“ Amanda demonstrates strong leadership by building partnerships across industry and academia, guiding professional organizations and committees, and creating new opportunities for education, outreach, and student engagement. Her work has increased awareness, improved management practices, and strengthened connections across the industry, making a lasting difference for professionals, students, and athletic facilities. She is highly deserving of this award for her leadership, innovation, and measurable impact on the sports turf industry.”
RISING STAR AWARDS
Amanda Folck
Extension Educator, Turfgrass Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
BEING IN EXTENSION RUNS in the family for Rising Star Award Winner Amanda Folck, Extension Educator, Turfgrass Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“ It comes back to my roots,” said Folck.“ I have a few generations of Extension on my mom’ s side of the family. My Great Grandpa Harold Sparks was an Extension agent in Cass County, Michigan and surrounding areas. Both my Grandma and Grandpa Sparks were longtime 4-H club advisors in Michigan. My mom, Dr. Cindy Folck, worked in Extension at Ohio State, and now is in charge of Extension at Central State University, an historic black college university in Ohio.”
When Folck ultimately decided to pursue her master’ s degree, she knew she was doing so with the goal of being in Extension. But that wasn’ t always her goal. During high school, she had plans of becoming a nurse. And, having begun her college career at Clark State Community College in Springfield, Ohio, Folck knew she would eventually transfer to The Ohio State University( OSU).
Through her mother, Folck already knew OSU Turfgrass Specialist Pamela Sherratt and was well aware of the turfgrass science program at the university. She also had 10 years of experience with 4-H, having shown livestock such as dairy cattle and pigs at the local, state and national levels. Folck also played golf all four years at Northeastern High School in Springfield, Ohio.
A visit to her mother’ s office at OSU led Folck to a conversation with the Ohio State turfgrass science team.
“ In 2015, when I got my associate degree at Clark State and got accepted to Ohio
State, I changed from the plant health management program to turfgrass science,” said Folck.“ Then I started working with Pam and the turfgrass team, and the rest is history.”
While at Ohio State, Folck gained experience in turfgrass management and also worked with Sherratt and the rest of the turfgrass faculty.
“ Pam asked if I was interested in doing an international internship with Arsenal,” said Folck.“ So I communicated with Steve Braddock( head groundsman at Arsenal Training Centre) via e-mail. When I did that internship in 2016, I was the first ever female American to do an internship there. I was overseas from May to August 2016, and it was quite interesting.”
At around that same time, Folck earned the 2016 Gary VandenBerg Internship Grant from the SFMA. And upon graduation from OSU, Folck went to work at Texas A & M Athletics on their soccer fields and helping with football, baseball, softball, track and other facilities. She held that role from May 2017 to June 2019 before heading to Purdue University to work full-time with Purdue Athletics and to pursue her master’ s degree part-time a few months later in January 2020.
Upon completion of her master’ s degree, Folck’ s goal of working in Extension was realized late in 2022 when she received a call from the University of Nebraska about the role of statewide Extension Educator, Turfgrass Management.
“ This is the first time they’ ve had an educator level for this position,” she said.“ When you’ re a master’ s student, you have a lot going on. You don’ t know if you’ re going to do well with your defense and finishing your thesis. So December of that year was a busy month for me. I passed my defense in late November, turned 30 years old in early December, left my job at Purdue Athletics, graduated from Purdue, and the day after graduating, I moved to Nebraska.”
In her role at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln( UNL), Folck’ s Extension work covers sports fields, golf courses and anything else related to turfgrass or artificial turf in the state of Nebraska and surrounding states. Folck’ s role is 90 % Extension and 10 % teaching. The course she teaches is Turfgrass Systems Management, which is a capstone course for the turfgrass science and management option students for the major, dual major or minor.
“ What I like the best about my job is interacting with the different stakeholders, students and industry, and also partnering with other faculty,” said Folck.“ The whole thing with Extension is you need to help answer the questions in a non-biased manner. I try to bring that mindset into my previous experiences. I’ m very fortunate to have had Extension experience working with Pam and others on the Ohio State turfgrass team and previous experiences at Texas A & M and Purdue.”
According to her peers, Folck has strengthened the sports turf industry by establishing a new Extension focus at UNL, fostering new collaborations, expanding educational programming and student support, and increasing awareness and adoption of sports field research and outreach across Nebraska.
“ Growing up on the farm with my parents and doing the work we did there, you know that if you put the effort into it and work together with people, then things will work out well for you,” said Folck. She has applied that mentality to being a woman in a male-dominated industry.“ The majority of the time I was at Purdue I was the only woman in the Big Ten doing what I was doing,” said Folck.“ It was the same in the Southeastern Conference( SEC) at Texas A & M. So many times you’ re a minority of one in the room. But it was good to have people like Pam to help me understand the industry. I have a lot of people who helped me both on the academic and athletic sides of things in the industry.”
Through her work on the current and previous jobs, various collaborations and partnerships, and her active involvement with Nebraska SFMA( NESFMA) and SFMA, Folck has expanded education, outreach and professional development opportunities. She also champions student engagement by supporting attendance at national conferences and UNL student participation at the Student Challenge. Her advice to others is to ask questions and believe in yourself.
“ Growing up, I worked in horticulture and animal science with my family. But other than my mom’ s work in pesticide training with OSU Extension, I didn’ t have turfgrass experience,” she said.“ So believe in yourself and reach out to some of the associations. Find out if you want to do sports or golf or something else. I took a chance, and that turned out to be very good for me. It was a lot of work. It has been 10 years since I came back from my internship in England and started my last year at Ohio State to where I am today.”
Outside of work, Folck tries to do things that are far from turfgrass-related. She recently became a member of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution with involvement locally in St. Leger Cowley chapter in Lincoln, Nebraska. She is also an avid video gamer, notably the Forza Horizon open-world racing series on Xbox.
“ I drive a hybrid vehicle to and from work,” said Folck.“ I loved Top Gear growing up, and with playing Forza at least I can afford the Lamborghinis and race with other people around the world virtually.”
In addition, she enjoys spending time with her eight-year-old Bengal cat, Mai, that she received while she was at Texas A & M.
“ She’ s moved around to multiple states with me since my time in Texas,” said Folck.“ So she’ s a very well-traveled cat.”
Throughout her career travels, Folck has earned many turfgrass industry accolades, including the 2015 Jack Nicklaus / The Toro Company Turfgrass Legacy Scholarship; the R. D. Baker Memorial Scholarship( from the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation); 2016 OSU CFAES Outstanding Student Employee; 2016 SFMA Gary VandenBerg Internship Grant; 2017 OSU CFAES Internship Award; 2022 First Place Master’ s Poster Travel Grant( Purdue University); 2022 First Place CSSA C5 Turfgrass Science Division Graduate Poster Session; and 2025 Excellence in Extension: Responsive, Nebraska Extension. She was also a 2024 nominee for the Young Professional Alumni Award( College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University).
“ I’ m most proud of my degrees and where I am today in my career,” said Folck.“ Growing up, I dealt with a lot of obstacles in my life, and at one point there were people who thought I wouldn’ t even make it to college. I’ ve worked really hard to get to where I am today. I didn’ t expect by the age of 30 to be in the position I am in today. It’ s a very high accomplishment for me.”
Now Folck adds a SportsField Management Rising Star Award to her list of achievements.
“ It’ s a big accomplishment,” said Folck.“ To be doing what I’ m doing, it’ s a very high honor, especially looking at it from a nationwide perspective.”
She pointed out that not many academics have won this award, so she feels privileged just to be nominated.
Said Folck,“ I want to thank the people who helped me along the way and helped me become the person I am today.”
WHAT THEIR NOMINATOR HAD TO SAY:
“ Amanda demonstrates strong leadership by building partnerships across industry and academia, guiding professional organizations and committees, and creating new opportunities for education, outreach, and student engagement. Her work has increased awareness, improved management practices, and strengthened connections across the industry, making a lasting difference for professionals, students, and athletic facilities. She is highly deserving of this award for her leadership, innovation, and measurable impact on the sports turf industry.”