October 2015 Bio John Shutske
John Shutske is the Associate Dean for Extension and Outreach in the College of Agricultural and Life
Sciences (CALS) at University of Wisconsin - Madison. In this role, John serves as the Program
Director for Agricultural and Natural Resources Extension within UW-Extension’s Cooperative
Extension Division. He is responsible for educational programs in the state’s 72 counties as well as the
campus-based Extension and applied research activities of approximately 80 faculty and academic staff
on the UW-Madison, -Platteville, and -River Falls campuses and 65 within Wisconsin’s counties. He
also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Wisconsin Farm Technology Days and as a board
member for the multi-state agricultural cooperative AgSource.
As a member of the CALS Dean’s Team, Shutske participates daily in strategic planning, decision
making, governance processes for faculty and staff, and implementation activities connected to external
communications; budgeting and finance; faculty hiring; program design; and, administrative alignment.
From February to December of 2014, Shutske served as the Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for
UW-Extension, a role that included oversight of budgets, program direction, governance, and
communication for UW-Extension’s four divisions which include: Continuing Education and Online/ELearning (CEOEL), Cooperative Extension, Business and Entrepreneurship, and Broadcast and Media
Innovations (Wisconsin Public Radio and Public Television).
Prior to coming to Wisconsin in 2008, Shutske was a tenured faculty member (Professor) at the
University of Minnesota in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering for over 17
years. John also held a faculty appointment in the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health in
Environmental Health Sciences. Shutske was instrumental in leading changes in his academic
department including providing leadership and support in departmental change processes, re-writing
tenure codes, departmental and college mergers, and leading/co-leading review processes.