- Author: Jodi Azulai
ANR Learning & Development
Find webinar announcements and recordings here.
UC People Management Training for all ANR Employees
You don't need to be a people manager to complete the UC People Management Certificate Series. In fact, it's for anyone who aspires to lead and manage people – or for anyone who wants to enhance their people and collaboration skills.
Topics include: Performance Management, Administration & Operations, Change Management Communications, Managing Implicit Bias
This training is for you if you seek a greater appreciation for any of the following:
Setting & communicating clear expectations
Being respectful and considerate of everyone
Team building
Employee engagement
Time and priority management
By deepening these skills, you can become a better team member, and you can prepare yourself for leadership opportunities. Find all the courses here. Once you complete the series, contact jlazulai@ucanr.edu to receive your certificate of completion!
Video Ventures - Let's Talk Lighting - Indoors and Outside (eXtension)
Wednesday June 3, 2020
8 a.m.-9 a.m.
Let's talk about lighting for those of us who are using the tools we have at home to make videos. Learn about different ways to improvise by creating your own light or finding it when your outside. This will focus on those who need advice getting started in the area of making videos and do not have fancy equipment. Register here. Questions contact Amy Rhodes at arhodes1@umd.edu.
Social Media Learning Circle w/Rose Hayden-Smith (eXtension)
June 9, June 23, July 7, July 21
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Register here.
In this Learning Circle experience - convened via weekly interactive Zoom meetings - participants will learn about a range of social media platforms that have the potential to advance their work.
How Organizations Can Support Parents Working at Home Alongside Children (Gartner – register with your ANR email address for your free account here)
Demonstrate empathy, establish a sense of community, enable flexibility, share the virtual hub tips for working parents. Link to article.
From "Me" to "We" Discussion on Values, Trust & Teamwork (eXtension)
June 11, 18 and 25
11 a.m.-Noon
Register Here
We are professionals at what we do, amateurs at who we want to become.” – Marshall Goldsmith. Join Karl Bradley, eXtension Foundation Leadership Development Fellow, as we discuss leaning into the best version of yourself, how we build trust & the effects they have on a team! This three-part series will be offered in 1-hour sessions in consecutive weeks beginning on June 11.
Research Compliance
Wednesday June 24, 2020
9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
Research compliance can be complicated, but it is important for researchers to understand the regulations that govern their work. Kathy Nolan and BrianOatman will provide an overview of conflict of interests, environmental health & safety, human subjects and animal subjects requirements and procedures.
Zoom access: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/751701428?pwd=Q1ZrbUtoQVJwMXJVRkQydUlwNytJQT09 +1 669 900 6833 |Webinar ID: 751 701 428 | Password: 4Learning
June 18, 2020
Noon-12:30 p.m.
Join Greg Ira and Sarah Angulo to learn about how they use citizen science to strengthen the California Naturalist Program.
Zoom access: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/751701428?pwd=Q1ZrbUtoQVJwMXJVRkQydUlwNytJQT09 +1 669 900 6833 |Webinar ID: 751 701 428 | Password: 4Learning
Setting up surveys through Qualtrics
2 Part Series –
11 a.m., Wednesday, June 10
11 a.m., Wednesday, June 24
Join Roshan Kumar Nayak, who will offer learning opportunities on how to use Qualtrics to create surveys for data collection. Participants will learn key features associated with the online survey platform. The first webinar of this series will provide information on how to build surveys. The second webinar will focus on survey distribution, tracking, analysis of responses, and generation of reports.
Zoom access: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/751701428?pwd=Q1ZrbUtoQVJwMXJVRkQydUlwNytJQT09 +1 669 900 6833 |Webinar ID: 751 701 428 | Password: 4Learning
Getting Results from Formal Feedback (Gartner) Free to anyone with an ANR email address. Register here
June 23, 2020
10 a.m.-11 a.m.
Last year, 100% of participating managers said they planned on taking action based on what they learned in this workshop. Join us to learn how to drive the performance you need from your team!
This workshop helps managers:
- Clearly explain performance expectations
- Create effective development plans
- Deliver effective performance feedback
Key exercises include:
- Focusing performance conversations on the future
- Developing an individual development plan
- Providing an effective formal review
Thursday, July 9, 2020
10 a.m.-12 noon
(Register for workshop here; Register for Earth Engine account here)
This workshop will introduce participants to Earth Engine, a cloud/browser-based platform that enables large analyses in very little time. It's most relevant for people who are interested in using satellite and aerial imagery to study large areas, long time periods, or both. Earth Engine is home to hundreds of public remote sensing/geospatial datasets totaling more than 30 petabytes and growing by thousands of images daily (it is continuously updated as images are captured).
Using a case study of drought mortality in an island forest, we will explore a new tool for time series analysis in Earth Engine: LandTrendr. Using this algorithm, we will track the heartbeat of a forest over many years. This workshop is intended for two broad groups – people with some initial geospatial or GIS knowledge who are interested in learning to use Earth Engine, and people with some Earth Engine experience who are interested in applying LandTrendr to time series analyses. This workshop will hopefully serve both groups by empowering those in the more experienced group to jump ahead within the detailed workshop handout and in the Earth Engine repository as they see fit.
You must preregister for an Earth Engine account here with a Gmail account. Allow about one week for account approval. Register for the workshop here.
Image credits to icons8
Everyone can learn something new.
ANR Learning & Development
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Some county health authorities have begun to modify local shelter-at-home orders for COVID-19 and relax restrictions on low-risk activities. To ensure that we continue to protect the health and safety of our people and our communities, UC ANR has developed UC ANR Safety Standards for Resuming In-Person Activity, Stage 2 to outline protocols for our programs and work locations.
The safety standards are informed by state, county and UC best practices, and are intended to help UC Cooperative Extension directors, Research and Extension Center directors and statewide program leaders plan for the eventual resumption of some in-person activities.
For those counties that have authorized return to in-person activity under Stage 2, UC ANR directors are now required to document their plans for in-person work activity with the ANR Emergency Response team based on the safety standards. Local plans may vary from county to county, and may change over time to be more or less restrictive as the impact of reopening unfolds.
It is important to remember that the state is allowing for the resumption of limited onsite operations. UC ANR employees and volunteers who can still work or engage remotely should continue to do so until Governor Newsom completely lifts California's stay-at-home order and UC ANR advises it is appropriate to return to in-person operations.
ANR directors contributed to the development of ANR's safety standards, and we've asked them to help address questions and concerns and to reinforce the steps being taken to provide a safe working environment.
“Throughout this process, the safety and health of ANR's employees, volunteers and clientele are the top priority as we resume in-person activities,” said Brian Oatman, director of Risk & Safety Services.
In general, ANR will be taking a slow and deliberate approach to expanding in-person activities, and most of us will continue to work remotely for the immediate future.
Several questions about resuming in-person activities were answered during the ANR town hall meeting on May 28. A recording of that town hall will be posted at https://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/All_Hands.
FAQs have been developed to address questions asked during the May 28 Town Hall meeting concerning safety measures related to COVID-19, budgetary impacts and more. Please visit http://ucanr.edu/sites/safety/files/327731.pdf to read the questions and answers.
For resources related to COVID-19, visit https://ucanr.edu/covid19.
- Author: Mark Bell
Unify-Communicate-Advocate
May Spotlight Webinar
For the May Spotlight webinar, hosted by Jim Farrar of EIPD, Karey Windbiel-Rojas shared ideas on how we can all help protect our rivers and waterways through more careful management of urban pest management. The Spotlight videos offer short, sharp overviews of impact stories from across the state. Watch her presentation at Educating urban audiences to protect water quality (video).
Growing reach and impact by enhancing our virtual skills
Driven (in part) by the COVID-19 need, the SIs continue to support the building of our organization's skills to deliver virtually through both "how-to" videos and engaging webinars.
The interest in both topics was high as demonstrated by over 150 people participating in each of the series!
Owning YouTube
The four-part video webinar series clearly laid out the task that lies ahead. please visit the UC ANR Learning & Development video skills website to find materials that can help you advance your skills.
Special thanks to David Lewis, David Lile, Linda Forbes, Petr Kosina, Dustin Blakey and Jolynn Miller for all their effort and support.
Webinar tips to better engage your audience.
This four-part series presented a series of tips and techniques to better use technology (e.g., Zoom) and to better design and run your actual webinars and online training.
Check the UC ANR Learning & Development site for the webinar tips checklist or to find more about developing your webinar skills.
Many thanks to Liliana Vega, Russell Hill, Jodi Azulai and the folds from eXtension for supporting this series
Let us know what skills or tips you found useful and what more you'd like to learn.
For more on the SIs and their activities, contact
Jim Farrar: Pests EIPD
David Lile: Natural Ecosystems SNE
David Lewis: Water
Deanne Meyer: Food Systems SFS
Lynn Schmitt McQuitty: Families and Communities HFC
Mark Bell: Vice Provost SIs & SWPs
- Author: David Ritz
The University Of California's goal to make “UC the healthiest place to work, learn and live” acknowledges that in order to fundamentally change our health environment, campus communities must invest in a host of small changes that add up to meaningful shifts, thus producing a lasting culture of health.
UC ANR is now part of the Healthy Campus Network and is actively promoting activities and resources like meditation, stress reduction and physical activity. As part of the Healthy Campus Network, UC ANR will also start to participate in systemwide initiatives like the Diabetes Prevention Program and Healthy Vending Policy.
Mental hygiene, as a component of wellness, is not a new concept; it dates back to 1908. The World Health Organization formally defined mental health and mental hygiene in 1950. However, the ways in which employers and individuals foster wellness have changed. In the past, an employee may have taken a day off for a stomachache or headache, while not really feeling confident they could reveal the need for time off for wellness.
As the concept of wellness becomes more prevalent, new ways of incorporating wellness activities into our daily activities are emerging. UC ANR is committed to wellness beyond just the workplace. When working from home, there can be additional challenges to maintaining a healthy work environment.
Take a moment to make some small changes that add up to meaningful shifts toward your wellness: garden, meditate, walk, paint, practice your instrument and pet the furry kids.
Wellness resources are available to UC ANR employees at https://hr.ucdavis.edu/departments/asap/services.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
These are the types of UC ANR outcomes summarized in the recently completed, 16-page 2019 Annual Report, Working for the Benefit of All Californians, produced by UC ANR's office of Program Planning and Evaluation.
“As we pulled this together, we realized that UC ANR research and extension branch out widely, reaching much further than is obvious on the surface,” said PPE director Katherine Webb-Martinez. “If you eat food grown in California, enjoy the outdoors, care about the state's less fortunate residents and find hope in the future of our state under the leadership of today's youth, UC ANR enhances your life.”
The new publication provides 60 examples of the hundreds of research and extension projects conducted in 2019 by UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists, and researchers who are part of the campus-based Agricultural Experiment Station.
Among the stories in the annual report is the work of UCCE nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor Mary Blackburn to teach Alameda County senior citizens how to make simple, healthy meals on a budget. Her classes resulted in 92% improvement in understanding food advertisements.
In Santa Clara County, UCCE 4-H advisor Fe Moncloa provided training for teenaged teachers and afterschool staff in delivering computer science programs to young children. All of the 52 teens reported increased teaching confidence and most of the 35 staff members increased their understanding of the material.
UCCE specialist Dan Putnam and UC Agricultural Experiment Station researcher Charles Brummer at UC Davis tested alfalfa and forage grasses from around the world to select species and varieties farmers can use now and in the future, when climate change will likely require them to produce crops under warmer, drier conditions.
With only 75 native giant sequoia groves still gracing the Sierra Nevada, UCCE specialist Rob York developed a management plan to protect a grove owned by the Save the Redwoods League from high-severity fire in the future.
While there are many additional research and extension achievements recounted in the annual report, the work is not done.
“Despite such success stories, problems remain and the issues grow more complicated,” said UC ANR vice president Glenda Humiston. “The future will hold situations we have never seen before.”
PPE invites UC ANR staff and academics to share the PDF version of the annual report widely to clientele, contacts, political leaders and other stakeholders. A limited number of printed copies are available. Email katherine.webb-martinez@ucop.edu to request paper copies.