- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
The Hansen Agricultural Research and Extension Center staff have almost completed relocating from Santa Paula to their new property in Camarillo, said Annemiek Schilder, director of UCCE Ventura County and HAREC. Except for one small container that will be moved next week, everything has been transferred to the new site.
“Shout out to the local team that has orchestrated the Hansen REC move from Santa Paula to Camarillo,” Schilder said, “with help from UC Facilities Planning and Management, Resource Planning & Management, and REC Operations.”
Adam Novicki, farm superintendent;Jose Hernandez, senior ag technician; Santos Ramirez, senior ag technician; Stephanie Gomez Gallimore, facility coordinator; Brandy McCarthy, financial services coordinator; and Kathy Speer, business officer, have been key to the success of the move.
“They have been doing a tremendous job arranging for the move of two modular office buildings and their contents, 11 shipping containers, a walk-in cooler, farm equipment, trucks, trailers, wagons, etc. under time pressure and with many challenges along the way, while at the same time cleaning up the old site and starting up research trials at the new site,” Schilder said.
The new address is 5352 Beardsley Road, Camarillo, CA 93010.
It will take a few months for the modular office buildings to be restored and ready for occupancy in Camarillo.
“I would estimate November or December,” Schilder said. “The buildings have to be put back together, utilities have to be hooked up, a septic holding tank has to be installed, and the parking area and walkways have to be paved. However, the first research trial is already in the ground at the new location.”
HAREC administrative staff are currently working from the UC Cooperative Extension office in Ventura County at 669 County Square Dr #100, Ventura, CA 93003. The farm superintendent and field staff are in Camarillo using their cell phones because the HAREC phones are not functional at the time of this story.
Read more about the Hansen REC move in Schilder's post at https://ceventura.ucanr.edu/Gardening/Coastal/Home/HAREC_in_Camarillo. Also see the UCCE Ventura County Annual Report 2022-23.
- Author: Elizabeth Moon
Nominations are being accepted until Oct. 17 to fill one vacancy on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Advisory Council.
Vice President Glenda Humiston convened the DEI Advisory Council to support efforts that UC ANR staff and academics have undertaken to improve quality of life for marginalized populations living in California. Diversity is one of our core values and developing an equitable and inclusive society is one of our public values.
Nominate yourself, a colleague, a direct report or other UC ANR staff or academic member.
Prior to completing the nomination, please confirm the nominee's interest in participating in the council. Review member expectations and the Council's Mission Statement and Vision at https://ucanr.edu/sites/PSU/files/358281.pdf.
Membership criteria:
- Experience and/or interest in advocating for change and moving DEI work forward.
- Experience and/or interest in navigating/negotiating for organizational change in UC ANR.
- Membership aims to represent the diversity of the UC ANR community and state of California, specifically including representation of marginalized racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and ability groups.
- Membership includes a mix of staff and academics, represents a cross-section of UC ANR offices and programs and geographical distribution (north/south, urban/rural).
All nominations need to be submitted via email to deiadvcouncil@ucanr.edu with the subject line, “Nomination for DEI Advisory Council.”
For more information, contact Keith Nathaniel at kcnathaniel@ucanr.edu or Jairo Diaz at jdiazr@ucanr.edu.
DEI Advisory Council is working for you
Our DEI Advisory Council celebrates the impact we have had since the finalization of our charter in September 2021. With the charge from Vice President Glenda Humiston, our council set out to prioritize where we could have the greatest impact on improving the working environments within UC ANR based on the feedback from many members within our community.
The council met numerous times to solidify a list of priorities focused on the hiring process – from job announcements and job descriptions to the actual process of hiring, including support and learning for hiring committees. Working closely with ANR's Human Resources team, many of these recommendations have already been implemented on both the staff and academic sides, leading to gains in mitigating bias, expanding the diversity of our applicants, and creating committees that are more aware and conscious of the perceptions they bring to the process.
This past spring, we were successful in bringing on board the inaugural Workplace Inclusion and Belonging Director. Working closely with Elizabeth Moon, the council is ramping up council recruitment as some members have moved on from UC ANR. A call for nominations is now open and we hope you consider submitting yourself or a colleague.
Looking forward, we are committed to collaborating with our Employee Resource Groups, Program Teams and others throughout UC ANR to identify key priorities to support UC ANR's vision statement of contributing to a California that is equitable and inclusive and appreciates and celebrates all our diversity. To do this, we are developing a process that will allow us to engage the ANR community in a meaningful and effective way.
We have created a mailbox as a resource for streamlining opportunities to connect with all members of the council. If you have any questions, you can now email deiadvcouncil@ucanr.edu .
As always, your DEI Advisory Council members are available to reach individually.
Current members:
Keith Nathaniel, kcnathaniel@ucanr.edu
Jairo Diaz, jdiazr@ucanr.edu
Fadzayi Mashiri, fmashiri@ucanr.edu
Esther Mosase, enmosase@ucanr.edu
Joji Muramoto, jmuramoto@ucanr.edu
Katherine Soule, kesoule@ucanr.edu
Rosa Vargas, rivargas@ucanr.edu
Jaki Hsieh Wojan, jhsiehw@ucanr.edu
Mohammad Yaghmour, mayaghmour@ucanr.edu
Ricardo Vela, rvela@ucanr.edu
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Deadline extended to Nov. 15, 2023
UC ANR is once again launching a photography contest and calling all staff and academics to submit their best shots.
The 2023 contest theme is “ANR in action.” Submit your beautiful, captivating, funny and/or artistic photos related to your work or your colleagues' work. There is no limit to how many photos you can submit for consideration.
Send your photos of at least 300 dpi to Linda Forbes by Oct. 31 (note: deadline has been extended to Nov. 15). Please include your name in the file name. If there are recognizable people in the photo who are not UC ANR employees, please ask them to sign a release form and include it with your submission.
Photographers of three top selections will receive a $50 gift card and two honorable mentions will receive $25 gift cards. In addition, the winning photos will be featured at a UC ANR Town Hall and in the Davis office breakroom slide show.
Photos submitted to the contest will be stored in UC ANR's WebDam and made available for UC ANR presentations, websites, social media, etc., with credit to the photographer.
To see the winning photos from last year's contest, visit https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=51922.
Questions? Contact Linda Forbes or anyone in Strategic Communications.
- Author: Jaki Hsieh Wojan, Chief Information Security Officer
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month! The theme for 2023 is “Protect Your Digital Life.”
With increasing digital threats and evolving technological developments, the best ways we have identified to help you individually protect yourself, your private information and ANR is by focusing on four key behaviors in both your personal life and at work:
- Use unique strong passwords and a password manager
- Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Recognize and report phishing
- Protect your devices, including your cell phone, by regularly patching and updating software
There are several events happening across UC, including discussions on AI and social media privacy. A full list of cybersecurity events can be found at https://security.ucop.edu/resources/security-awareness/cyber-security-month-2023.html.
Learn more about cybersecurity and represent ANR by joining one or many of these informative sessions.
- Author: Jodi Azulai
UC ANR LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
Landing page| Presentation Recordings| Learning Resources
Extension Methods & Delivery
Building Support
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Office, Team and Personal Management
Fall GIS and Data Science Workshops from IGIS (UC ANR IGIS)
Details and Registration
Intro to R Wednesdays workshop series - Oct. 4, 11 & 18, 10 a.m.-noon
Intro to ArcGIS Pro -Friday, Oct. 13, 1-4 p.m.
Intro to Jupyter Notebooks in ArcGIS Pro - Nov. 17, 1-4 p.m.
?Intro to ArcGIS Story Maps - Dec. 15, 1-4 p.m.
Oct. 18
9:30-10:30 a.m. PDT
Details & Registration.
Join Rachel Tansey, MA on Wednesday October 18th at 12:30pm as she discusses Strategies to Manage Health Literacy Challenges. Health literacy is about being able to find, understand and use health information- which can be difficult. This webinar will discuss some strategies to help ease that challenge. Image by mcmurryjulie from Pixabay
Fall 2023 14-Day Writing Challenge (National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity, NCFDD)
Oct. 9-22.
Details and Registration
The 14-Day Challenge is an opportunity for you to experiment with daily writing, online community, and supportive accountability. It's very simple:
- You commit to write every day for at least 30 minutes.
- At the beginning of your writing time, you login to our online community, start the timer, complete your writing, and post your progress at the end.
- You take 5 minutes to support other writers in your group by commenting on their progress.
How to Engage Audiences at Conferences, in the Classroom, and Beyond! (National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity, NCFDD)
Tuesday, Oct. 24.
11 a.m.-noon
his webinar discusses the importance of audience engagement for public presentations and provides strategies for capturing and keeping the attention of an audience in various contexts. The presenter will provide recommendations for how to study an audience prior to a presentation, as well as suggestions for verbal and nonverbal communication strategies that engage an audience the entire presentation.
Dynamic Discussions (Extension Foundation)
Oct. 26
11 a.m.-noon
Details & Registration.
Each fourth Thursday of the month, the Impact Collaborative will host professionals from across Cooperative Extension and beyond to address hot topics of interest to Cooperative Extension. Each month, we will update the information for the Dynamic Discussion for the month


- Grant proposal development and other information can be found at the Office of Contracts and Grants.
- Learn fundraising best practices and see Development Services for more information.
- Work with Strategic Communications to learn how best to tell our story.
- Use Government Relations toolkit to learn how build advocacy with elected officials.
- Find training on branding, public relations training, and social media training. Image by Stephan from Pixabay
Conducting Culturally Inclusive Trainings (UC Learning Center)
(Asynchronous - Complete at any time)
UC Learning Center Course link
Developing training programs that engage participants of varied cultural backgrounds, abilities, learning styles, reading levels, and other differences requires thoughtful attention to training design and delivery. This course will give trainers the skills to conduct training courses that address the diverse needs of trainees, and ensure that the training content is accessible for all participants. The instructors will model culturally respectful training and provide valuable tools that novice and expert trainers alike can use.
UC Managing Implicit Bias (UC Learning Center)
(Asynchronous - Complete at any time)
UC Learning Center Course Link
The UC Managing Implicit Bias Series is a six-course online training series designed to increase awareness of implicit bias and reduce its impact at the University.The series reinforces the UC diversity, equity, and inclusion values that enable the University to attract and retain a top talent workforce, and it further supports the UC commitment to developing effective leaders and managers of people. It is intended to supplement existing location programs and resources.
Conflict Competence for Staff (UC Davis Ombuds)
Wednesday, Oct. 4, 9 a.m.-noon
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, 9 a.m.-noon
Details & Registration
Learn to prevent and resolve conflicts with colleagues and managers, including communicating your needs successfully and lowering other's defenses.
Tuesday, Oct. 24,
Noon-1 p.m.
Details & Registration
Drawing from negotiation and conflict management best practices, this interactive webinar will provide a road map designed to help you discover solutions that meet your needs in complex and challenging situations. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Understanding Your Timesheet
Thursday, Nov. 2
Noon-12:30pm
Join Anne Marie Scott, Payroll Manager, to learn how to develop employee and supervisor/approver understanding of TRS and timesheet deadlines. Part of the Business Operations Center Quarterly Webinars: Our Two Cents.
https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/751701428?pwd=Q1ZrbUtoQVJwMXJVRkQydUlwNytJQT09
Password: 4Learning
Administrative Orientation
Details & Registration
Thursday, Nov. 9
9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
UC ANR, 2801 2nd St., Davis, CA 95618
Conflict Competence: Listening to be Heard (UC Davis Ombuds)
Wednesday, Nov. 1
Details & Registration
Do you feel like your ideas and perspectives are not being heard? Have you ever felt stuck in a dynamic of defensive and attacking behaviors that break down communication and cause significant stress? One way to help people listen to us and restore communication channels is by first making them feel heard. When both people feel heard and understood, the chances of reaching a lasting resolution dramatically increase, relationships improve, and you can ultimately find greater success at work. This highly interactive course provides techniques to identify and overcome listening barriers, listen for what is not being said, make another person feel heard, and lower defensiveness around tense topics. This course was previously offered with the title "Talk to Me, I'm All Ears: Listening to be Heard." While the course title has changed, the topics covered are the same.