Meet Melody...
Melody Rose
Melody serves as Extension Agent III and Master Gardener Coordinator in Greene County, Tennessee with the University of Tennessee Extension. Serving in this capacity, her main area of focus in Greene County has been developing the Big Spring Master Gardener Program (BSMGA) and providing research-based horticulture informational programs, along with burley tobacco, and commercial fruit and vegetable programming.
Melody currently serves on the University of Tennessee Extension’s Consumer Horticulture Team, of which she serves as the chair of the Fruit & Vegetable Team (F&V). She also serves on the statewide Tennessee Extension Master Gardener (TEMG), Sustainable Landscapes (SL), and Consumer Hort Marketing Teams (which she chairs), as well as the Statewide Tobacco Team.
She serves on the Greene County Partnership’s Ag Business Committee and is actively involved with Tennessee Association of Agriculture Agents & Specialists (TAAA&S) serving as state communications chair (2012-2019).
Melody is a member of the National Association of Agriculture Agents (NACAA-of which she received the Achievement Award in 2004 and Distinguished Service Award in 2014). She served as the National Chair for the Leadership and Administrative Skills Committee, and was elected to serve as the Southern Region Director for the NACAA Board of Directors (September 2019-2023). She was elected to serve as Treasurer in 2023. She was also appointed to serve on the Extension Journal Inc. Board in 2017, for which she now serves as Director-at-Large.
Melody’s leadership experience includes TN Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers (county chair 2000-2005 and state committee 2010-2012); Kentucky Agriculture Leadership Program (KALP) participant (2012-2014); and Leadership, Greene County participant (2010-2011), for which she was awarded the Outstanding Leadership Award. She was awarded the “Farm Gal of the Month” by Fastline Communications in July 2012.
Melody has worked as an agronomist for Philip Morris International Management; Extension Agent in Washington County, Tennessee; and as a Research Technician for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture before returning to the University of Tennessee, Greene County Extension in 2009. Melody holds a BS in Agriculture with an emphasis in Agronomy from Berea College, Berea KY and a MS in Agriculture Leadership, Education, and Communications from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Melody grew up in a rural farming community in the Western North Carolina mountains near Waynesville. There she gained an appreciation for bluegrass music (yep, she plays); burley tobacco (strong work ethic); and the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains (HOME)!
Melody is an avid lover of the outdoors, enjoying hiking, kayaking, camping, and traveling the globe (having traveled to Croatia, South Africa, and Alaska to name a favorite few). She has hiked over 500 miles on the Appalachian Trail (including sections in GA, NC, TN, VA, VT, NH, and the Cape Breton area of Nova Scotia). She also grows an extensive garden with a focus on native Appalachian herbs. She is a wine enthusiast, certified through the American Wine Society, for which she is an active member, as well as the local AWS Chapter in Johnson City, Tennessee.