have that ability and always came across as being highly intelligent, articulate and well-informed.”
Creative thinking
Prior to being named dean at UGA, Fox held faculty and administrative positions at the University of Idaho and Washington State University, where she served as dean and director of WSU Extension from 2005-2011.
Throughout her time at FACS, she helped facilitate millions of dollars of facility upgrades, including the complete renovation of a 1930s home management house into the world-class Charles Schwab Financial Planning Center in 2019.
Palmer, a longtime member of the financial planning faculty, noted during those negotiations and others Fox was always “ready to make a deal” for the betterment of the college.
“She was willing to break down some barriers for us and to champion us at the higher levels on campus but also support us as we go out to other places,” he said. “She really led the college to a whole new level to where it was deeply respected across campus – and still is – but a lot of that is because of her leadership.”
A natural leader
Throughout her career, Fox served in various leadership roles at both the university and national levels, including co-chairing the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program task force and serving two terms on the board of directors of The Association of Public Land-grant Universities Board on Health and Human Sciences.
In 2020, she led the college through the turbulent early days of the pandemic, when classes abruptly moved to remote learning and a flurry of new challenges seemed to crop up daily.
Her calm in the midst of the storm helped reassure many, Penn said.
“She never met a crisis,” Penn said. “She’s just the most composed person I’ve ever known, and that really radiated throughout her leadership. She really cared a lot about people and she cared a lot about this college. That kind of leadership has a lot of depth to it.”
Active retirement
Since returning to Oregon, Fox has stayed busy in retirement. She is employed part-time as a project team coach for the national Extension Collaborative on Immunization Teaching and Engagement (EXCITE) and conducts video interviews of residents for the in-house television channel of the 500-resident retirement community where she lives.
“I learn something new every day,” she said.
She’s also interested in philanthropy, having established the Dean Linda Kirk Fox Graduate Fellowship and the Dean Linda Kirk Fox Scholarship for Academic Excellence within FACS, owing to the special role the college and university played in her life.
“The decade I spent at the University of Georgia was magic,” Fox said. “So I think it’s so logical that you want to invest in a place that’s enduring. I gained so much from the University of Georgia that was also personally life-enriching that I feel I owe a debt of gratitude.”
