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STEPHENVILLE (November 3, 2015) — Texas State Rep. Charles “Doc” Anderson (Dist. 56) visited Tarleton State University’s Stephenville campus today, along with his Chief of Staff Tracy Morehead.
Tarleton President F. Dominic Dottavio welcomed Rep. Anderson (R-Waco) for his first tour of Tarleton’s Stephenville campus, which included briefings by faculty and staff on key projects and ongoing research partnerships.
Anderson, whose district includes portions of McLennan County and the cities of Waco, Hewitt, McGregor, Robinson and others, as well as Tarleton’s Waco outreach campus at McLennan Community College’s University Center, was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2004. He chairs the Texas Legislative Rural Caucus, is vice-chair of the House Committee on Agriculture & Livestock, and a member of the House committees on Investments & Financial Services and Local & Consent Calendars.
Anderson toured Tarleton’s Southwest Regional Dairy Center, where he learned about current research efforts and the public-private operational partnership that provides for teaching, student research and outreach programs.
His visit continued to the recently renovated Tarleton Center’s Texan Services “one-stop shop” and the Military Veterans Services Center, where staff explained how they serve the more than 800 student veterans and their dependents attending Tarleton.
Staff from the Center for Agribusiness Excellence, a USDA-supported data warehousing and data mining center, told Anderson about the research and data mining of agriculture production, weather, soil and satellite data to detect fraud, waste and abuse in crop insurance programs—a program that has saved the federal government more than $3 billion in the past 15 years.
In addition, faculty from Tarleton’s College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences briefed Anderson about agricultural education programs and Tarleton’s long history of producing agri-science educators for public schools. Faculty highlighted university-sponsored events that bring thousands of high school FFA members to campus each year, including leadership development and training for those seeking office with the National FFA.
Anderson also toured the recently completed Learning Commons inside the Dick Smith Library, the Barry B. Thompson Student Center, and Heritage Hall, the first of several public-private residential living and learning facilities constructed on the Stephenville campus. President Dottavio discussed current construction projects, including the campus pedestrian malls, and the Traditions and Honors College residential facilities.
A graduate of the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine, Anderson has served as a small animal veterinarian in Waco since 1981. He and his wife of 32 years, Sandie, reside in Waco and have a son and three grandsons.
After more than two decades of advocacy for small businesses through statewide committees on both the Texas Association of Business and the National Federation of Independent Business, as well as appointment by former Gov. Rick Perry to the Texas Small Business Advisory Council, Anderson was elected to represent Dist. 56 in 2004 and has been re-elected to office four times. He holds appointments to the statewide Agricultural Policy Council, the multinational Energy Council, and agricultural, energy and environmental task forces in both the National Conference on State Legislatures and American Legislative Exchange Council. He is also a board member of the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute and the international organization State Agricultural and Rural Leaders.
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