Under the Canopy: Forestry Alum's Path

Jim Ingram spent his childhood summers exploring the meadows, streams and mountains around Woodward, a community not far from his home in State College. During those warm summer days, Ingram observed a great deal about the environment.

But it wasn't until he delved into the forestry curriculum at Penn State Mont Alto that Ingram discovered the many reasons behind all that he observed in his forest adventures as a child.

"I was suddenly able to answer all of these questions I had from my observations as a young kid," Ingram said. "I enjoyed it and excelled. I developed a passion for trees and people."

But if Ingram had his way, he might not have pursued degrees in forestry and agricultural science. He initially planned to join the Navy, but his dad had other ideas.

"My dad had done some homework about one of the nation's oldest forestry schools," Ingram said. "He drove me to the Mont Alto campus to check it out. As the fifth of six kids, we all had to pay our way through school, and he knew where my passions lay and that I'd figure out how to do it, and I did."

After earning his degrees, Ingram started as an instructor at the Mont Alto campus, teaching dendrology, harvesting and silviculture. He eventually met the vice president of Bartlett Tree Experts, who would come to campus to recruit student interns. "He asked me to have lunch to discuss my future with the company," Ingram said. "Within the year, I was working for Bartlett."

Today, Ingram is the president and chief operating officer of Bartlett, where he focuses on the knowledge he honed in college. From the beginning, Ingram invested time and energy into the industry, sitting on the first certification board for the International Society of Arboriculture, developing a certification for arborists, serving as president of the American Society of Consulting Arborists and creating a registration for consultant arborists and an academy to give new members a pathway to become more professional.

When asked about his favorite part of being a leader in the industry, Ingram didn't hesitate. "The last person hired is the most important. That's a mantra of mine. If you don't take care of the last person hired and show them a pathway for development, sometimes you lose them. They're good people, and they're our future. It's important to show young people a path for development."

Ingram contributed to tremendous growth during his more than four decades at Bartlett. The 117-year-old company is now in 42 states and has operations in the U.K., Ireland and Canada. His career enabled him to give back and stay deeply engaged with the College of Agricultural Sciences and Penn State.

The 2018 Penn State Fundraising Volunteer of the Year and his wife, Barbara, also a Penn State graduate, have created scholarships, provided support to Penn State Athletics and created the James and Barbara Ingram Endowment for the Penn State Arboreta to create a network of arboreta across the commonwealth campuses.

"When you drive onto the Mont Alto campus, the trees are beautiful and have a lot of historical significance because of the forestry school," he said. "There's a feeling you get when you drive onto campus, and it's similar to University Park. Students remember that."

But, he added, there's a lot of work behind the scenes to sustain it. "And all kinds of cool scientific things can be wrought from a tree population," Ingram said. "When you have an arboreta system, which could incorporate all the commonwealth campuses, then you have the power or significance at play together."

Ingram said he believes it's important to stay connected to his alma mater and help the next generation find its passion.

"To have affected someone positively is important," he said. "It's important to be a good listener, to ask about their passions and help them see things come to fruition. You don't realize how impactful you can be until you take the time to help someone find their way. It's tremendously rewarding."

—Susan B. Warner