- Author: Saoimanu Sope
In late April, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources hosted its first regional meeting for UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists based in Southern California. The meeting, hosted by Daniel Obrist, vice provost, and Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty, director for county Cooperative Extension, brought together 50 participants over two days for networking and collaboration.
Based on feedback collected from ANR's Statewide Conference in April 2023, academics indicated a desire to meet more frequently opposed to waiting for the conference that occurs every five years. As a result, ANR is hosting regional meetings throughout California to provide an in-person opportunity for academics to discuss their research projects, interact with senior leadership, gain clarity related to merit and promotion, strengthen communication skills and network.
On the first day, academics had the option to attend an Impact and Outcome Writing Workshop presented by Martin Smith, Emeritus Professor of Cooperative Extension at UC Davis. The session also included an interactive segment, facilitated by Katherine Webb-Martinez, director of program planning and evaluation, and Christina Becker, program policy analyst for PPE, that broke down impact reporting into theory and application.
To end the day on a social note, attendees were invited to dinner where they could continue informal discussions and networking. During that time, academics got to interact with senior leaders, including Obrist and Schmitt-McQuitty, county and Research and Extension Center (REC) directors such as Rita Clemens for Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties, and Jairo Diaz of Desert REC, as well as statewide support staff like News and Information Outreach in Spanish (NOS).
“A key opportunity of these meetings is to build peer networks with colleagues and collaboration opportunities in the regions. So many of our academics are new to ANR, and the regional meetings allow us to welcome and onboard new colleagues and get to know each other,” Obrist said.
The meetings are also beneficial for those transitioning into a new academic role within ANR. Natalie Levy who currently works as a specialist for water resources at South Coast REC, participated in the meeting with her new position, soil health and organic materials management advisor, which begins June 3, in mind.
“It was helpful to have senior leadership present. I spoke to Lynn the most and she gave me good feedback about developing a new program and my research interests,” Levy said. “I also liked the session discussing merit and promotion because it gave me a framework to use as I step into a new role.”
The morning of the second day, academics participated in a poster session to share their research with colleagues. Attendees also engaged in discussions to understand and address regional needs, build new partnerships and engage senior leadership for support.
“I learned a lot about my colleagues from the poster session. I felt more connected to their work because I could visualize how we can collaborate,” said Ashley Hooper, urban community resiliency advisor for Los Angeles County. “It can be isolating for advisors who don't have counterparts in other counties or in ANR. Seeing how others are managing their programs during the poster session gave me reassurance that I'm on the right track in my position.”
In the afternoon, academics heard from Vice President Glenda Humiston, who addressed ANR's budget and career pathways for academics. Niamh Quinn, human-wildlife interactions advisor for Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, presented on the merit and promotion process to remind academics that “swallowing the eBook” (Guidelines for UC ANR Academics Preparing the Thematic Program Review Dossier) is the best way to learn how merit and promotions work within ANR.
Finally, Saoimanu Sope, digital communications specialist, showed academics how to leverage social media as an extension tool. Ricardo Vela, program manager for News and Information Outreach in Spanish, and Miguel Sanchez, broadcast communications specialist for NOS, described how to produce videos using a smartphone.
“It was useful to see colleagues from other counties, especially those who work in different disciplines,” said Quinn, who, like Hooper, is programmatically isolated given her program niche. As someone who uses social media for her program, Quinn described the social media presentation as informative. “I felt better educated and equipped to make improvements afterwards,” she said.
The regional meeting schedule is as follows:
Region 3: May 30-31, at UCCE San Joaquin County Building in Stockton
- Counties: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Mariposa, Mono, Inyo, Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings and Kern
- RECs: Kearney, Westside and Lindcove
Region 5: June 10-11, at UC Santa Cruz
- Counties: Sonoma, Napa, Marin, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey
Region 2: Sept. 12-13, Central/Northern Sierras, specific location TBD
- Counties: Tehama, Glenn, Butte, Colusa, Sutter, Yuba, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Yolo, Solano, Sacramento, Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne
- REC: Sierra Foothills
Region 1: Feb. 26-27, 2025, Redding, specific location TBD
- Counties: Del Norte, Siskiyou, Modoc, Humboldt, Trinity, Shasta, Lassen, Mendocino, Lake and Plumas-Sierra
- RECs: Intermountain and Hopland
- Author: Mike Hsu
The Fresno-Merced Future of Food Innovation Initiative (F3) – of which UC ANR is an anchor institution – took a big step forward during the UC Regents meeting May 18.
The Regents unanimously approved the formation of F3 Innovate – a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit that will raise funds for the partnership initiative that also includes the Central Valley Community Foundation (CVCF), California Department of Food and Agriculture, UC Merced and CSU Fresno.
Largely funded by a $65 million Build Back Better grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, F3 aims to advance innovation and entrepreneurship in agrifood technology, strengthen food systems, bolster local and regional economies, and bring greater prosperity to the San Joaquin Valley and beyond.
The new F3 Innovate nonprofit will focus on agrifood systems research and commercialization, services for micro-enterprises and small businesses in under-resourced communities, ag-tech innovation seed funding, and building a talent pipeline to sustain these efforts.
“This 501(c)(3) is critical to all of that, because it really lets us bring together the public and private partners, and ensures that broader stakeholder participation and benefit,” said Glenda Humiston, UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources, during her presentation to the Regents (view recording of the meeting).
UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz and CVCF President and CEO Ashley Swearengin also spoke passionately during the meeting about the need to form the nonprofit as a key connector and catalyst for the F3 initiative.
F3 – and the new F3 Innovate – will continue to take shape through the work of Gabe Youtsey, UC ANR chief innovation officer; Josh Viers, associate dean for research of UC Merced's School of Engineering; and many other academics and staff across UC ANR and UC.
"Establishing F3 Innovate as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization is a strategic move designed to unlock and accelerate agriculture technology from lab to market. It will pave the way for a wider range of collaboration opportunities between the UC and industry, and ensure the inclusion and representation of all our stakeholders, from small and socially disadvantaged farmers to startups and corporates," said Youtsey, who is also founder of The VINE, UC ANR's Innovation & Entrepreneurship program that is co-leading F3.
"The UC Regents were enthusiastic about this partnership as it aligns perfectly with our mission of transforming cutting-edge agricultural research into practical, market-ready solutions while doing the hard work of engaging our local workers, communities and farmers to adopt these new technologies," Youtsey added. "It enables us to foster deep and meaningful collaborative relationships with industry partners, advancing technology commercialization that is inclusive and truly beneficial to all involved."
- Author: Jonathan K. London
Linking UC Davis researchers with regional changemakers is core to the mission of the Center for Regional Change. One new program designed to achieve this goal is the Regional Change Public Dialogue series. The dialogue series, supported by a grant from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is intended to share cutting edge research from CRC-affiliated faculty with a diverse array of community leaders, as well as catalyze new research partnerships.
On May 11, the CRC hosted its third public dialogue at the Kearney Research Extension Center in the San Joaquin Valley town ofParlier. Kearney was an ideal site for this event as one of the experiment field stations that the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources system dedicated to applied and solutions-oriented research.
[The event was streamed live on May 11 and recorded on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/UCDavisCRC.]
Complementing the agricultural and environmental focus of much of the Kearney projects, the research presented at the public dialogue focused on improving social, economic, health and political conditions in rural communities such as Parlier.
Keith Taylor, UC Cooperative Extension economic development specialist, introduced his research on cooperatives as engines of community economic vitality. Bernadette Austin, CRC associate director, presented the forthcoming work of UC Davis professors Anne Visser and Catherine Brinkley on agricultural and community sustainability in the Sacramento- San Joaquin Delta. I shared the new report, "The Struggle for Water Justice in the San Joaquin Valley."
Following the lightning talks, the participants -- including leaders in the agricultural, environmental justice, immigrant rights, economic development, transportation, and air quality sectors among others -- divided into discussion groups to highlight the key insights and potential applications of the research. Some of the most compelling ideas of the evening included developing a map to represent the relationships between water and social/economic/political power in the San Joaquin Valley and an action research agenda on rural cooperatives as a way to diversify and localize the regional agricultural economy.
Given the success of the Regional Change Public Dialogue series, the CRC will be seeking ideas and resources to expand the program in the future. We welcome your ideas on new directions!
Jonathan K. London, Faculty Director, Center for Regional Change
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
VP Glenda Humiston, AVP Wendy Powers and several UC ANR representatives visited more than 30 congressional offices in March to brief lawmakers and staffers on the latest agriculture and natural resources research and outreach benefiting Californians.
On March 5-8, a UC ANR delegation attended the 36th Annual Council on Agriculture Research, Extension and Teaching (CARET) meetings in Washington D.C. CARET is part of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). With the assistance of Julia Rowe and Marjorie Duske of UC Federal Governmental Relations, they also visited congressional offices to explain the importance of science and research to California.
Keith Nathaniel, UC Cooperative Extension director for Los Angeles County; Katie Panarella, director of nutrition, family and consumer sciences program & policy; and Mark Bell, vice provost of strategic initiatives and statewide programs; joined the deans Helene Dillard, Keith Gilless, Michael Lairmore and Kathryn Uhrich for the visits.
“We had a lot of great meetings with Congressional members and their staff, discussing the need for sustained investments in ag & natural resources programs, research and innovation,” said Anne Megaro, director of government and community relations.
The group split up into teams to visit the offices of Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, Representatives John Garamendi, Jim Costa, Jeff Denham, Barbara Lee, Ami Bera, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Jimmy Panetta, Raul Ruiz and several other California representatives.
“California CARET representatives Dina Moore, Mike Mellano and Jean-Mari Peltier shared their experiences of how UC ANR research drives innovation and helps California farmers and related businesses remain competitive in the global market,” Megaro said.
“Overall, I felt that the visits were high quality,” said Powers. “I don't envy the elected officials or the staffers that see a revolving door of people through their offices at this time of year.”
ANR is committed to increasing our academic footprint for more effective deployment of Cooperative Extension (CE) specialists and advisors to address local issues with global impact. The 2018 CE Call for Positions is released, with the aim to identify positions that address programmatic gaps and emerging needs. The call, including the position proposal template, new process flowchart and timeline and criteria, is posted at http://ucanr.edu/2018callforpositions.
The advisor and specialist position proposal-development processes will be open from Feb. 8 to Sept. 15, with three phases of groups working collaboratively to develop proposals, and later phases reviewing earlier proposals to add proposals that they think are higher priority. Each proposal development phase is intended to include internal consultation and external input from ANR stakeholders to identify priority needs.
“Strengthening and rebuilding the ANR network remains a top priority for ANR,” said Wendy Powers, associate vice president. “Since the beginning of 2012, ANR has hired 175 academics, and has 11 approved CE positions under recruitment in 2018 (list posted on the 2018 call web page). Through this call, we plan to add around 26 additional crucial CE positions.”
Powers said, “As with the current recruitments, we will remain nimble with future hiring in phases over time to enable us to accomplish the search and hiring process in an orderly fashion, evaluate resources on a real-time basis, deal with unexpected changes in staffing, and address unforeseen critical gaps as they emerge. The resources released through retirements and separations continue to enable us to hire new advisors and specialists. The ANR strategic plan 2016-2020 also prioritizes strengthening partnerships to establish new co-funded positions and developing other new sources of revenue to grow the academic footprint.”