- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Gibbs named major gifts director
Gregory Gibbs joined Development Services as director of major gifts on July 1. In this role, Gibbs heads the Major Gifts fundraising team on behalf of UCANR.
Gibbs joined the UC system in 2006 as development director for the UC Davis College of Engineering. He later assumed additional responsibility as senior director of Corporate Relations in the Engineering Dean's office. During his tenure at the UC Davis College of Engineering, Gibbs's team was responsible for raising over $90 million in donor funds for students, faculty, infrastructure and academic programs.
After graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Gibbs began his career in 1985 as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, designing and analyzing satellite and missile systems to ensure national security. In 1992, he transitioned to the private sector and progressed through a series of technical sales and sales management positions of increasing responsibility at Ceridian Employer Services and Ascolta, a Cisco-certified Learning Solutions Partner focused on IT education. He subsequently relocated from Colorado to California to join the UC team.
His husband, Emilio Bejel, is a UC Davis distinguished professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
Gibbs is based in the ANR building at 2801 Second St. in Davis, and can be reached at (530) 750-1371, cell (530) 848-7860 and glgibbs@ucanr.edu.
Larry Bettiga, UC Cooperative Extension viticulture farm advisor, received the American Society for Enology and Viticulture's Extension Distinction Award at ASEV's 68th National Conference in Bellevue, Wash., on June 28. This honor recognizes a current extension educator for outstanding contribution to an extension program or the advanced translation of novel research findings into commercially applicable tools for enologists or viticulturists.
Bettiga's research focuses on the influences of cultural practices, rootstock and clonal selection, and canopy management on grapevine growth and productivity, and the use of integrated approaches to solve pest management problems in coastal winegrape production systems. Bettiga has been a UCCE viticulture farm advisor for the past 32 years and currently conducts applied research and extension education programs for winegrape growers in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties.
While stationed at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier, he evaluated cultural practices for table, wine and raisin grapes to improve yield and quality for grape production in the southern San Joaquin Valley. He also worked on pest management projects for grapes and tree nuts while based at the UC Cooperative Extension office in Tulare County.
Bettiga has authored and co-authored more than 400 technical articles, newsletters, research reports and abstracts. He has been an active member of ASEV since 1984, serving on the board of directors for five years, and was board president from 1999 to 2000.
Bring your lunch and join Glenda Humiston, vice president of Agriculture and Natural Resources, for the next talk in the Women We Admire speaker series at UC Office of the President.
Date: Wednesday, Aug. 16
Time: 12 noon to 1 p.m.
Location: Franklin Lobby 1
Remote access: Via Zoom: https://UCOP.zoom.us/j/6987568179. By phone: (408) 638-0968 (toll charges apply),*4 (from a UCOP office phone), Meeting ID: 698-756-8179
She was born in California and raised on a cattle ranch in Colorado, where she was a member of 4-H. She came to UC ANR with more than 25 years of experience working on public policy development and program implementation supporting sustainability.
Humiston has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia, as executive director of a nonprofit organization advocating farmland preservation and value-added agriculture development, and worked for several years as a consultant on environmental and agricultural issues throughout the West.
She served President Clinton as Deputy Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment at U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 1998 to 2001. She managed the Sustainable Development Institute at the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development in South Africa and the 2006 World Water Forum in Mexico City. In 2009, Humiston was appointed by President Obama to serve at the USDA as the California State Director, Rural Development.
She has produced a widely acclaimed guidebook “Access to Capital” and led efforts to bring rural issues to the forefront of the state's Economic Summit and policymakers throughout California.
Humiston earned her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy and Management in 2009 with research focused on U.S. Farm Bill policy. She has a master's degree in international agricultural development from UC Davis and a bachelor's degree in animal science from Colorado State University.
Humiston's talk is part of the Women We Admire series, initiated by the President's Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (PACSW) in 2009. PACSW brings women to UCOP from around the system to share insights about their careers, workplace challenges and work-life balance. All members of the UCOP community are invited to learn how to make the most of working at UC.
Find upcoming speakers in the series and archived audio of past talks on the Women We Admire website.
University of California President Janet Napolitano today (August 14) sent the following letter to the UC community in response to the violence in Charlottesville:
To the University of California Community:
Over the weekend, our country experienced violent and tragic events on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. As the leader of the University of California, an institution dedicated to the vibrant and respectful exchange of ideas, I write to you today to condemn these hateful actions by white supremacists and to reaffirm UC's values of diversity and inclusion.
As I stated over the weekend, UC abhors the violence and hate displayed in Charlottesville that perverted Americans' right to speak freely. We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at the University of Virginia in denouncing this shameful display and with the UVA students who bravely stood up to a crowd bent on violence. We offer our profound condolences to the family and friends of Heather Heyer, to all the individuals injured in the course of peaceful counterprotests, and to the Virginia state troopers who lost their lives.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution grants us all freedom of expression. University campuses in particular are meant to foster an exchange of ideas, and to teach students how to respectfully approach viewpoints different from their own — even when those viewpoints are offensive and hurtful. But the acts of domestic terrorism we saw in Charlottesville represented an assault on our cherished values of diversity, inclusiveness and tolerance. We must continue to speak and act against the shameful behavior we witnessed over the weekend and ensure that our colleges and universities, and our nation as a whole, remain safe and civil for all.
Diversity is a defining feature of the University of California and we embrace it as a necessary and valued part of our campus communities. I believe, as I know you do, that our differences — in race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, socioeconomic status, abilities, experience and more — make us stronger.
UC remains committed to providing a safe, supportive, responsive and equitable environment for every member of the university community. We reject all forms of discrimination, commit to fostering an atmosphere of respect and inclusion, and pledge to defend the right to free speech.
This summer and fall, as UC students, faculty and staff return to their campuses, I ask that we all recommit to these enduring values of diversity, equity and inclusion, and work to live up to these ideals in all that we do.
Yours very truly,
Janet Napolitano
President
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Groppe, who grew up in Lincoln, Neb., earned a B.S. in nutrition science at the University of Nebraska and an M.S. in nutrition from Michigan State University.
She began her career as a nutrition specialist with the U.S. Agricultural Service in Ohio. In 1946, Groppe joined UC Cooperative Extension as a nutrition home advisor for Alameda County. After serving as an advisor for 12 years, Groppe became a UCCE nutrition specialist at UC Berkeley.
“Christine was the Cooperative Extension nutrition specialist on the UC Berkeley campus when I was hired in the early 1970s,” said Joanne Ikeda, UCCE nutrition specialist emeritus at UC Berkeley. “She was very popular with county advisors and had an excellent reputation. She was my mentor and an amazing person.”
Ikeda added, “She was the most generous person I have ever known. She gave so much money to charity that the IRS investigated her – and found it was true! She gave over half of her salary to charities both before and after retirement. She wore clothes that her sister sent to her. ‘They are like new!' she would exclaim.”
She is survived by her daughter, Lynn Hardaway (Gary) and grandchildren Robin Hardaway, Brent Hardaway, Scott (Noel) Hardaway, and Michael (Denise) Brumley.
Read more in The Santa Barbara News-Press online edition at http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newspress/obituary.aspx?pid=186143698.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
De Moura worked with many UC ANR specialists and advisors on cost and return studies over the years.
He was born in Merced and raised in Chowchilla on a dairy farm where he would wake up every morning before dawn to milk the cows. He earned his B.S. in plant science at Fresno State University in 1963.
After graduation, he began working for UC Davis as a plant breeder in the Department of Agronomy and Range Science under Francis Smith. In 1983, De Moura earned his M.S. in agronomy and later left the university. He returned in 2001 as a staff research associate to work with Karen Klonsky, UC Cooperative Extension agricultural economics specialist, on the Cost and Return Studies Project until he retired in 2014 with almost 38 years of university service.
“He loved the work he did and the people he worked with,” said his son, Matthew De Moura. “He was extremely proud to be part of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and to work for Karen Klonsky.”
De Moura is survived by his wife, Phyllis, daughter Caryn and son Matthew.