meet baxter county's new ext agent, brad runsick

As most now know, long time Baxter County agent, Mark Keaton, retired back in December, and I, Brad Runsick, am now your new agent for the county. I’m glad to be here and get to serve such a vibrant Master Gardener group and Baxter County horticulture clientele. I’ll look forward to meeting everyone over the course of the next several months. I’ll see you at the member meetings, but don’t hesitate to stop by or give me a call any time! So, a little about myself, in case you’re interested.

I come to you from Fulton County, where I’ve spent the last 7+ years serving as the agent there, but I’m not new to Baxter County. In 2011, I transferred to Fulton County from Searcy County, where I spent 3 years as their agent. The transfer to Fulton County happened largely because I was getting married to my wife, Amber; and Mountain Home is where she already lived and had a job, so here is where we decided to settle down. Some of you may remember Amber serving as the Baxter County Family and Consumer Science Agent a few years back.

So, fast forward to present day. My wife and I have two daughters, Kate (4) and Charlotte (nearly 11 months). Presently, my wife teaches high school family and consumer sciences at Norfork High School. We’re members of the Riverside Church of Christ in Gassville, and we live in Salesville. Needless to say, my daily commute got significantly shorter!
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A little about myself: I grew up east of Batesville, around Cord/Newark area, on a farm where my Dad ran about 30-40 head of momma cows and cut about 60 acres of bermudagrass hay on family farm land in the flat country across the Black River in Jackson County. After leaving home, I headed off to college at Arkansas Tech in Russellville to get a bachelor’s degree in agriculture business with an emphasis in horticulture; spent some time managing parts stores in Greenbrier and Little Rock; worked a summer on an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf; and completed a master’s degree from the U of A in Fayetteville in plant science with an emphasis in plant pathology. In my free time, I like to bow hunt, fish, golf, backpack, or run the occasional long-distance race that I’m rarely prepared for. But most of the time, I’m at home just being Daddy and picking a guitar, mandolin, or most recently, a banjo.

Brad Runsick
Baxter County Extension agent/Staff Chair
#3 East 9th Street, Mountain Home
(870) 425-2335
brunsick@uaex.edu
www.uaex.edu/counties/baxter
Facebook: @BaxterCountyAg

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