Jeffrey Coker’s career has been anything but conventional. A former college dean, biology professor and academic administrator, Coker spent nearly 20 years managing classrooms, programs and institutions before trading lecture halls for orchards. Today, he is at the forefront of America’s truffle industry, combining his scientific expertise, business acumen and love of the outdoors to grow one of North Carolina’s most high-end agricultural ventures: Burwell Farms.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: I wanted to start off by asking you something a little different than questions about the farm right away. You played baseball at Davidson. Have you always been a lifelong athlete?

A:. I played lots of sports as a kid, and in college, I played Division I baseball, and I actually played football for a year at Davidson too, and then gave that up because I was a lot better at baseball. Then I did sprint triathlons when I was in grad school, and then I had kids and a career and all that stuff. I didn't really have time to train on my own. I got more time now. So I'm getting back into things.

Q: When I think about farming and athletics alike, I think about discipline and being able to deal with bad days. Do you feel the mental and physical discipline you picked up in college sports reflects in your life today as a farmer?

A: I think it absolutely applies. There's the physicality involved, like, yeah, I got a PhD and did brainy stuff my whole life, but every now and then we go out [on the farm] and do a lot of physical stuff. Working in a small company means everybody has to contribute to those things. And when we start harvesting truffles, where I'm down on my knees in the dirt like everybody else is, nobody thinks twice about it. There's definitely lifelong lessons in terms of toughness and fighting through obstacles and working as a team.

Q: Let’s talk about your experience in academia. You were in the field for years, serving as the Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Westminster College, and the Director of the Elon University Core Curriculum, in addition to teaching biology at both schools. What drew you to academia originally?

A: When I graduated from Davidson, I thought I was going to med school. One of my mentors convinced me that I should take a year between college and grad school. I think he probably sensed that my heart wasn't totally in [med school]. I moved to Raleigh, and I got a teaching job, teaching middle school and high school students part time, and it took me about a month of that before I realized – I love this.

Q: What was your next move after teaching for that year?

A: I knew early on that I wanted to be in academia, and kind of geared everything in that direction. I got a master's in education while I was getting a PhD in biology.

Q: Did you have any experiences during undergrad that inspired you to be the educator you became?

A: When I was at Davidson, there were only 1,600 students, and so it was an environment where it was common for professors and students to have close relationships. At the end of a semester, professors would have students over to their house for open house kind of events. So I definitely loved that environment. And it crossed my mind, oh, this would be a really nice environment in which to have a life.

Q: You made the switch from academia into farming in July 2020. What inspired you to take such a drastic career leap?

A: It was the perfect opportunity in several ways. I’ve always joked that to do everything I wanted in life, I’d need three, four, maybe five lifetimes. Part of me always wanted to be a writer. Part of me wanted to try farming. Part of me wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Q: How did the opportunity with Burwell Farms come about?

A: You know all the buildings at Elon with the last name Powell on them, of which there are many, if you really pay attention. The owner of [Burwell Farms] is Thomas Edward Powell III. His father, Thomas E. Powell Jr., was an Elon biology professor back in the 1920s and 30s. He left in order to start his own company, which became Carolina Biological Supply, right down the road, and it’s the largest science education supplier in the country. Then he had three boys: Ed, who’s my boss, Jim, and John. Those three went on to start LabCorp, the biggest medical testing company in America, also right down the street. Needless to say, they’re fans of Elon and have been major benefactors over the years.

The second I left Elon, I started getting calls from Dr. Powell, whom I had known for 15 years or so through Elon connections. He said, “Now, Jeffrey, I sort of have an unwritten rule that I don’t recruit people from Elon and they don’t recruit people from Carolina, because we don’t want to be competing with one another. But now you don’t work for Elon.” So literally just a few months after I moved to Pennsylvania, I’d get calls from Dr. Powell to talk about how he wanted me to come back and work for him.

Eventually COVID hit, and academia was a nightmare. We also had some family reasons that made it desirable to return. So this gave me a chance to try one of those other things I always thought I’d need another lifetime to do—being entrepreneurial and trying something completely different. At a certain point, I just went for it.

Q: Have the career skills you honed in academia translated into your current role at the farm?

A: Absolutely. Universities are businesses at the end of the day—you have to make sure as much money comes in as goes out, or the institution will eventually shut down. At Westminster College, for example, I inherited a $3–3.5 million annual deficit, and I had to work with a team to close that gap. That taught me how to run an organization so it’s financially sustainable.

I also managed a scientific enterprise—planning a $20 million science facility [at Westminster College], overseeing a science-heavy campus, and handling hiring, firing and crises. Later I ran admissions, which gave me skills in digital marketing and pricing, like setting tuition or summer school costs.

When I came here, I realized the farm had no one whose job it was to sell truffles. Everyone was focused on growing them, but once they had them, they didn’t know what to do next. So I took the exact same skills I’d developed in academia—finance, management, marketing—and applied them here. I didn’t set out to train myself for business, but I had, and it turned out to be exactly what I needed.

Q: Where do you feel most fulfilled personally at this stage in your career, given how rewarding academia was for you, and how different the farming lifestyle must be?

A: I felt fulfilled in academia, and I feel fulfilled now, but it’s completely different. On a college campus you’re surrounded by brilliant people, cultural events, gyms, and constant activity—it’s a great life, but also one with endless work and nonstop emails. You never really leave it behind.

Here, things are more unscripted. Some weeks we don’t even have meetings, and it’s easier to step away at the end of the day. That’s been refreshing. At the same time, what’s fulfilling is obvious: we’re not just running a business, we’re building a new industry. We were the first truffle farm in North Carolina big enough to be inspected, and I had to start by explaining to the health inspector what a truffle even is. Every time something happens, whether it’s a new pest or a production issue, we’re the ones creating the playbook.

This role also lets me draw on every stage of my life. I can do science in my little genetics lab, run a business, be outside in the fields and still work closely with people. That diversity is exciting. And then there’s the unique part of working with clients—sometimes North Carolina farmers, sometimes very wealthy or famous people who want orchards of their own. I get to interact with all of them, which is both challenging and rewarding.

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Academia to agriculture: how former Dean Jeffrey Coker helped build North Carolina’s truffle industry