Paul Coreil, LSU AgCenter vice chancellor and director of the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service, has announced plans to retire Sept. 15, 2013. He will continue in his present duties until July 1.
“Coreil has been the perfect leader of the AgCenter’s extension and outreach effort,” said LSU AgCenter Chancellor Bill Richardson. “He put into place policies and procedures that have made the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service more effective and relevant to new and diverse audiences.”
Coreil has been in his current position for 12 years and with the AgCenter for more than 34 years.
A native of Ville Platte, La., he earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in zoology in 1976. He earned a master’s degree in wildlife management in 1984 and a Ph.D. in vocational education in 1995, both from LSU.
Except for a brief stint in 1998-1999 with private industry, he has been with the AgCenter since 1978, serving as an extension agent, specialist, assistant director and vice chancellor.
Coreil has been a national leader for the Cooperative Extension Service. He was chair of the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors in 2006 and chair of a committee that developed a national Web-based extension information system called eXtension.org. He also served as the chair of the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) in 2009.
He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors Excellence in Leadership Award in 2010.
“I will continue to be a strong supporter of the AgCenter mission and will always be willing to assist in sustaining the extremely relevant and important research and extension work that is vital to Louisiana’s future,” Coreil said. “I owe much of my life and any small successes I have accomplished as an extension professional to the AgCenter, our stakeholders, and the hard-working faculty and staff who improve the lives of so many statewide. There is nothing that will ever bring me more reward than the privilege provided to me to serve the people of Louisiana as an extension educator.”