Chatt Tech Instructor Named Educator of the Year

John Hatfield, the 2012 recipient of the Georgia Green Industry Association Educator of the Year Award, may not have always planned on teaching horticulture, but he was destined to study it at the same college as where his parents met.

Hatfield is now a horticulture instructor at —a position he began in 1995.

“It was just understood that I would go there,” said Hatfield of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

He followed his time at ABAC by earning a degree in landscape architecture at the University of Georgia before setting out as owner of his own landscape design business. Through that position he did private landscape contracting and design in South Georgia. It was then that he returned to the University of Georgia to work on his graduate degree, allowing him to teach at the college level.

“I went into education to try to make a difference,” Hatfield explained. “I wasn’t always a big fan of school when I went through it. I said if I ever got the chance to teach, I would try to do it differently. I think I’ve done my best to make that happen.”

Teaching at Chattahoochee Technical College has allowed him to educate students in such subjects as irrigation, construction, greenhouse management, landscape design and others. He says his favorites are irrigation and landscape design.

“We’re starting to move away from the term irrigation,” Hatfield said. “Instead we’re starting to talk about water management and how it is a scarce resource. When we are in troubled times like a drought, the first thing people do is turn off the water outside. But the plants need that water. So we have to look at how we can manage the needs.”

Hatfield was recognized and presented the award at the annual GGIA WinterGreen Conference Jan. 26, 2010, during the WinterGreen 2012 Awards Program. It was a surprise for the instructor, who was kept in the dark by his colleagues until he began recognizing himself in the bio that was being read to the audience.

The Educator of the Year award honors the individual who made an outstanding contribution to ornamental horticultural research and promotion of the industry through academic endeavors.

“I stick with it because I enjoy it,” he added. “The added bonus is that I might be doing some good too.”