- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Winners of the 2020-21 ANR Staff Appreciation and Recognition (STAR) program were announced June 17.
The outstanding contributions of 18 individual UC ANR staff members and six teams were recognized and celebrated at an online town hall. The honored staff members will receive plaques and cash awards for their exceptional performance, creativity, organizational abilities, work success and teamwork.
The STAR winners are named below, followed by a quote from their nominator.
Valerie Borel, horticulture and Master Gardener Program coordinator, UC Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County
“With recommendations from the task force, Valerie significantly overhauled our process for selecting Master Gardeners. This included significantly updating the application and including a diverse committee of Master Gardeners in the review and selection process. This process, while time consuming for Valerie as our Master Gardener coordinator, led to recruitment and selection of Master Gardener trainees that are more diverse than in prior years.”
“She has shown exceptional creativity and success this year during the COVID-19 stay at home order. She was the first EFNEP educator across our two-county team to recruit and deliver a completely virtual nutrition class series. Guadalupe also identified needs in the community and creatively addressed them by making her own recipe and food safety videos. To make her online classes engaging, she has conducted live online cooking demonstrations and incorporated activities to include youth who are learning at home with their parents.”
Vanity Campbell, proposal development coordinator 
“Vanity developed an innovative two-day format for the 2020 Grant Essentials Summit that capitalized on academic engagement with state agencies to facilitate building relationships with programs while increasing grant- seeking capacity to identify and successfully apply for funding. In 2021, Vanity is expanding the program in collaboration with UC Merced to promote research and extension collaborations across the two institutions through presentation of agency grant programs and faculty research interests and needs.”
“Kim quickly established expectations and guidelines to transition staff for the remote work environment in order to successfully continue to process proposals, award and subawards without interruption of service and workflow.”
Katie Churchill, administrative officer and financial manager, UCCE Capitol Corridor
“Her work this year was transformative with guiding our office through challenging times and ensuring our programs were having high impact on making our communities great places to live and work.”
“Darrin successfully managed 30 demanding research projects. Under a normal year this a huge accomplishment, but Darrin was forced to find innovative ways of completing the fieldwork in a manner that fit COVID-19 safety guidelines and frequent staff absences due to family and childcare needs. Even more impressive was that IREC staff completed the projects under budget and on schedule… The 2020 growing season at IREC was particularly challenging due to a water shortage and wildfire smoke.”
Maru Fernandez, UCCE business partner team supervisor
“One year ago, the two Business Operation Center Locations were consolidated. Maru has been instrumental in building the team of 9 new members since last July, many of whom have never met each other. She has taken on additional responsibilities of the vacant Budget Analyst position, and has demonstrated a commitment above and beyond what would be expected of her as Supervisor of Business Partner Teams 1-4.”
“Without Laurie's diligence and support the move could have been disastrous! Laurie was a key point of contact over the course of three county directors with Madera County and she helped with design, layout and setup of the new office.”
Elaine Lander, urban & community IPM educator, Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program
“In the last year, she has continuously put effort into making ANR a more equitable and inclusive organization. She has served on the DEI advisory committee, is a founding member of the DEI council, contributed to the establishment of Employee Resource Groups, and served on the Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month planning committee. She has participated in multiple trainings through ANR and is now pursuing training on the Intercultural Development Inventory to build intercultural competence within her IPM program and our larger organization.”
“Julie not only rapidly transitioned to providing nutrition education online, she also found ways to move our policy systems and environmental change work forward, despite the fact that many of our settings effectively did not exist during the pandemic. Her cafeĢ promo videos, which encourage children to try new fruits and vegetables, have been recognized statewide.”
Brian Oatman, Risk & Safety Services director 
“Throughout his career with ANR this candidate has sought to find creative solutions for complex problems… Early in the pandemic when cleaning and disinfecting supplies were low, he worked with his staff to sort out what material county offices needed. He acquired these materials from a variety of sources and shipped them directly to county offices, so staff had cleaning supplies in a time when they were not available locally.”
Carmela Padilla
“She immediately recognized the need to support staff capacity to facilitate virtual education, and she has provided training on dozens of topics and new tools. Carmela also led the development of educational videos by the whole team, including an entire nutrition curriculum. She developed a YouTube channel that now hosts over 50 educational videos, which have been viewed more than 1,250 times in all. Carmela was involved in determining the content, reviewing, and sharing each of these videos, although they also represent the collective efforts of the entire talented team”.
Rita Palmer, community education supervisor 2, CalFresh Healthy Living, UC, UCCE Butte County
“Rita's proactive approach to continue programming as stay at home orders were issued resulted in new program partnerships, the hosting of a large virtual Student Agricultural Field Day event and CFHL, UC staff with new communication skillsets and abilities to engage others in their work. The day after stay-at-home orders were issued, Rita was delivering a Zoom presentation to food service staff in one of the largest school districts in the Butte Cluster region.”
“We have nominated Stephanie for a STAR award because of her work during the past year to bring diversity, equity, and inclusion to the forefront within UC IPM and ANR on top of her current role and duties. In ANR, she has been the voice for people who felt their voices weren't being heard. For UC IPM, Stephanie is instrumental in operationalizing our diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives, and getting us closer to achieving our overall goal to be an equitable organization.”
Jodi Rosenbaum, ER business consultant
“Jodi is the primary person to receive reports when an employee is diagnosed with or exposed to COVID-19. Jodi's work to track cases, employee leave, and return to work has been outstanding and is vital to keeping ANR operational. Jodi developed new processes to receive private medical information, store it securely, and track employee status. This often requires urgent response at all hours and on off days.”
“Vince is being recognized for his leadership and contributions that underpinned the formation of the Bay Area Rancher Cooperative, known as BAR-C. He has been the primary coordinator and facilitator, resourceful in recruiting allies and partners like the California Center for Cooperative Development and Conservation Works, and organized the business plan development, including a confidential peer review process.”
Ricardo Vela, News & Outreach in Spanish (NOS) manager
“During the pandemic, he conceived of and spearheaded three events for ANR employees that had never been done before. Ricardo and his NOS team put together a series of well-attended educational online events for Hispanic Heritage Month September-October. Ricardo produced a video of ANR colleagues and 4-H members sharing how they were affected by COVID-19. On Cesar Chavez's birthday, Ricardo hosted a webinar about the life of the civil rights icon.”
“Early into the shutdown, Nancy brought forth various opportunities and ideas to expand our program reach by leveraging relationships so that we could continue to serve our community… Additionally, Nancy volunteered to participate in state-level workgroups. She chaired one of the workgroups and made valuable suggestions on the equity and access challenges faced by the population we serve.”
COVID-19 Hands-on Operational Support Team: David Alamillo, Barbara Bellieu, Alan Chavez, Tammie Erhard, Melissa Figueroa, Veronica Geiger, David Hatter, Brian Oatman, Bart Sapeta, Kathryn Stein, Ron Walker, Rhett Woerly and Michael Zwahlen
When most UC ANR employees transitioned to working remotely, the COVID-19 Hands-on Operational Support Team ensured that employees had necessary equipment and that ANR business operations continued to function.
Alameda/Contra Costa Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program Team: Nelly Camacho, Jennifer Ferreira, Eli Figueroa, Santo Lopez, Carla Moore, Jesus Osoria, Molica Sim and Leah Sourbeer
“Despite the challenges imposed by the pandemic, they collectively exhibited resilience, creativity, teamwork, and exceptional performance to execute the mission of EFNEP through virtual programming.”
Financial System Implementation at UCOP: Connie Tadesse and Jin Yu
“This past year, UCOP partnered with UCSD and UCM to undertake a major high risk business systems implementation replacing their legacy business systems and infrastructure with Oracle Cloud Financials. UCOP and the two campuses were the first, systemwide, at UC to take on something this broad in scope and magnitude for a business system transformation. Working with the Huron consultants, and the UCOP project team, their efforts ensured that UC ANR requirements were met.”
CalNat CES Team: Sarah Angulo, Eliot Freutel and Brook Gamble
“The California Naturalist Program's three Community Education Specialists not only adjusted to the changing conditions, but made structural changes to the program that actually put it in a stronger position moving forward. Specifically, they made investments in online delivery, shared the best practices throughout our diverse network, diversified our delivery model to include direct delivery, and remained focused on maintaining a strong service orientation and building community among our clientele.”
UC West Side REC Team: Merf Solorio and Mark Strole
“We acknowledge the exceptional service, teamwork, and creativity of Rafael “Merf” Solorio, Superintendent, and Mark Strole, Chief Mechanic, of the ANR's West Side Research and Extension Center. Time and time again, they both go well beyond the routine demands and expectations of their respective job classifications in ways that are uncommon and greatly appreciated by all who work at the West Side. On behalf of the many ANR researchers who work at the West Side REC, register our sincere thanks to both Merf and Mark for their forward vision, skills, and attention to detail in getting things done in support of our efforts.”
Office of Contracts and Grants Team: Kim Lamar, Vanity Campbell, Andrea Davis, Heidi von Geldern, Kendra Rose and Suzanne Burton.
“This team processed a record-breaking FY2020 award total of over $46 million, an increase of almost $11 million, or 30% from the prior year. This was possible because this team is a solid and cohesive group of extremely remarkable research administration professionals.”
- Author: Liana Wolfe
After serving Californians for over 22 years as a UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for Riverside County, Chutima Ganthavorn retired July 1. Ganthavorn credits her success in improving nutrition education to community partnerships, funding and leadership support.
Ganthavorn earned her bachelor's degree in food and nutrition at UC Berkeley. After taking on a work-study opportunity at Cal, Ganthavorn was inspired to pursue food and nutrition further, which later led her to earn a Ph.D. in food science from Washington State University.
When Ganthavorn joined UC ANR as the nutrition, family and consumer sciences Advisor for Riverside County in 1999, one of the first major responsibilities she was given was to build successful programs for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program, now known as CalFresh Healthy Living, UC. This proved to be quite a challenge since there were no program supervisors and limited statewide office support at the time.
“It was a job that involved having a passion for helping others, especially low-resource families that were in need of better health,” said Ganthavorn.
Early on in her career, Ganthavorn worked with Southeast Asian farmers, grandparents raising grandchildren, and Latino youth from migrant families. During her time at UC ANR, Ganthavorn has collaborated with many ANR staff and academics as well as community partners, all in an effort to help build healthy families and communities.
“Ganthavorn is a selfless, thought-provoking partner on projects,” said Michele Nicole Tabor, program representative III for CalFresh Healthy Living, UC in the statewide office at UC Davis. “She has been a pivotal figure in developing strong relationships with people throughout the communities she has served such as members of the Torres Martinez Tribal community. Her amazing work ethic and calm spirit are inspiring. Her absolute dedication to positive community health outcomes in the Riverside and San Bernardino communities has made a difference in people's lives.”
Later in her career, Ganthavorn also became involved in nutrition projects serving Native American and African American communities. In 2006, Ganthavorn partnered with UC Master Gardeners, a partnership that deepened over the years and subsequently led to community garden and school garden development and garden-based nutrition education.
By 2015, her responsibilities expanded to include overseeing EFNEP in San Bernardino County. As a result of efforts with Ganthavorn and EFNEP educators to create a healthier environment for students and parents, Juanita Blakely Jones Elementary School in San Bernardino received an award from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Healthy School Program in 2018.
“A common thread I found in all my interactions over the years is that there are plenty of dedicated and passionate people, ANR staff and academics as well as community partners, wanting to build healthy families and communities,” said Ganthavorn. “The keys to success are partnership, funding and leadership support. It has been a joy working with everyone I have encountered and a memorable journey for me.”
“Her quiet, unassuming character over time moves mountains and builds deep trust in all who have the honor to know and work with her. She will be missed immensely!” Tabor said.
During her retirement, Ganthavorn, who UC ANR has granted prestigious emeritus status, plans on spending more time with her family, sleeping in, exercising, reading more, and hopes to travel soon.
- Author: Jim Downing
Senior artist Will Suckow retired from the UC ANR Publishing group on June 30, 2021, after 20 years of UC service. He leaves a legacy of innovation, beautiful design and high standards of quality and efficiency.
Suckow began his UC career in 1993 with UC Davis Extension, doing design and layout work for course catalogs and marketing materials. Over his five years on the job, he shifted the operation from mechanical to electronic prepress — the first of several transformative initiatives he led during his career.
Moving to UC ANR in 1998, Suckow was recruited by photographer Jack Kelly Clark to help modernize key elements of the UC ANR Publications production process. He and Clark implemented new electronic color-correction techniques, working with print vendors to enable UC ANR Publications to produce books and cardsets that reproduced photos of insects and plant diseases more accurately and at lower cost.
Suckow left to do freelance design work from 2004 to 2010, continuing to do contract projects for UC ANR as well as the UC Davis Mondavi Center.
In 2010, Suckow returned to UC ANR as the art director for California Agriculture journal. His responsibilities grew to include UC ANR books and online publications, as well as recharge design work. Among many accomplishments in the past 11 years, he has led the development of the journal's award-winning new design, the integration of UC ANR's publications into the scholarly citation universe, and the development of processes for converting our print and PDF publications to web and mobile-friendly formats.
Suckow brought a smile to work nearly every day and consistently reported being driven by a love of doing design work and solving problems for UC ANR personnel and our clientele. He leaves the Publishing group with many efficient and astonishingly well-documented technical processes, for which his colleagues are very grateful.
In retirement, Suckow is looking forward to travel, gardening and hiking, and pursuing his own design and artistic projects.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Jeannette Warnert retired July 1 after serving 31 years as a communications specialist for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The editor of Western Farm Press, Tim Hearden, expressed his appreciation for Warnert's media relations expertise, writing, “We'll miss Jeannette's work and the help she's provided over the years.”
Communications methods have rapidly evolved over the past three decades. To ANR's benefit, Warnert has been an enthusiastic early adopter, figuring out how to use new media to deliver ANR news.
“When I started with UC ANR, there was no internet and no email,” Warnert said. “We photocopied news releases and mailed them to media, who transcribed them if they wanted to use the material. Film was dropped off at a lab, which provided us a proof sheet from which we could select black-and-white prints to mail to the media. Our jobs evolved rapidly and we had to continually update our skills as new technologies were introduced over the years.”
Along the way, she tutored her colleagues to use the World Wide Web and social media to disseminate information.
“I'm continually impressed by Jeannette's work ethic, can-do attitude, the quality of her writing, and her willingness to take on new projects,” said Linda Forbes, Strategic Communications director. “She is incredibly organized, always reliable, has great ideas and she's passionate about ANR's mission and people.”
Before joining UC ANR, Warnert worked as a reporter at a small daily newspaper in Los Angeles, in a hospital public relations department and in public relations for Toyota Motor Sales. After marrying and moving to Fresno, she worked briefly for the Fresno Fair and Radio Bilingue, then accepted the UC ANR public information representative job in 1990.
“I've enjoyed the opportunity to learn about agricultural science and work with so many intelligent and dedicated academics and staff,” Warnert said. “Knowing about the work of UC ANR makes me hopeful about the future, even as we face so many threats like drought, wildfire, climate change, invasive pests, etc. I especially enjoyed covering conservation agriculture for more than 20 years with stories about the potential for no-till and cover crops to improve soil health, sequester carbon, reduce dust emissions and use less water while maintaining farms' economic viability.”
Jeff Mitchell, UC Cooperative Extension conservation agriculture specialist based at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, described her as a “wonderful encourager and lifelong very good friend.”
“I consider Jeannette Warnert one of the exceptionally valuable workgroup colleagues that we could have ever had,” Mitchell said. “She was ever-ready in the trenches during our early formative days with superbly crafted communications, clear advice and guidance on outreach issues, and just an all-around level-headed colleague. She contributed so much to all that we have done over the years.”
Warnert, whose parents immigrated from The Netherlands, is fluent in conversational Spanish and often collaborated with the News and Information Outreach in Spanish team.
“Jeannette is one of a kind and will be truly missed,” said NOS' Lisa Rawleigh. “She has been a very helpful coworker with such a cheerful attitude and professionalism. She has done so much for us at NOS. I especially will cherish the meetings in Riverside when we were trying to get our webpage started and our conversations in Spanish talking about our kids and family vacations.”
In retirement, Warnert plans to spend more time with family – including her baby granddaughter and 90-year-old mother. “I hope to volunteer with the California Naturalist program and plan to apply to be a UC Master Gardener volunteer in Fresno County when the next class opens,” she said. “I'm also looking forward to more traveling, hiking, gardening, knitting, sewing and cooking.”
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Tim Wallace, UC Cooperative Extension specialist emeritus, passed away May 14, 2021, at home in Berkeley. He was 92.
Wallace was raised in Winnetka, Ill., and graduated with honors with a bachelor's degree in economics at Harvard University, master's degree at Oregon State University and Ph.D. at Purdue University. He joined UC Berkeley in 1963 and served as a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in agricultural and resource economics, retiring in 1996.
His research focused on public policy, including economic consequences to an area due to changes in natural resource use or as a result of policy changes. He also evaluated irrigation water alternatives with particular attention paid to water quality consequences, international trade implications and regional development.
His distinguished career included logging and ranching in southern Oregon, two years as California Director of Food and Agriculture, and service as Chief Economist for Agriculture on the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
“A gracious and thoughtful man, he loved the outdoors, sailing and canoeing, especially in the Pacific Northwest,” Brian Wright, UC Berkeley professor in agricultural & resource economics and policy and director of the Giannini Foundation, wrote in an email.
Wallace is survived by his wife of 43 years Marye Jayne, daughter Barbara, son Peter, granddaughter Lucia, grandson Kai, great granddaughter Elena, and sister Connie Caldwell.
Read more at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/luther-wallace-obituary?pid=198821394.
