MOULTRIE, Ga. — After Laura Perry graduated from Pineland School in 1983 and headed off to the University of Georgia, she wanted to study something to do with agriculture, perhaps animal science.

After all, she had grown up in the sixth generation of Perrys on Pineywood Farms in Colquitt County, had long been active in 4-H and FFA, and enjoyed showing livestock.

But her father, longtime Colquitt County farmer Louie Perry, was dubious. He had lived through the ups and downs of farming and 1984 would turn out to be one of the most difficult years ever for agriculture.

“My dad didn’t want me to go into agriculture,” Laura Perry Johnson said recently.

He encouraged the oldest of his four children to consider going into education and she went to Athens with that intent.

But she changed her mind when registering and did enter Georgia’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

She went on to earn bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in animal and dairy science and essentially has never left the University of Georgia.

She took a job in 1994 with the Georgia 4-H as a livestock specialist, coordinating the livestock and horse programs in the state and nine years later became the 4-H coordinator for the Southwest District.

In 2012, she was named the district director and 2 1/2 years later, in January of 2015, became the director of UGA Extension, with the official title of associate dean of extension.

In that role, she heads up a network of agricultural resources, 4-H and family and consumer sciences experts with offices in 157 counties.

“Now my dad admits I might have been right,” she says, laughing.

It now seems anything but unlikely.

The Perry family has operated Pineywoods Farms since the 1830s, raising commercial cattle, cotton, peanuts, corn and vegetables.

As soon as she was able, she joined 4-H, as her dad had done years before.

She still remembers longtime county 4-H agent Louise Booth coming into her fifth-grade class.

Like many other youngsters she took under her wing, Laura prospered under Booth’s direction.

“She was a powerful influence in my life, just like with so many other kids,” she says. “She was like a second mother to me.

“But that’s what 4-H agents do. They change lives and I attribute a lot of my success to her.”

She also blossomed under the guidance of several of her teachers at Pineland School, including Ed Creech, who taught trigonometry, and Cora Jean Taylor, her English and STAR Student teacher.

“When I went to Georgia, I was able to exempt English and math,” she says.

After growing up with farm animals and showing livestock through 4-H and FFA — changing her mind about a career in education — she decided to major in animal science at Georgia.

She earned undergraduate and master’s degrees at Georgia, but initially had little interest in working on her doctorate.

But she changed her mind when she was able to get a full-time job at Georgia as a research tech while working on her doctorate and finished in four years.

With that degree in hand, she was looking for a job in meat industry when, in May 1994, a position with UGA Extension as the coordinator of the horse and livestock program came open.

She took it, figuring she would do it until something in meat science came open.

But about two weeks later, she took part in the lamb school at the Rock Eagle 4-H Center in Eatonton.

“That was my first time back since I had been in 4-H,” she says. “It was such deja vu. I remember lying in my bunk thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, they are paying me to do this job.’

“I knew then I’d never go back to animal science. It was absolutely the perfect job for me.”

After nine years, and with a growing family, she became the 4-H program development coordinator for the Southwest District.

It was a challenging and rewarding tenure.

“Thirty-nine of the 41 counties are persistently poor,” she says. “We worked hard to try to give kids in rural schools some advantages.”

Her next job was as the Southwest Georgia Extension director, administering programs in 41 counties, building relationships with county commissioners, taking care of hiring, staffing and budgets.

Just over two years later, the position of associate dean for Extension came open.

She didn’t feel as if she had been the district administrator long enough to be qualified, but was advised to apply anyway.

“And amazingly, I got the job,” she says.

In November 2014, J. Scott Angle, dean and director of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, announced she had been named director of UGA Extension effective Jan. 1, 2015.

“It’s been a whirlwind year,” she said recently during a visit to the Colquitt County Extension office, her “home” office, she said.

With Extension and the experiment stations funded as line items by the Legislature, she has spent plenty of time recently in Atlanta.

“We have to let our stakeholders and our legislators know what our programs are and what our needs are.”

Under new Dean Samuel Pardue, who took office in March, Georgia’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences is facing changes and challenges.

Budget cuts have presented problems as the college attempts to keep agents in the field determining what questions and issues growers and producers have and get answers and solutions back to them.

Because the college is so big and diverse, communication also is a challenge.

The college needs to convey what opportunities await its graduates and help educate the general population on its mission.

Changing demographics is another issue facing the CAES, Johnson said.

“We are losing population is rural areas and we need to be able to reach into urban areas while still serving our traditional clientele,” she said.

Agriculture and animal is something Johnson and her family will continue to be involved in.

Louie Perry and wife Becky continue to operate the family farm. Brother Louie works for a governmental affairs firm in Washington, D.C. Her brother Jonathan manages one of the nation’s largest Angus farms. And sister Amanda is a veterinarian in Valdosta.

Laura and husband Scott Johnson met while both were at the University of Georgia.

“I was boarding my cow at the farm where he worked,” she says.

She and Scott, a CAES agronomy graduate, have been married since 1988 and have two children. Scott is self-employed in farm irrigation in Colquitt County.

Although she has an apartment in Athens, Laura often gets back to the Colquitt County farm, where her two children are growing up.

Both Bill and Libba grew up on the farm and are active in 4-H and FFA.

Bill, a senior at Colquitt County High, is considering going to Abraham Baldwin College after graduation.

Daughter Libba is a sophomore at Colquitt County High. She works at her aunt’s animal hospital and is hoping to become a vet herself.

Laura says she hopes both will follow her to Georgia and sounds as if she wouldn’t be surprised to see both find their way into careers dealing with animals or agriculture.

“I guess it’s in our blood,” Laura says.