Employee Directory

Dan Hale, Ph.D., serves as associate director for Agriculture and Natural Resources for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Hale oversees programming for agriculture and natural resources, also works closely with agriculture-oriented organizations across Texas. Hale is the co-director of the Path to the Plate Program, which helps Texans better their lives through education on the important connection between agriculture and health.

Since his career with AgriLife Extension began in 1985, Hale has interpreted and extends information on diet, health, animal welfare, food safety, livestock growth and meat science to consumers, youth, health professionals, retailers, food service managers, packers, processors and livestock producers. Hale also performs industry-applied meat science research. Since 1990, Hale has served as a co-principal investigator for the National Beef Quality Audit. Also, Hale has worked with the National Consumer Retail Beef Study, the National Market Basket Survey and the Beef Tenderness Survey, which examined supplies of beef offered at the retail meat case and determined what consumers want in meat products.

He has conducted training in nutritional sciences and meat in diet science since the release of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Handbook 8 nutrient data in the 1980s. Data was collected in part through work conducted by Texas A&M University under USDA supervision. Hale has taught consumers and dietitians about the inclusion of meat in a healthy diet. He has also worked with livestock producers, retailers and food service operators to produce and offer leaner beef options to consumers. Hale served as the president of the American Meat Science Association in 2007 and became a fellow of that organization in 2013. In 2014, Hale received the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students Distinguished Service Award – Extension and Service. In 2003 he received the Vice Chancellor Distinguished Service Award and, in 2007, the Extension Superior Service Award for Extension Specialist. His most recent award was the Bluebonnet Award with the Texas Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2020. Hale received his doctorate in 1985 from Oklahoma State University in food, nutrition and institutional sciences within the Department of Animal Science.