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University of Idaho agriculture dean Michael Parrella plans to retire June 21 after more than nine years on the job.

The announcement leaves time to conduct a national search for his successor, according to a Sept. 5 news release from the UI College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Parrella started as dean and entomology professor in February 2016. He was associate dean of the University of California, Davis, agricultural sciences division previously.

When he arrived at UI, he said he planned to stay at least five years.

“I wanted to see these things through,” Parrella said in an interview.

The College of Ag during his tenure completed or made substantial progress on facilities projects, increased grant funding substantially, boosted enrollment and hired key staff members. The work has involved Parrella — who travels the state frequently — faculty and staff, industry and the legislature.

“When I started, we had vision for these different initiatives,” he said. “In a sense, it was a very ambitious program for a new dean and a college to move forward.”

“I have been blessed with working with some really great people,” said Parrella, who also serves as special assistant to the president for agricultural initiatives.

Whether projects were initiated in-house or by industry. “It’s all about bringing people together and developing a partnership,” he said.

The Idaho Farm Bureau “has been very impressed with and supportive of all of the projects and initiatives that Parrella has started since he became dean,” said bureau spokesman Sean Ellis, who posted a story at idahofb.org about Parrella’s tenure. “He told lawmakers several times he didn’t become dean to maintain the status quo, and this certainly has played out. He has pushed the university forward and set it up for continued success.”

Parrella can quickly recall and communicate any project’s facts, figures and status when speaking to a person or group, said Rick Waitley, who leads Food Producers of Idaho and other ag groups. And he remembers people by name and affiliation easily.

The dean loves to update people on the current status of the college and what is next on his list of initiatives, and he “never seems to get overwhelmed with his audience,” Waitley said. He uses a simple, straightforward communication style and “takes it all in stride, knowing how to make donors and those responsible for their investment feel really good about the project.”

A gift for “putting people at ease and making them feel that they were key to the future of CALS” is a Parrella characteristic, as is “forever praising his team,” Waitley said.

The College of Ag recently started building a meat science and innovation center on UI’s main campus in Moscow. Also on the campus, a new seed potato germplasm building opened recently and researchers are building a first-of-its-kind Deep Soil Ecotron.

In the south-central region, the Idaho Center for Food, Agriculture and the Environment is expected to be milking cows in 2025. CAFE, planned as the nation’s largest research dairy, is also slated to include a soil and water demonstration farm.

A grand opening was held in February at the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, part of the Parma Research and Extension Center.

The College of Agriculture in 2020 opened a new facility for faculty at the Nancy M. Cummings Research, Education and Extension Center in Salmon, home to the college’s main cow-calf operation. UI in 2019 acquired Rinker Rock Creek Ranch near Hailey, focused on watershed-scale research on ecological grazing.

Parrella remains involved in advancing the College of Ag, and “I don’t think anything will change as the year unfolds, he said.

“My hope is to still get a lot accomplished this year” and “do as good a job as possible to move the college forward,” he said.