Dr. Dunn, Texas A&M University, took his assignment as the Education Coordinator with the US Department of Agriculture Marketing Assistance Project in 1999. He knew at the very beginning that the best way for USDA MAP to assist Armenia in education is to actually establish and run a western-style education structure within the Armenian Agricultural Academy (now the Armenian National Agrarian University). He soon enjoyed the understanding and the support by the Director of the USDA MAP, Dr. Bill Miller, as well as the moral and organizational support by the Rector of the Academy, Prof. Arshaluys Tarverdyan.
The Agribusiness Teaching Center was established in 2000. Seven years of Dr. Dunn’s professionalism, patience, loyalty, and hard work, along with the support and dedication from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Texas A&M, ANAU, and the colleagues from ATC, made ATC what it is now, a leading Western-structured agribusiness and marketing educational institution in the South Caucasus.
Founding Director
Towards the end of his more than successful mission as the Director of ATC, Dr. Dunn was awarded for Distinguished Service by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Norman Borlaug Institute of International Agriculture in recognition of excellence in international program development. The certificate verifying this recognition was handed to Dr. Dunn by John Nichols, Professor of Texas A&M, in Yerevan on June 4th. The Certificate says the award is presented to Dr. Dunn “for seven years of exemplary service to the people of the United States and Armenia in the establishment of the Agribusiness Teaching Center in the Armenian State Agrarian University, in the fostering of agribusiness industries in Armenia and the Caucasus Region through the development of society-ready graduates, in the establishment and growth of the International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education, and in representation of the highest ideals in professional education for the future leaders of the agribusiness and the food industries”.
Dr. Dunn is also an Honorable Professor of ANAU.
Dr. Vardan Urutyan who helped Dr. Dunn to establish and develop ATC to today’s prospering western educational center was the most reliable fit and the good-hand choice to further Dr. Dunn’s tremendous success. Dr. Urutyan took charge as the Director of ICARE/ATC in September 2007 pursuant to the unanimous decision of the ICARE Board of Trustees.
Dr. Dunn occasionally returns to ATC to teach Marketing, Business Ethics and other courses to the current ATC student.