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Highlands Today

New Extension Director's Career Spans The Globe

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: December 17, 2007

SEBRING — John C. Alleyne, a horticulturist and former university professor, traveled the world, from the Caribbean island republic of Trinidad to the world's highest mountains in Nepal, before deciding to settle in Sebring.

He's finishing his second week as the new director of the Highlands County Cooperative Extension Service and says he feels lucky to be in this county, rated No. 2 among the state's 67 counties in citrus production.

Alleyne won't be directly involved in helping the citrus growers, as his specialty is commercial horticulture. Citrus work, he said, is handled primarily by the extension office's citrus agent, Tim Hurner.

While supervising the entire extension staff, Alleyne also is working as the extension agent for commercial horticulture, which runs the spectrum from caladium farms to ornamental nurseries and vegetable production.

"You have to be a jack-of-all-trades," Alleyne said as he described his dual role as extension office director while also serving in one of the extension agent specialties.

"I feel very fortunate, I feel very privileged, to be here," Alleyne said in his soft but distinctive British accent. He has been blessed with good fortune, he said, in his academic, personal and professional lives.

While he described Trinidad as a prosperous and "oil-rich nation," as well as "the Hub of the Caribbean," Alleyne said his father's job, which provided a comfortable living for his family, could not fund college stints for one bachelor's and two advanced degrees.

"I've been very lucky to get the scholarships, and I've been lucky to get the type of education that I did," he said. Alleyne's grades earned him a college scholarship — three times.

As far as credentials go, Alleyne not only earned three college degrees in horticulture, but also grew up watching his father work as the manager of a "propagation station" in Santa Cruz, Trinidad.

Asked how a "propagation station" is different from a "farm," Alleyne answered, "You are developing plant material and breeding, developing new cultivars."

Alleyne's advanced education allowed him to travel the world. Just one of his former employers is the United Nations, which sent him on agricultural field assignments to India, Pakistan and Nepal.

Alleyne calls Nepal, with its famous Himalayan Mountains and Mt. Everest, the world's highest peak, the most beautiful place he's ever seen.

At the same time, he called Highlands County "a beautiful place." When asked why, he said it's not only the lakes, but even more so "the diversity, the entire package, with all of its different parts."

Alleyne's degrees include: a bachelor's in horticulture from Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.; a master's in plant science from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho; and a doctorate in plant sciences with a specialty in genetics at the University of Arkansas in Fayetville; plus post-doctoral research at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Besides his overseas United Nations assignments, Alleyne worked for a while as a college professor at the University Arkansas.

His resume also includes:

• Working in his native Trinidad as an agricultural agent, which he said was frustrating because the politicians, for political reasons, sometimes didn't follow science-based, agricultural advice designed to improve people's lives; and

• The University of Florida's Cooperative Extension Service, for the past eight years.
  

Why settle in south central Florida when, with his credentials and experience, he could work, literally, anywhere in the world?

"My father," he answered, "lives in Winter Haven."

While he enjoyed teaching at the college level in Arkansas and doing post-doctoral laboratory research in Gainesville, Alleyne said he went into the extension service because he's "a people person."

Most of his academic accomplishments — he ranked No. 1 in his doctorate-degree class — are in plant science at the college level. Alleyne, though, credits most of his success to the British-based elementary and secondary schools he attended in Trinidad.

Why?

"Because," he answered, "the British schools emphasize motivation, and rigorous academic discipline, at an early age." After a pause, he added:

"That early motivation in (elementary and high) school gave me the personal motivation to go on to the American universities, which are among the best in the world."

Having attended four colleges, Alleyne was asked whom he roots for when it comes to college sports. He said he cheers as an alumnus for the Cougars (Washington State), the Vandals (University of Idaho), and the Razorbacks (University of Arkansas).

"And, of course," he added, referring to his student days in Gainesville, "I'm very proud to be a Gator."

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