News release issued March 25, 2001, effective immediately.
For media inquiries, contact Caroline Booth Lara, Communications Specialist, (580) 224-6379.
  email: cblara@noble.org

Four Join Foundation Team

ARDMORE -- Increased staffing, patent opportunities and expanded research -- as the Noble Foundation grows, so do its needs.

Finding the right people to lead those areas was a significant challenge for Noble Foundation management. After months of advertising, processing applications and interviewing candidates, the Foundation recently announced the hiring of Teal Pemberton as human resources director, Steve Rhines as intellectual property counsel, Dr. Mary Sledge as assistant scientist/applied legume geneticist in the Forage Biotechnology Group, and the affiliation of Dr. Joe Bouton as acting head of the Forage Biotechnology Group.

"We conducted a national search for these positions with interest coming literally from all over the country," said Noble Foundation President Mike Cawley. "We identified the best candidates and were fortunate to secure their commitments. Teal Pemberton, Steve Rhines, Joe Bouton and Mary Sledge are not only extremely bright and talented, they are also high quality people."

Teal Pemberton, a native of Tulsa, joined the Noble Foundation staff last September. A graduate of Nathan Hale High School, she received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Abilene Christian University specializing in management and psychology. She held various human resources positions with Hendrick Health Systems beginning in 1990 and was promoted to assistant human resources director in 1994.

In 1997 Pemberton left her position with Hendrick to attend law school at the University of Oklahoma. She joined the Foundation shortly after receiving her law degree and passing the bar. Her husband, Raymond, is a sales manager with Blue Bell Creameries. Their son, Samuel, attends kindergarten at Oak Hall.

"I had watched this job for several months. From what I learned it was obvious that the Noble Foundation was about to take off in terms of growth and expansion," Pemberton said. "The organization was poised to do some great things. And from a human relations perspective, that can be a lot of fun."

Pemberton said she was also attracted and fascinated by the Foundation’s long history of service to mankind.

"I spent hours on the Foundation website learning about its history," she said. "I’ve been happiest when I’ve worked for nonprofit organizations. They have a real mission and history in serving the community. I like that sort of environment."

Pemberton said she was very impressed with the positive, professional attitude of Foundation employees beginning with the interview process and continuing through the present. "And I’m excited about the total buy-in the Foundation employees have about what can be achieved here," she added.

Steve Rhines, who will handle patents and technology transfer agreements for the Foundation, hails from Antlers, Oklahoma. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1990 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He received his law degree from Southern Methodist University in 1994.

After working for Cyrix Corporation and Quest Medical in the Dallas area, Rhines joined the multinational law firm of Sidley and Austin in 1997 where he specialized in patents and licensing issues. His experience in those areas will prove valuable as Foundation researchers develop unique scientific procedures and marketable products in the plant science field.

Rhines’ decision to relocate closer to his Oklahoma roots was simplified by the fact that his wife, Debbie, used to live here, and by his long-time awareness of the Foundation.

"There’s no question but that the Foundation is growing by leaps and bounds," Rhines said. "It’s a family-friendly position that offers all the professional challenges and rewards you would get in a professional law firm. The intellectual property of the Noble Foundation is an enormous untapped resource."

Rhines will be assisted by Allyson Wilkins in identifying intellectual property "that can be cultivated into something that is valuable to the outside world," he said. "Transferring that intellectual property to private industry or other institutions can bring in a revenue stream to help fund the expanded research efforts here."

Transferable and/or patentable "property" could include research procedures and processes, the products of the research, and plants with unique and desirable characteristics, such as disease resistance, Rhines said.

Steve and Debbie have triplet sons Andrew, Thomas and Grant, who will celebrate their second birthdays in April.

Joe Bouton, a native of Leland, Mississippi, earned his undergraduate degree in agronomy at Mississippi State University before transferring to the University of Florida where he received his master’s and Ph.D. He joined the faculty at the University of Georgia in 1977 as an assistant professor.

Bouton’s affiliation with the Foundation began in 1997 when he began serving in an advisory capacity as a Forage Biotechnology Group non-resident fellow.

Although Bouton will continue to serve as Professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Science at the University of Georgia in Athens where he specializes in forage breeding and genetics, he will also maintain an office at the Foundation. Bouton will be on site for several days each month to manage and assist the Forage Biotechnology Group and interact with other Noble Foundation personnel to ensure the continued progress of the group.

"Joe Bouton is one of the most highly respected forage specialists in the world," Cawley said. "His willingness to associate with the Foundation says a lot about the quality of the people and the quality of the ongoing work at the Foundation.

"Joe told me that having a plant biology program, an agricultural demonstration and consultation program and a forage biotechnology program under one roof was particularly appealing to him because the ultimate success of the forage program will require cooperative interaction among all three disciplines," Cawley explained.

"While we would love to have Joe Bouton here full time now, and are hopeful that can happen when his commitments to the University of Georgia have been fulfilled, we are extremely happy to have been able to develop this unique arrangement for Joe to become the acting director of our Forage Biotechnology Group," Cawley added. "Communications technology being what it is today, our people will have immediate access to Joe whether he is in Athens, Georgia, or in Ardmore."

"I think the potential here is enormous for developing grass and legume varieties for use by our cooperators as well as other producers in our region and in other areas of the world," Bouton explained.

The goal of the grass research is to develop varieties that will persist without reseeding for a minimum of four to five years and will "come back quickly in the fall for grazing," Bouton said. "Replanting annual grasses each year gets to be very expensive. If we can develop grasses that don’t die off in the summer and have good growth in the fall, that will really pay off."

Bouton and his wife Mary Jeanne have three children, Melinda, 25, Andrew, 22, and Ben, a freshman at the University of Georgia. Geography might make Bouton’s job a bit more of a challenge, but he’s confident technology can help him make the arrangement a success.

Dr. Andy Hopkins will spearhead the grass development research while Dr. Mary Sledge will work with legumes, such as clover and alfalfa.

Sledge, who joined the Foundation staff in January, lived in Athens, Georgia, for the past 30 years. She earned her bachelor’s in botany and her Ph.D. in plant breeding from the University of Georgia. Her work at the Foundation will focus on alfalfa, clovers and a group of alfalfa-like plants known as "annual medics."

One of the goals of her research group will be to develop grazing tolerant alfalfa for use in Oklahoma and northern Texas. The research would also focus on the potential benefits of growing annual medics alongside grasses such as wheat.

Because legumes enhance the amount of soil nitrogen available to other plants, "double-cropping" alfalfa or other legumes with grasses could have a direct economic impact on producers.

"One of our goals is to reduce the amount of nitrogen you have to apply through fertilization because the legumes produce their own nitrogen," Sledge explained.

Another area of Sledge’s research will be to identify the genes in alfalfa that impact the plant’s ability to tolerate high concentrations of aluminum in acidic soils.

"Aluminum is becoming more of a problem, especially in eastern Texas and eastern Oklahoma in acid soils," Sledge said. "When the soil pH falls below about 5.5, aluminum could become a problem. Alfalfa grows best in soils with a pH of 6.5 to 7.0 (neutral soils, neither acid or alkaline). About 40 percent of arable land worldwide has an acidity-aluminum problem."

Developing an alfalfa variety that can grow on acidic soils with higher aluminum concentrations would reduce the need to apply lime, thus saving money for producers, she added.

Sledge and her husband Ken, a landscape architect, have two children: Jennifer, 14, and Jason 12, who attend Plainview Middle School.

Legumes, Bouton noted, are also "notorious" for not being persistent, or perennial. Diseases such as cotton root rot often plague legumes in this area, he added.

"Alfalfa, for example, can be a very high value crop," Bouton said. "Is there a way to overcome cotton root rot? Conventional breeding hasn’t solved that problem. If we can come up with a solution, the potential benefits would be huge."

Still another area of forage research will focus on enhancing nutritional quality for livestock, Bouton said.

Whatever the problem, the solution won’t be instant. The timetable involved in starting from scratch and ending with a functional variety of grass or legume used by farmers can take up to 12 years.

"The real time-consuming part is the testing," Bouton explained. "You want to make sure that you have a variety that is tested in different areas under different conditions to ensure it won’t fail in the field. You need to know the geographical limits of the variety. After testing, the process continues with dissemination and marketing of the new varieties."

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Photos: Teal Pemberton | Steve Rhines | Dr. Mary Sledge | Dr. Joe Bouton

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, headquartered in Ardmore, Okla., is a non-profit organization conducting agricultural, forage biotechnological, and plant biology research; providing grants to numerous non-profit charitable, educational and health organizations; and assisting farmers and ranchers through educational and consultative agricultural programs.

To learn more, check out the Noble Foundation Web site at http://www.noble.org.

More news releases available at www.noble.org/Press_Release