- Author: Mike Hsu
Young people across California and the U.S. enjoy healthier, more nutritious food options at school, thanks to the contributions of Gail Woodward-Lopez, who retired on July 1 as the associate director of research at the Nutrition Policy Institute, a part of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Woodward-Lopez officially joined UC ANR in 2015, when she and other researchers at the Atkins Center for Weight and Health at UC Berkeley merged with NPI. But her association with UC ANR goes back much further, as her work at CWH was always directed by UC Cooperative Extension academics – including the research that paved the way for California's “junk food ban” in schools.
Two groundbreaking bills, signed in 2005, set nutrition standards in California for “competitive foods”– the items sold in vending machines and from food service a la carte (as opposed to federally subsidized school meals). That legislation – which inspired similar policy changes across the country – was informed by the work of Woodward-Lopez and her colleagues, who had looked at the financial impact of establishing those standards.
“Our study was so pivotal that I literally had people calling me from the floor of the Senate or the Assembly when they were debating that legislation,” recalled Woodward-Lopez.
Changing perceptions of population weight gain
Originally intending to pursue a career in neurobiology, Woodward-Lopez found that lab work didn't suit her temperament. Seeking to work more directly on social issues, she embarked on a public health path, with an emphasis on nutritional aspects that incorporated her interest in biological sciences.
Woodward-Lopez's early work focused on a challenge that was just beginning to catch the attention of researchers: the rapid rise in the Body Mass Index (BMI) among the U.S. population. In tracing the causes of this epidemic, she and her colleagues shifted academic and public attention toward the host of environmental factors that contribute to weight gain – instead of focusing exclusively on an individual's choice to eat healthy and be physically active.
Woodward-Lopez, who helped set the identity and agenda of the Center for Weight and Health when it was founded in 2000, moved policy and practice beyond educational approaches and public awareness campaigns. As she noted: “No one thinks sugar-sweetened beverages are good for you.”
“Education alone is not going to work if people do not have access to the healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity, if they're not safe in their neighborhoods, or if they can't afford the healthy options,” she explained.
Given her seminal role in the field, Kaiser Permanente sought out Woodward-Lopez as a “thought partner” on the organization's community-based obesity prevention programs and school health work.
“Gail brought deep rigor and expertise, of course, but also a super-practical, community-focused perspective to our work,” said Loel Solomon, professor of health systems science at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. “Her integrity and values around health equity were evident in everything we did together, and our communities are so much the better for it.”
Elevating and enhancing CalFresh Healthy Living
At the Nutrition Policy Institute, the focus of Woodward-Lopez's work has been refining the evaluation and delivery of SNAP-Ed, the educational component of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly referred to as “food stamps”). Known in California as CalFresh Healthy Living, SNAP-Ed represents the largest single source of ongoing funding for nutrition and physical activity promotion in the state.
“The program can really impact millions of people,” Woodward-Lopez said. “For county health departments, this is one of their main sources of funding and provides the backbone for everything else they do in nutrition and physical activity.”
But given the unevenness and variety of interventions implemented by local health departments, determining the efficacy of those efforts is a daunting task. Woodward-Lopez and her NPI colleagues have been instrumental in devising creative approaches that help pinpoint the most effective public health measures.
For example, researchers found that combining school policy changes with increased opportunities for physical activity was the best strategy to encourage student fitness. They discovered that health departments diverting resources away from nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected communities of color. And they also continue to emphasize that interventions need to be tailored to the specific cultural and political conditions within a community.
“I think in all of the work we do, we try to come up with those practical applications – what does this mean for communities? How can we do this differently? How are our findings actionable?” Woodward-Lopez said.
Her contributions toward the evaluation of California Department of Public Health SNAP-Ed have impressed and inspired Lauren MacKenzie Whetstone, chief of CDPH's Research, Evaluation and Strategic Alignment Section, Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Branch.
“Gail and her team have elevated the quality of our evaluation work and the evaluation support that we provide to local health department grantees,” said MacKenzie Whetstone, who has known Woodward-Lopez for nearly a decade. “Gail contributed substantially to statewide SNAP-Ed evaluation as well, again working collaboratively to ensure high quality evaluation. Our work is all the stronger due to Gail's dedication to excellent SNAP-Ed evaluation.”
To the benefit of the field and community health, Woodward-Lopez plans to remain engaged in her life's work. While she looks forward to spending more time with loved ones, traveling and pursuing her interests in art and music, she will remain a guiding voice for advancing public health.
“I'd really like to get more involved in policy through advocacy and through doing things like writing letters to the editor or social media commentary,” she said. “I already have some ideas for some editorials I want to write.”
- Author: Trina Kleist and Heather Hayashi
Elizabeth Mitcham, UC Cooperative Extension pomology specialist, retired July 1 after 31 years of serving in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences.
Growers know Mitcham for her work in tree fruits and nuts, berries, tomatoes, grapes and pest management. She specialized in produce after harvest, researching new ways to maintain flavor quality and reduce food loss. From storage to processing, marketing, policy and trade, she has striven to secure better returns for farmers and more nutritious food for consumers – at home and around the world. She has been active in the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources workgroups to share her knowledge.
Mitcham served as director of the UC Davis Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture since 2009. Under her visionary leadership, the lab has achieved significant milestones. Her contributions include work in emerging economies to make horticulture a profitable business for smallholder farmers. From 2009 to 2016, she was director of the UC Postharvest Technology Center, also on the Davis campus.
Mitcham's academic work has been recognized with the Outstanding International Horticulturist award from the American Society for Horticultural Science in 2015; and the UC Davis Chancellor's International Engagement Achievement Award in 2018. She served as ASHS vice president for the international division from 2017 to 2019.
Mitcham started out studying Christmas trees and eventually came to focus on fruit ripening and nutrition. All of her degrees are in horticulture: She earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Maryland in 1984; a master's from North Carolina State University in 1986; and a doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1990.
In developed countries, an estimated 20% of food is wasted on the farm or from improper or inadequate drying, storage, packaging and transportation. Nearly one-third of all the food produced in the world is never eaten.
Mitcham linked complex mechanisms including marketing, large-scale retailers and consumer behavior to shocking levels of food waste: An estimated 40% of all the food produced in the United States gets thrown out, according to the food rescue organization Feeding America. Much of that waste occurs after consumers buy their food.
“Unfortunately, the costs are so low that sometimes it's cheaper to buy way more than you need than it is to buy a reasonable quantity, so it tends to drive consumer behavior in that direction,” Mitcham explained in a 2020 interview.
Mitcham announced her retirement plans in May during a Feed the Future Innovation Lab meeting with regional partners in Nairobi, Kenya, hosted by the United States Agency for International Development. “We're so grateful to all of you for the leadership of your lab,” said Rob Bertram, chief scientist in USAID's Bureau for Resilience and Food Security.
Succeeding Mitcham at the Feed the Future Innovation Lab are Director Erin J. McGuire and Associate Director Archie Jarman. Both have worked with the lab for several years.
“Beth has those unique qualities that have made her an amazing leader – she was completely committed to achieving the goals of the Innovation Lab; passionate about horticulture, has expertise in a broad set of critical areas, and was engaged in making sure that her staff and the Horticulture Innovation Lab network operates as a supportive team that achieves both professional and programmatic goals," Jarman said.
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
After 13 years of telling the UC ANR story through written articles and video production, Norma De la Vega retired on June 29. De la Vega joined UC ANR's News and Information Outreach in Spanish team in 2009 as a senior writer.
NOS fulfilled UC ANR's vision of developing educational and informational programs in Spanish to serve the Latino community. For more than 40 years, NOS has been producing information formatted for radio, television, and online audiences, and De la Vega has played an instrumental role in helping NOS expand its reach and diversify its creative approach to storytelling.
When she started, most of her writing focused on nutrition, highlighting groups like the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and the Nutrition Policy Institute. “Norma's contributions were spot on,” said NOS Program Manager Ricardo Vela. “Her impact has been bringing the importance of nutrition into the stories that we bring to the community.”
De la Vega earned a bachelor's degree in science communications from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in her hometown of Mexico City. “Learning how to produce videos when I went to school was very different than now,” said De la Vega. “We didn't have the kind of cameras we do today.”
Following college, De la Vega worked as a television reporter in Tijuana before moving to San Diego County where she started focusing on writing. Prior to UC ANR, De La Vega worked as a writer for the Enlace Union-Tribune's Spanish newspaper in San Diego for nearly a decade.
Before it became NOS' primary medium for storytelling, De la Vega helped lead the team's video production effort despite her limited experience. “We weren't experts, but we realized the importance of video production to get our information out. It was a team effort,” she said.
In 2010, De la Vega wrote a story and produced a video on the importance of planning for old age. In many cases, adult children had to manage their parent's care without guidance, and most caregivers of the elderly spoke Spanish as their first language and needed more resources to do a better job.
De la Vega's story relied on research conducted by Patti Wooten Swanson, UCCE nutrition, family and consumer science advisor in San Diego. Not only was Swanson honored at the 2013 Galaxy Awards for her contribution to the story, but De la Vega, a member of the NOS team at the time, won first place at the Western Region Television/Video Communications Award Ceremony despite the lack of a Spanish language category.
In 2016, De la Vega produced a video of the first bilingual 4-H club, the result of a partnership with the Community Settlement Association in Riverside County. “A lot of good things were happening at that time and are happening now because ANR is evolving with more bilingual experts on different topics,” De la Vega said.
Although she started as a senior writer, De La Vega evolved and became a broadcast communications specialist. Her success in the role allowed her to become well-connected to other communicators and community leaders. “Norma always had a contact we needed for a story that we were working on,” said Miguel Sanchez, another broadcast communications specialist on the NOS team.
Lisa Rawleigh, NOS administrative assistant, established a personal and professional relationship with De la Vega. “Norma ensured that our Spanish articles were written properly and that we did not miss any accents or typos. I can always count on her to proofread my posts on social media,” said Rawleigh.
De la Vega said that she feels “enormously satisfied” to have worked with a team of fellow pioneers. “Although we were not experts, we learned so much every day and together,” De la Vega said. “Today, there are several experts in the production of community videos, and we helped enrich the graphic archive for UC ANR's community programs. I think our contribution was to lead the way in that direction.”
Looking ahead, De la Vega will be spending her retirement traveling and exploring other countries and cultures. Since she was a girl, De la Vega enjoyed swimming and can't wait to do more of it. “I love to swim because being in the water always makes me feel young,” she said.
Finally, De la Vega will enjoy quality time with her grandchildren, teaching them Spanish and volunteering at the Spanish immersion school they attend.
To read this story in Spanish, visit https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=57440.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Billikopf provided research-based labor management information for agricultural employers and workers in San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties for 33 years.
He earned his B.S. in agronomy at UC Davis and M.A. in labor management from California State University, Stanislaus.
As a UCCE labor management farm advisor, Billikopf's extension and teaching efforts focused on employee selection, wage structures, interpersonal negotiation skills, conflict resolution and mediation. He received the “best publication” award from the National Association for County Agricultural Agents for his book Labor Management in Agriculture: Cultivating Personnel Productivity, as well as awards from other professional organizations.
His advice reached beyond farms. In a 1994, he published Helping Colleagues Cope With Grief in the Modesto Bee. In a Scientific American article about helping children grieve during the COVID-19 pandemic, a school psychologist cited his empathetic approach “listening first aid,” “to help empty the large reservoirs of emotion, anger, stress, frustration and other negative feelings.”
After he retired in 2014, Billikopf returned to his native Chile to provide community mediation and labor productivity training, but later returned to California where he was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Read more about his life at https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/28469245/gregory-encina-billikopf.
- Author: Trina Kleist
The man who pioneered the field of genetic engineering for food crops has died. Raymond Carlyle Valentine, professor in the former Department of Agronomy and Range Science at UC Davis, was a visionary scientist who found new ways to increase crop yield and link academic research with commercial potential. He died March 9 in Davis, at the age of 86.
Valentine was born in 1936 into a family of Illinois sharecroppers who lived in a log cabin. When asked about the beginning of his interest in plants, he would tell a story: His family rented farmland that he called “marginal,” but it included a 20-acre strip of relatively productive bottom-land near a levee, where they grew corn. Valentine worked his first job at the age of 5, starting at daybreak and using a short-handled hoe that his father sharpened by hand to dig out cockleburs from within the rows of corn. As the sun beat down, the razor-like corn leaves would turn the sweat on his hands red with blood. For that, he earned 35 cents a day – “good money back then… (but) I thought, if I ever get a chance, this is not the way to do it,” Valentine recalled with a laugh in a 2020 interview recorded by colleague and Professor Emeritus John Yoder. “It was the worst job I ever had!”
Decades later, Valentine became science advisor and marketing chief for the first company dedicated to genetic engineering in plants, Calgene Inc., which conducted the research to genetically modify crop plants to make them immune to the herbicide Roundup. At the time Calgene began that research, the inexpensive, broad-spectrum weed-killer had little application. Now, it is used on nearly 300 million acres of cropland each year in the United States, plus home gardens and public spaces, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It's the most-used herbicide in the world, with about 900,000 tons applied annually and growing.
Valentine had an unusual ability to see unifying concepts and make intellectual leaps that would lead to world-changing discoveries, said Abhaya Dandekar, who was a young scientist when he started working with Valentine at UC Davis toward the end of 1982. “His groundbreaking discoveries and entrepreneurial spirit revolutionized the way we perceive and interact with plants,” wrote Dandekar, now a distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, which absorbed Agronomy and Range Science in 2004.
Architect of using molecular biology in ag
Valentine also pushed UC Davis to embrace the link between research and commercial ventures. He was new to UC Davis in 1975 when he “proposed creating a nonprofit institute, associated with the university but with some autonomy, that would bring together genetics researchers and plant breeders,” wrote campus News and Media Relations Specialist Andy Fell in 2004. “He wanted to … (apply) the new DNA technology to generate new inventions and commercial products.”
Valentine was passionate about the impact such technology could have for farmers, processors and consumers, Dandekar said. “He understood the value of removing weeds.”
University rules limiting such ventures eventually changed, and despite a publicized controversy about potential conflicts of interest, Valentine teamed up with venture capitalist Norm Goldfarb to create Calgene. The company's scientists began working on genes for herbicide resistance, and their first product was the FLAVR SAVR tomato in 1994.
The venture succeeded. Between 1995 and 1997, the St. Louis-based Monsanto Corp. – maker of the glyphosate-containing herbicide Roundup – gradually purchased Calgene for a total of $320 million, according to published news reports.
Cross-disciplinary path set at Rockefeller Institute
As a young man, Valentine earned degrees in the fledgling field of microbiology from the University of Illinois in Urbana, leaving with a doctoral degree in 1962. His early work focused on nitrogen fixation, electron transport and how plants assimilate nitrogen. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Rockefeller Institute, in New York, in 1962, where he worked with people who had studied with, or who were themselves, some of the great pioneers in biology, genetics and physics of the early 20th century. He later attributed to that experience much of his cross-disciplinary thinking about the problems he would later try to solve in crop science.
Among the early awards he received were a postdoctoral fellowship, a senior postdoctoral fellowship and a career development award, all from the United States Public Health Service between 1962 and 1977. He held academic and research positions at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego in the departments of biochemistry and chemistry before joining UC Davis.
Valentine was unafraid of speaking out with new ideas, and as a result, often stirred controversy, Dandekar said. But that did not sway him from “pushing the boundaries of knowledge to develop innovative solutions to global challenges.”
He was a member of the American Society of Microbiology, the American Society of Biological Chemistry and the American Society of Plant Physiologists.
Fun, jovial and loved to fish
Valentine is remembered for his warm and open mentoring style, his lively storytelling and for being fun and jovial. He customarily brought new researchers home to share family time at his property next to the campus' teaching orchards, Dandekar said.
Outside academia, Valentine enjoyed boating and fishing at Lake Berryessa, in the waters off California's Golden Gate, and Alaska. He was fascinated with new technology in cars, boat engines, navigation systems and fish finders. He was an avid duck-hunter, and belonged to a club in north-central California. He loved gathering fruit and sharing it with friends and neighbors.
He is survived by Cindy Anders, his life partner of 30 years; former wife Annalisa Valentine; children Rebecca Valentine, Lori Valentine and David (Carla) Valentine; and grandchildren Sawyer Crandall, Isabella Valentine, Sienna Valentine and Stella Valentine; Anders' sons Ben (Shari) Anders, David (Julie) Anders and Elliot (Tessa) Anders, and grandchildren, Eva, Sarah, Eli, Jude and Elsa Anders; and his sisters, Barbara Hinton, Marilynn Scott and Paula Valentine.
A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, Sept. 30, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, 27074 Patwin Road, Davis. For details, please contact the church at (530) 753-2581; or David Valentine or Cindy Anders.
