Sandra S. Batie has made substantial contributions to the profession within her specialty of natural resource economics and public policy. She has been a leader in clarifying the distinctions between the environmental movement and the conservation movement in a manner that enables meaningful implications to be drawn for the profession. For just one example, her 1989 AAEA Presidential Address on sustainable development foreshadowed much of the profession's current interest in the topic.

She has also contributed significant service to the profession through leadership in professional organizations. She was president of the SAEA in 1988-89 and president of the AAEA in 1989-90. In both presidencies, Batie encouraged long term strategic planning and continuing professional education, as well as the inclusion of more interests within the decision making and activities of the association. She was one of the original supporters of the Committee on Women in Agricultural Economics and served as its president in 1986.

Batie received her Master's and Ph.D. from Oregon State University; she joined the faculty at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1973. At V.P.I. and S.U., she gained recognition rapidly as an expert in natural resource economics, particularly with respect to public policy problems and institutional issues associated with agriculture and the environment. Her research is grounded in economics, but is enriched with historical understanding and also reflects a careful understanding of the role of institutional incentives in influencing choices.

Early in her career, Batie established herself as someone with breadth and balance across her professional pursuits. She has worked with and made contributions in local, state, national and international arenas. She has provided leadership in university governance as well as in curriculum development and reform. She has advised public and private groups representing a broad continuum of policy interests, while at the same time contributing to learned society intellectual pursuits.

While at V.P.I. and S.U., Batie took two sabbatics, which she used to sharpen her analytic skills and policy relevance. The first was in 1980 with the Conservation Foundation in Washington, D.C., where she studied and wrote about federal conservation policy. As a product of this sabbatic, she authored an award winning book Soil Erosion: Crisis in America's Croplands? -- one of the first books that truly examined soil conservation issues from an economic perspective. She has continued to add policy analysis to this area; her most recent contribution is the chairing of a recent National Academy of Science, Board on Agriculture report, Soil and Water Quality: An Agenda for Agriculture.

Convinced that many of the policy issues of interest to her were shifting to the state and local level, Batie's second sabbatic in 1986-87 was with the National Governors' Association in Washington, D.C. At NGA, she specialized in state policy with respect to rural development and groundwater management. This sabbatic also resulted in a book: A Brighter Future for Rural America? Strategies for Communities and States.

Because she perceived that policy issues of interest were also shifting to the international level, Batie also began to widen her research and advisory agenda to include more internationally oriented activities. For example, she is a trustee of Winrock International and the International Rice Research Institute.

In 1993, Batie began another stage in her career by joining the faculty at Michigan State University as the first holder of the endowed chair: The Elton R. Smith Professorship in Food and Agricultural Policy. She is continuing her distinguished career at MSU.