Dr. Russ Benedict to Receive 2025 Hagie Heritage Award
Posted on August 27, 2025 at 10:30 AM by Erica Place
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe Jayjack, External Affairs Director, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation
jjayjack@inhf.org, 515-288-1846, ext. 19
Dr. Russ Benedict to Receive 2025 Hagie Heritage Award
Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation selected Dr. Russell (Russ) Benedict, a conservationist dedicated to creative visions of a sustainable future and a prolific community-builder, to receive the Lawrence and Eula Hagie Heritage Award. Endowed in 1989 by Jan Shindel and Ila Jeanne Logan in honor of their parents, Lawrence and Eula Hagie, the award is given annually to a person who has demonstrated extraordinary personal service and commitment to improving the quality of Iowa’s natural environment while encouraging others to do the same. As always, the panel of judges — comprised of INHF board members — had a challenging decision given the caliber of deserving nominees.
In 2002, Dr. Benedict began his career as a Professor of Biology at Central College in Pella, IA. In this capacity, he has inspired many students through his teachings, but his dedication to conservation does not end in the classroom. As Dr. Paulina Mena, Professor of Biology at Central College and Ruth & Marvin Denekas Endowed Chair in Science and Humanities, noted, “His efforts are not incidental to his role as a professor — they are a reflection of a lifelong mission to heal, protect, and educate others about the natural world.”
As an educator, Dr. Benedict looks for every opportunity to share his love for and dedication to the natural world. He is known to spearhead community prairie restorations and seed-harvesting events, volunteer with Friends of Big Rock Park to lead students and community members on educational forays, and lend his expertise in bats to countless sources, including a Discovery Channel special.
His dedication to education and conservation knows no borders. He even opens his own home to education. Along with his wife, Mary, Dr. Benedict designed and built an environmentally friendly home, which the Benedicts now open to educational tours. Dr. Benedict also restored prairie on his own land, which is used for outreach and education.
Dr. Benedict’s prairie restoration, both on- and off-campus, is extensive. Currently, he’s working with a high school teacher to establish a learning prairie on school grounds. He also established the Prairies for Agriculture Project at Central College, which studies how restoration of endangered tallgrass prairies can benefit agricultural landscapes.
Dr. Benedict’s conservation initiatives are often paired with a creative flair that bring together artists and scientists. When he noticed that window collisions were impacting local bird populations, Dr. Benedict partnered with a professor in the art department to design window stickers to reduce these strikes. Dr. Benedict independently fundraised for the project and student-designed window stickers now hang on two of Central College’s buildings.
This is not the only time Dr. Benedict has reached across academic disciplines to involve all areas of expertise in conservation efforts. Most recently, Dr. Benedict was selected as one of 13 national fellows in the 2024 Storymakers Program at the University of Southern California’s Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability. This selective program provides scientists with storytelling skills — an opportunity Dr. Benedict pursued so he could strengthen his ability to connect with and provide educational experiences for the public.
His five nominators detailed so many conservation projects started by, supported by or involving Dr. Benedict that they could not be listed here in their entirety. In his academic career and beyond, Dr. Benedict has made conservation his calling. “Conservation and education are not just what he does, but who he is,” said Kristin Siewert, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biology at Central College.
“I am deeply honored to receive the Hagie Award, especially given the list of other people who have been given this accolade in the past,” Dr. Benedict said of his nomination and selection. “Dedicating your life to protecting nature can be mentally challenging — over the decades, you see more failures than successes. So when someone recognizes your efforts, especially an organization like INHF that does amazing work, it is truly meaningful. So thank you for this award. Keep working on behalf of the chickadees and northern long-eared bats, and the people who love them!”
INHF is pleased to recognize an Iowan whose dedication to land, community and the future is unwavering. “How fortunate Iowa is to have an educator who makes it his personal mission to create conservationists. Dr. Benedict exemplifies the spirit of this award,” said Joe McGovern, President of Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. “I commend Dr. Benedict for his vision, passion and commitment to Iowa’s natural heritage, and congratulate him on this well-deserved recognition.”
Russ Benedict will be honored at a celebration this fall where he will receive $1,500 and a hand-carved sculpture made by Iowa artist Ray Hamilton.
Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation is a nonprofit conservation group that works with private landowners and public partners to protect and restore Iowa's land, water and wildlife. Since its founding in 1979, INHF has helped protect more than 200,000 acres of Iowa's natural resources. Learn more at www.inhf.org.
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