Rachel Broadbent Promoted to Senior Lecturer

SALT LAKE CITY— Utah State University instructor Rachel Broadbent has been promoted from lecturer to senior lecturer. Broadbent is a faculty member at USU Salt Lake Center, working in the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences.

"I am grateful for Rachel’s contributions to our campus, and it is great to see this promotion recognize her efforts,” said David Vernon, associate vice president for the USU Wasatch Region. “She fully engages with students, and they feel she cares about them. In addition, her work with the greenhouse is remarkable. She combines the knowledge and skills of managing a greenhouse with a meaningful community-centered project that helps refugee farmers. She represents teaching excellence by creating a learning experience with real-world impact."

Broadbent joined USU as an instructor in 2014 and has been the primary horticulture lecturer for the USU Wasatch Region. In addition to teaching courses, Broadbent also coordinates the Wasatch Region’s horticulture program and oversees the Special Projects course, as well as managing the region’s greenhouse.

“I appreciate this recognition,” Broadbent said. “I have loved my time teaching at USU and I especially love teaching about plants.”

Broadbent’s main area of interest and expertise is arboriculture and urban forestry. She is very involved with the Utah Community Forest Council and has been an internationally certified arborist for more than 20 years. One of the most involved parts of her teaching is working with her Greenhouse Management course to grow seedlings for the International Rescue Committee’s program New Roots, which works with refugee farmers to grow food for their own use, or for their community, farmers markets, CSAs and more.

Broadbent is a 7th generation Utahn and comes from a long line of farmers and educators. Growing up surrounded by apple orchards, she was influenced to choose her field of emphasis in horticulture and botany. She loves sharing her love and wonder for plants with her students.

“One of the great things about teaching non-traditional students is that they are usually settled in this community,” she said. “When they are done being students, they become my friends, peers and associates in horticulture

Broadbent holds a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Utah and a bachelor’s degree in landscape and urban horticulture from Brigham Young University.

Other than teaching, she enjoys reading, cooking, eating, riding her bicycle, going to concerts, kayaking when she can, travel, and of course, gardening.

With locations in Salt Lake City, Orem, Park City and Heber, Utah State University’s Wasatch Region offers students the personalized attention and small class sizes of a small-town college with the resources of a large university. With degree options ranging from associate to doctorate degrees, plus technical education offerings, USU offers programs that help fuel local economies and empower individuals and their communities. Learn more at statewide.usu.edu.