Associate Vice President for Research & Extension

Brent Hales is Associate Vice President of UC ANR. He is responsible for guiding all ANR academic programs at the statewide level and is chair of the ANR Program Council.

Hales also serves as the statewide program leader for county-based Cooperative Extension programs in every county and oversees the research and extension centers located around the state. 

Hales brings over 20 years of higher education research and leadership experience, including at land grant institutions and in cooperative extension. He joined ANR after serving as associate dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and director at Penn State Extension from 2019-2023. Before joining Penn State, he served as the senior associate dean and chief financial officer of the University of Minnesota Extension, associate dean for the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Community Vitality, and the director of the Economic Development Authority Center at University of Minnesota, Crookston.