- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
What else deserves kudos? Share your good news by emailing to contentpipeline@ucanr.edu.
Webb-Martinez honored for evaluation
Katherine Webb-Martinez, director of Program Planning and Evaluation, received an award on Oct. 13 from the Extension Education Evaluation Topical Interest Group at the American Evaluation Association's conference held in Indianapolis.
The Mary Nell Greenwood Extension Evaluation award was given to Webb-Martinez in recognition of her administrative leadership toward outstanding organizational, policy and resource contributions to extension evaluation.
The following are excerpts from letters supporting her award nomination:
“Today, ANR is a national leader in outcomes assessment and reporting. The single person most responsible for the dramatic turnaround is Katherine. When others despaired of finding solutions, she dug into the problem and slowly began to change the organization's culture, practices, and capacity.”
“For extension professionals such as myself who aren't classically trained in extension program evaluation, her efforts in building the evaluation capacity of UC ANR academics and program staff have helped us tell our stories and successfully meet the merit and promotion criteria.”
“You often hear about Extension being the best kept secret. At UC ANR, Katherine's leadership has helped change this narrative both at the state and local county level.”
“Her work in evaluation, reporting and program planning is highly sought after by Extension directors in other Western Region states. Her work in leading a team to produce high-quality public- and stakeholder-facing reports of UCCE's successes demonstrates far more than the ability to gather and synthesize information.”
Bullard, Vales, Miner win 4-H awards
UC ANR 4-H's Vera M. Bullard, Brenda Vales and Gemma Miner received awards at the National Association of Extension 4-H Youth Development Professionals annual conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Oct. 12.
Bullard, regional 4-H program coordinator for the Central Sierra, was presented the National Distinguished Service Award for California. The award recognizes the achievements of members who have served more than seven years in Extension 4-H Youth Development programs. She is passionate about civic engagement, public speaking, inclusion, accessibility and volunteer development. She currently chairs the Statewide Public Speaking and Communications Advisory Committee and serves on the Civic Engagement Advisory Committee.
“She's an amazing staff member, very dedicated to the 4-H program,” said Sue Mosbacher, UC Master Food Preserver Program coordinator. “In addition to her role in 4-H, Vera is also a Master Food Preserver volunteer and coordinates the online basics classes for the Amador/Calaveras program.”
Brenda Vales, 4-H community education specialist for Contra Costa County, received the Achievement in Service Award, which recognizes the achievements of members who have served between three and seven years. Vales has supported the local and statewide 4-H program for six years, specializing in finance, record keeping and presentations. She uses her experience to foster life skills in 4-H youth.
Gemma Miner, 4-H academic coordinator for volunteer engagement, was part of a Western Region team that received both a state and national award in the Excellence in Peer Professional Development Specialty Award Division.
Each year, the California 4-H Association selects members to receive awards at the national conference hosted by the National Association of Extension 4-H Youth Development Professionals.
Zhuang named one of Fruit + Vegetable's 40 Under 40
The Fruit + Vegetable 40 Under 40 Awards honor 40 outstanding individuals making their marks in the industry. George Zhuang, UC Cooperative Extension viticulture farm advisor in Fresno County has been selected for the class of 2023. Fruit Growers News and Vegetable Growers News annually choose 40 individuals working in the fruit and vegetable industry who they deem to be the next generation of leaders.
Zhuang started working as a UCCE viticulture farm advisor for Fresno County in January 2015. As a viticulture advisor, he conducts applied research on rootstock selection, vineyard water management, mechanization and disease management, as well as updates growers on university research results and current vineyard management issues. He holds a master's degree in horticulture science from Michigan State University and a bachelor s degree in viticulture and enology from China Agricultural University.
See the other 39 people chosen at https://fruitgrowersnews.com/40under40/?oly_enc_id=.
TIME lists Luna UCR avocado among top 'groundbreaking' inventions
Luna UCR avocado is one of TIME's "200 'groundbreaking' inventions. The list, which debuted this year, includes inventions that “are changing how we live, work, play and think about what's possible,” TIME wrote.
The variety is the result of a University of California avocado tree breeding program that started at UCLA just over 80 years ago, was transferred to UCR in the 1950s, and continues today. The patent will credit as inventors Mary Lu Arpaia, a UC Cooperative Extension horticulturist based at UC Riverside, and her colleague Eric Focht, a UCR staff research associate in the Botany and Plant Sciences Department in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. Other credited co-inventors are former UCR scientists Gray Martin, the late David Stottlemyer, and the late B.O. “Bob” Bergh, according to a story by UCR's David Danelski.
Read more about Luna UCR avocado's development at New avocado proves tasty, safer to harvest at UC ANR Research and Extension Centers.
Brinkley wins California American Planning Association Award of Excellence
Catherine Brinkley, UC Davis professor and Center for Regional Change director, and her team received the California American Planning Association award for academic excellence for Plansearch.caes.ucdavis.edu: A Search Engine for California's General Plans.
Want to know what the 482 cities and 58 counties in California are planning to build? Check out the award-winning search engine to find general plans for California cities and counties.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Dear Colleagues,
Please join me in welcoming our new Strategic Communications Director to ANR. Mike Janes comes to us from the Sandia National Laboratory in Livermore where he has been the Communications and Media Relations Officer for over ten years. His extensive experience with communicating science to a wider audience is a skill that will greatly benefit ANR.
As you all know, we are heavily involved with many of the President's Initiatives – Food, Carbon Neutrality and Mexico. In support of these initiatives, we have an opportunity to share the research and program delivery stories from our academics all over the state of California. Mr. Janes is arriving at a critical time to help us leverage these opportunities, and showcase the exceptional work of ANR.
Mr. Janes also led the lab's Diversity and Inclusion Action Planning Team, and we look forward to having him engage with our own efforts to ensure that ANR has a welcoming and inclusive work environment. Earlier in his career, Mr. Janes worked as the Media Relations Director for the American Institute of Architects, and as the Senior Media Relations Manager for Special Olympics International.
Mr. Janes is an Air Force veteran and has an M.A in strategic communication and leadership and a B.A. in broadcast communications. He will be based in Davis and starts on February 2, 2015.
Sincerely,
Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President
Shijian (George) Zhuang joined UCCE on Jan. 2 as a viticulture advisor in Fresno County. His background is in Viticulture and Enology, Food Science and Horticultural Science. Zhuang's research focuses on wine, raisin and table grapes.
Prior to joining UCCE, Zhuang was a viticulture intern at E & J Gallo Winery where he worked on several research projects that included precision viticulture and differential irrigation. This experience provided him a greater understanding about viticulture and vineyard management in the Central Valley and the needs and future challenges of the grape industry, such as limited water availability, labor shortage and invasive pest species. From 2009 to 2012, Zhuang was a master graduate research assistant at Michigan State University where he participated in research projects such as experimental trials of new varieties (NE 10-20), early leaf removal on pinot noir, foliar nitrogen application on chardonnay and crop and canopy management on concord grapes. Zhuang also worked on canopy microclimate management and crop load manipulation in order to improve fruit quality. During his research study, Zhuang gained skills in the analysis of different chemical components, such as anthocyanins and phenolics, in grapes and wines as well as grape flavor chemistry components such as methoxypyrazines.
Zhuang earned a B.S. in viticulture and enology from China Agricultural University, Beijing, China, and a M.S. in horticulture from Michigan State University. His master's thesis focused on the impact of viticultural practices (crop load and canopy management) on fruit quality of cabernet franc grapevines grown under cool climate conditions.
Zhuang can be reached at (559) 241-7506 and gzhuang@ucdavis.edu.
Jim Downing is California Agriculture journal's new executive editor. Downing, who joined UC on Jan. 12, is familiar with UC Cooperative Extension from his years covering agriculture, energy and climate policy for the Sacramento Bee. He even read California Agriculture as an undergrad at Cornell University.
Until joining UC ANR, he was principal in Jim Downing Consulting, where he wrote and produced publications on science, natural resources, policy and management for clients such as the Nature Conservancy, the Water Education Foundation and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Besides his Bee reporting, Downing has professional experience in agriculture, with international fellowships in water reuse and reclamation and in rural and urban water quality. He has two master's degrees from UC Berkeley, one in civil and environmental engineering and the other in energy and resources.
In his new position, Downing will oversee California Agriculture's content, quality, accuracy and strategic direction, planning and producing issues that speak to the journal's educated and cross-disciplinary readers.
Downing can be reached at jdowning@ucanr.edu and (530) 750-1352.
UCCE nutrition honored in Kings County
The UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Program in Kings County was honored as the Most Outstanding Support Agency at the 2014 Kings Prevention Awards. UC CalFresh community educator Sue Lafferty and UC CalFresh program representative Denise Cuendett accepted the award at a breakfast program on Dec. 4 in Hanford. The Kings Prevention Awards were presented by a local coalition called the Kings Partnership for Prevention.