Des Moines Area Community College announced Thursday that horticulture instructor Jim Mason is now associate professor and horticulture department chair. Diane Brockshus, a graduate of the college’s horticulture program, will fill Mason’s position as a full-time instructor. Mason has a 40-year career in landscaping and horticulture in Iowa, starting with designing city parks and then opening his own landscape firm in 1978. He started as an adjunct instructor of landscape design at DMACC in 2011. He earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Iowa State University. Brockshus enrolled at DMACC after working 14 years as an environmental regulator for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Since graduating, she has worked in roles for DMACC and most recently as an assistant horticulturist at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden. The two pathways of DMACC’s horticulture program are plant production and landscape and turf.