- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
Joni Rippee, director of Statewide Programs and Research and Extension Center Operations, retired on July 1 from her 39-year career with UC ANR.
She joined UC ANR in 1985 at the UC Berkeley campus as a Secretary 2 in the Extension Forestry Office for UCCE Specialist Rick Standiford. “In those days, all CE Specialists were provided permanent funds for a 50% Secretary,” Rippee explained.
In 1989, she transitioned to a job in UC Berkeley's Department of Forestry and Range Management, doing accounting for the Extension Forestry program and UC ANR's newly created Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program. “I promised I would stay two years if they would teach me accounting and the rest is history!” Rippee said.
She worked at UC Berkeley for 20 years – moving up to become the management services officer for the Center for Forestry, working directly for the Associate Dean. The center managed the financial administration for the UC Berkeley forest properties, four ANR statewide programs and all Cooperative Extension forestry activities.
In 2005, Rippee was “borrowed” from the College of Natural Resources to centrally coordinate all ANR Statewide Programs, ANR Workgroup Funds and other programmatic activity under the Associate and Assistant Vice Presidents for Programs, while that manager was on a special assignment.
In 2007, she permanently joined UC ANR at UC Office of the President in Oakland and assumed responsibility for the ANR REC system accounting. When she became the director of Program Planning and Evaluation, she was co-located in Oakland and Davis and worked out of both ANR offices until 2020. When the Statewide Programs and REC Operations financial support unit was created, Rippee transitioned away from Program Planning and Evaluation to focus on financial support.
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
Harrigan began her UC career in 1999 providing administrative support for Academic Initiatives and later for the California Digital Library. In 2007, she joined UC ANR's Program Planning and Evaluation as an administrative assistant.
“I am grateful for Pat's contributions and long-standing commitment to our team,” said Katherine Webb-Martinez, director of Program Planning and Evaluation. “I also appreciate that she did not hesitate to help other UC ANR Oakland units meet their administrative needs, such as Resource Planning and Management, the Controller, and the Chief of Staff. In particular, she enjoyed supporting search committees during UC ANR's recent hiring blitz. She has been the friendly, helpful initial contact to many applicants and our new hires.”
Prior to joining UC, Harrigan provided administrative support for the U.S. Forest Service in Region 5 for 11 years.
She earned her master's degree in adult education at San Francisco State University.
In retirement, Harrigan plans to continue to engage with UC Master Gardeners and other UC ANR programs because she values the UC ANR community and remains interested in our programming and other efforts. She hopes to celebrate her retirement in the fall when she can visit with colleagues in person.
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
UC ANR's staff appreciation and recognition awards were presented to three teams and 22 individuals on June 20 during a statewide, online event hosted by Bethanie Brown, interim director of Human Resources.
A recording of the event is posted on YouTube at https://youtu.be/qClH71HzRtQ
Team awards
UC ANR Aggie Enterprise Team - Daena Duran Camacho, Maru Fernandez Terrasa, Raghuvir Goradia, Katherine Hanke, Janelle Hernandez, Lani Landayan, Scott Leaf, Xiaolian (Sherry) Li, Adolfo Limon, Han Pham, Kim Quach, Joni Rippee, Rosemary Renteria, Tracy Roman, Anne Marie Scott, Sonia Scott, Yuhang Shi, Sarah Shroyer, Kai Yu Sun, Connie Tadesse, Limin Tjandrajati, Alan Wong and Samantha (Dang) Wong. The team has made and continues to make significant contributions to the Aggie Enterprise project to improve ANR's business processes.
Sierra Foothill Team - Nikolai Schweitzer, Abraham Mendoza, Michael Williams and Scott Beasley. The team made significant contributions to blue oak regeneration and livestock water distribution projects at Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center.
Southwest Regional Food Business Center Team - Heather Nibblett, Heidi Von Geldern, Rachael Callahan and Fiona Ogunkoya. The Southwest Regional Food Business Center provides technical assistance for small and midsized producers to access new markets and access to federal, state and local resources. It focuses on underserved farmers, ranchers and food businesses in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. The team is building the center from the ground up with more than 40 partners.
Best of the Best award 
A new award was introduced this year: the Best of the Best award. Valerie Eviner, UC Davis professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, presented the award to John Bailey, Hopland Research and Extension Center director.
“John has played a dual role of being the director and superintendent at Hopland Research and Extension Center,” Eviner said.
In addition to keeping up with day-to-day tasks, Bailey has been a visionary leader in research and extension, she said.
After wildfire burned about two-thirds of Hopland REC above the main buildings in 2018, Bailey had to repair the center's infrastructure, but he also saw research opportunities.
“Days after the fire, he was already talking to researchers and recruiting diverse groups to understand the post-fire recovery as well as how grazing influences the impacts of wildfire,” Eviner said. “He initiated a 10-year prescribed burning plan while also introducing cattle grazing for the first time in HREC's almost 75-year history. The scale and replication of these grazing and fire treatments and the interactions across those is unique and invaluable and it's exactly what we need for wildland resource management under change in climate conditions.”
She added, “He has a gift for not only visioning the research and outreach most needed to address California's challenges but he's not at all afraid of the administrative hurdles to make these programs happen.”
Individual awards
Fiona Wei, Human Resources
Jaki Hsieh Wojan, Information Technology
Heather Nibblett, Statewide Programs & REC Operations
Princess Nola, UC Cooperative Extension San Bernardino County
Mike Hsu, Strategic Communications
Rachael Callahan, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program
Esmeralda Nunez, UCCE Riverside County
Lindsey Harwood, UCCE Central Sierra
Annalise Traub, UCCE Capitol Corridor
Grace Dean, UCCE Central Sierra
Sarah Shroyer, Statewide Programs & REC Operations
Janyne Little, UCCE Lassen County
Sridharshi (Sri) Hewawitharana, Nutrition Policy Institute
Sheron Violini, Government and Community Relations
Stacy Arhontes, UCCE Central Sierra
Kendra Rose, Contracts and Grants
Macey Crist, UCCE Capitol Corridor
Daniela Curiel, UCCE Santa Clara County
Marisela Ceron, UCCE San Mateo County
Zeva Cho, California Statewide 4-H
Robin Martin, UCCE Central Sierra
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
- Author: Rosalie Z. Fanshel
While tasting avocados and blackberries at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier, undergraduate students from historically Black colleges and universities got a taste of California agriculture. Participants in the HBCU-Berkeley Environmental Scholars for Change program took a field trip to the San Joaquin Valley on June 13–14. This is the second year that the program has visited the valley.
Six Spelman College and Tuskegee University students and five Berkeley graduate students, postdocs and research staff visited three locations: Scott Family Farms in Fresno, KARE and Allensworth State Historic Park/Allensworth Progressive Association.
Georgia-based Spelman students Sophia Davis, Jada Joshua, Zahriah Sellers and Eslen Trumble and Alabama-based Tuskegee students Emmanuel Fakunle and Evan Fewell are visiting California this summer to participate in the HBCU-Berkeley Environmental Scholars for Change Program.
“As a social science major, it was really fascinating to get a look at the research process of the people working in the applied natural sciences,” Davis said. “For example, I enjoyed learning about pests on farms, the different environmental challenges farmers deal with, and how people working within Cooperative Extension are devoting time to improve lives and labor of Central Valley farmers."
At Scott Family Farms, Will Scott, legendary elder farmer and president of the African American Farmers of California, taught the visitors how to stake tomato plants to support easy harvest.
“I really enjoyed my time at Kearney Ag Center and the experience of trying new fruits and learning about bug trapping and its importance to farmers,” said Sellers. “My experience there emphasized the importance of farmers' rights and their critical work reinforced the need to highlight and validate their efforts.”
At KARE, staff research associate Ryan Puckett led a tour of the facilities and introduced students to UC Cooperative Extension. Nathalie Baena-Bejarano and Reva Scheibner of the Houston Wilson Lab explained their research on tree nut pests, and had the students dissect navel orangeworm moths, or NOW.
“For our NOW dissections, we had the students looking for internal dye in the moths,” Scheibner said. “We rear some NOW on a red diet as a mark-recapture technique. So, we had the students dissect Moth A non-internal dyed and Moth B internally dyed and compare the two. The students were really into it and even asking for more moths to dissect and compare; it was very inspiring to see their excitement.”
UC Cooperative Extension specialist Mary Lu Arpaia described avocado breeding and sensory evaluation in Kearney's postharvest facility.
“It was inspiring to see so many scientists all working on agriculture, but doing unique and very interdisciplinary projects,” said Fakunle.
On the second day of the tour, the group visited Allensworth, a town founded by Black people in 1908. Allensworth was envisioned as the “Tuskegee of the West” to support Black agricultural and economic sovereignty. Members of the Allensworth Progressive Association introduced the town's long history of resilience in the face of ongoing racism by state policymakers and neighboring white farmers. The visitors toured the historic park and APA's demonstration regenerative agriculture community garden, and over lunch learned about the APA's many food, water and economic justice projects.
Rosalie Z. Fanshel and Benji Reade Malagueño, program staff and Ph.D. candidates in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley, hosted the tour. Kristin Dobbin, assistant professor of Cooperative Extension and close collaborator with the APA, joined the group for the second day.
Since 2021, the HBCU-Berkeley Environmental Scholars for Change Program has brought students together with UC Berkeley faculty and their lab members who do research in a wide range of intersecting environmental fields, such as agri-food systems, biodiversity, climate and water, all with a throughline of justice. Spelman and Tuskegee faculty work with applicants and the Berkeley program co-directors, ESPM associate professor Tim Bowles and Fanshel, to match student interests with faculty research projects at Berkeley.
Over the two-month program, visiting scholars conduct research in one or more of these areas with ESPM graduate students, postdocs and research staff. For students interested in pursuing graduate studies, it also introduces them to the UC Berkeley community.
In addition to the research experience, the program develops a community of belonging through mentorship activities that foster relationships with Black faculty, staff and graduate students at Berkeley and connects participants with vibrant Black environmental and cultural spaces in the Bay Area and beyond.
The scholars also partake in interdisciplinary environmental science skill-building and graduate school preparedness workshops, and field trips, such as the recent one to the Central Valley, to garner exposure to a range of postgraduate environmental science career tracks in academia and community organizations.
These are the 2024 projects:
- Davis is working on drinking water access and environmental justice with Dobbin
- Fakunle is working on animal behavior ecology and diversity with Damian Elias, ESPM professor
- Fewell is working on grassland soil ecology and climate change with Laureano Gherardi, ESPM assistant professor
- Joshua is working on environmental impacts of farm-to-school programs with Bowles
- Sellers is working on water access and climate change with Meg Mills-Novoa, assistant professor in ESPM and the Energy & Resources Group and director of the Climate Futures Lab
- Trumble is working on dryland forest co-stewardship and adaptive management with Miranda Redmond, ESPM assistant professor
The first three years of the program were funded by Berkeley Food Institute, UC Berkeley Office of Graduate Diversity and Spelman College, supplemented by the UC Berkeley Lewis & Kala Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fund (initiated by UC ANR's very own Vernard Lewis), the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, crowdfunding, individual faculty labs, the UC Berkeley BigC fund, and other small entities. Bowles and Fanshel recently received a $414,210 UC-HBCU Initiative grant to fund the next three years of the program.
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
Sokolow joined the UC Davis Department of Political Science as an assistant professor in 1965 after receiving his bachelor's degree in journalism and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois.
Sokolow served as a faculty member at UC Davis for 39 years, teaching, conducting research, and engaging in outreach work in the areas of American state and local government and politics until his retirement in 2004.
He specialized in the politics and governance of small communities. In the last dozen years of his UC Davis service, Sokolow focused on farmland protection policy in California's Central Valley and elsewhere, after transitioning to a UC Cooperative Extension specialist position in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.
He served as an associate editor for California Agriculture, UC ANR's peer-reviewed journal. He credited his training and experience in newspaper work, including as the editor-in-chief at the Daily Illini college newspaper in 1955-56, for the interviewing and writing skills he employed as a researcher.
On Facebook, a few of Sokolow's former colleagues expressed their condolences.
“Al brought an interesting social economic perspective to issues affecting rural California. He will be sorely missed,” wrote Dan Dooley, former UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources.
Cattle rancher Karen Sweet said she had benefited from Sokolow's work on conservation easements.
Claudia Bagley Reid, who worked in UC ANR government relations, wrote, “He was one of my favorite (and most informative) mentors when I worked at UC ANR.”
Janet Byron, former managing editor of California Agriculture, wrote, “He was a wonderful man and a great associate editor.”
Sokolow is survived by his wife of 68 years, Sandra; children Michael, David, Daniel (Lupita Ochoa) and Deborah (Scott Speh); grandchildren Irene Sokolow-Ochoa and Edward Sokolow-Ochoa; sister Shirley Segal; sister-in-law June Shifrin; and cousin Audrey Bashkin.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a charity of the donor's choice in memory of Alvin D. Sokolow.
Read more at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sacbee/name/alvin-sokolow-obituary?id=55254126.
