Mrs. Gail Rasberry, Secretary II

Mrs. Rasberry has been with the department since May 2000.  As the only support staff in the program, Mrs. Rasberry functions as receptionist and secretary for the ASU Speech and Hearing Center as well as the academic department and faculty.  She also is the webmaster and photographs many CD student graduation ceremonies and other CD events for the website. 

She is actively involved in the Research and Academic Affairs Support Staff Mentoring Committee, having served as chair from 2003-2006 (beginning with the committee's inception) and currently serves as a mentor to new support staff in academic programs on the Jonesboro campus.

In 2007, she was elected to serve a 3-year term on Staff Senate for the Secretarial/Clerical EEO Category, and was elected to serve as Secretary of that organization for 2008.

In her spare time, Mrs. Rasberry enjoys spending time with her young granddaughter and is an AVID gardener (read... obsessed!).  She has been a volunteer/member of the Craighead County Master Gardeners since 2005, and served as Publicity Committee Chair in 2005/2006.  In May of 2007, she presented her first educational program on her favorite flower, the daylily.  Due to her infatuation, she joined the American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) in 2006 and has published several gardening articles for the AHS Region 13 Newsletter, The Arkla Daylily, as well as for the Master Gardener newsletter, The Weeder's Digest.  Her educational program on Hemerocallis (daylilies) to the Craighead County Master Gardener group was in May of 2007, and was presented again in March 2008 for the Transplants Garden Club in Jonesboro.  Her love of the daylily has also been expanded with the formation of  a local daylily club, named Northeast Arkansas Daylily Society, and interested persons are welcome to contact her for more information at her off-campus email gardenergail@yahoo.com .  During peak bloom season, she has a weekend "Open Garden" for viewing of her daylily collection, which totals approximately 325 daylily cultivars.

       
H. 'Shady Lady'                                            H. 'Madness To See'                                    H. 'Ed Brown' (Stout Silver Medal Winner)

She has also begun "dabbing pollen" and creating her own unique cultivars (see below).

             
H. 'Dragon King' X ('Red Sleeved Warrior' x 'Red Loveliness')    H. 'Filled With Wonder' X 'Julie Newmar'    H. 'Barbarian Princess' X 'Meet Joe Black'