- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Ingram named forest stewardship education academic coordinator
Prior to working with UCCE advisor Susie Kocher in forest stewardship education, Ingram had been an academic human resources business partner in UC ANR's Human Resources, leading academic recruitments, analyzing data and managing the academic merit and promotion process since 2015. From 2008 to 2015, Ingram was a community education specialist for the UC Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project and Sierra Nevada Watershed Ecosystem Enhancement Project. She planned, managed and implemented collaborations between UC, agencies, local communities and stakeholders, developed training curriculum and facilitated meetings, workshops and events related to forestry and fire issues in the Sierra Nevada. She was also an instructor of record for the California Naturalist Program and published a “Natural History of the Sierra Nevada” for use in California Naturalist Program trainings.
Ingram earned a master's degree in education, adult education and training from Colorado State University. She also holds a bachelor's degree in political science with a minor in environmental ethics from Humboldt State University.
Ingram is based in Davis and can be reached at kcingram@ucanr.edu.
Tomich elected AAAS fellow
Tomich, director of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis and UC ANR's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP), is among 443 new AAAS fellows elected this year.
Tomich is being recognized for "extraordinary contributions to generating sustainable solutions to global food system security through environmental science, effective policy, and collaborative research partnerships with underdeveloped economies globally."
His research spans agriculture and farming systems, economic development, food policy, and natural resource management. His publications include Transforming Agrarian Economies: Opportunities Seized, Opportunities Missed (1995); Environmental Services and Land Use Change: Bridging the Gap between Policy and Research in Southeast Asia (2004); Ecosystems and Human Wellbeing: A Manual for Assessment Practitioners (2010); The California Nitrogen Assessment: Challenges and Solutions for People, Agriculture, and the Environment (2016), and Agricultural Research for Rural Prosperity: Rethinking the Pathways, a special issue of the journal Agricultural Systems (2019).
The new fellows will be formally recognized on Feb. 15, 2020, at the AAAS annual meeting in Seattle.
ESA honors Dara for extension work
Dara addresses pest and disease issues of small fruits and vegetables with conventional and biological options, and finds alternative uses for entomopathogenic fungi as biofungicides and biostimulants. His research and extension program develops innovative solutions for sustainable crop production and protection, and he reaches out to the agricultural community locally, regionally and internationally.
As a volunteer, Dara has provided training in integrated pest management and crop production to farmers in Bangladesh, Haiti, Kosovo, Moldova, Mozambique, and Myanmar, and to visitors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Colombia.
Dara earned a Ph.D. in entomology from Virginia Tech and a postgraduate diploma in applied information technology from Information Technology Institute, Canada. He has nearly 25 years of experience in IPM and microbial control, working on 17 species of invasive pests and diseases and several endemic species throughout his career. He has authored or co-authored 350 scientific and extension articles, which include three co-edited books, one co-edited special issue of a journal, 13 book chapters and 50 peer-reviewed journal articles.
He serves on various committees at the University of California, the Society for Invertebrate Pathology, the Entomological Society of America, and the Association of Applied IPM Ecologists. He also publishes two e-journals and is a subject editor for the Journal of Economic Entomology. Dara was recently featured as a Western Innovator by Capital Press for his work in biologicals.
ESA presented him with the award at Entomology 2019 Nov. 19 in St. Louis, Mo.
- Author: Aubrey White
The UC ANR Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program is officially open for business on the UC Davis campus. The statewide program, which renovated and moved into the Robbins Hall Annex in September 2014, recently hosted an open house and ribbon cutting to warm its new space.
UC ANR Associate Vice President Bill Frost and UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Dean Helene Dillard cut the ribbon together, and welcomed the 29-year-old program onto campus.
“Now more than ever, it is important that we maintain strong integration of our research and extension efforts,” said Dean Dillard. “Having the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program located on campus is a great opportunity to model a collaborative approach and show a tangible bridge between campus-based activities and statewide extension.”
The UC SAREP program is co-housed at UC ANR and the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis. UC SAREP's campus location provides opportunity for campus faculty and students to actively engage with ANR activities and continue to improve the links between researchers and community stakeholders.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Each year the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis recognizes one of our UC colleagues with the Eric Bradford and Charlie Rominger Agricultural Sustainability Leadership award. Established in 2008 through gifts from family and friends, the award seeks to provide a lasting legacy of the unique contributions Eric Bradford and Charlie Rominger made through uniquely inspiring leadership in the field of agricultural sustainability. The intent of the award is to recognize and honor individuals exhibiting the leadership, work ethic, and integrity epitomized by Eric and Charlie. Awardees demonstrate leadership with a passion for service as they aim to improve the world through their contributions to agriculture.
This year, we are pleased to give the award to our Cooperative Extension colleague, Mary Bianchi, San Luis Obispo County director and horticulture farm advisor. Mary's nomination letter described her as “the ‘ultimate' farm advisor who does not hesitate to address the critical needs of her clientele, even if they require extending herself into new subject areas … She does so in the best sense of collaborative problem-solving, melding an easy-going, interpersonal style with astute professionalism that includes scientific rigor.” We couldn't agree more, and are delighted to present her with the award.
We will make the formal media announcement of the award just prior to the award ceremony. However, we want to invite Mary's colleagues and collaborators to extend their congratulations to her, both personally and through joining us in honoring Mary at our award ceremony. We would appreciate your help in spreading the word to the ANR family. Details are below.
- Bradford Rominger Award Ceremony
- Tuesday, April 15, 5 p.m.
- Beuhler Alumni and Visitor Center, UC Davis
- Keynote speaker: food activist LaDonna Redmond
More information on the event can be found here.
Thomas P. Tomich
W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems
Director, UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute (ASI)
Director, UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP)
Host, Inter-Institutional Network for Food, Agriculture and Sustainability (INFAS)
Professor of Community Development, Environmental Science & Policy
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Mark Lubell, professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis, will host a web chat to discuss social network analysis from 10 a.m. to noon on Sept. 12. Please register for “Extension 3.0: Agricultural Outreach & Education in the Age of Connectivity” at http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=11163.
Lubell will cover
- 21st century agricultural knowledge networks
- Social relationships—participation, belief change, and practice
- Accelerating knowledge networks with information technology and social media
- Illustrating importance of boundary-spanning social networks in sustainable viticulture
- Cooperative Extension—Leveraging knowledge networks for sustainable food systems
The webinar will be on AdobeConnect and a ReadyTalk line will be set up for audio. Links will be emailed to registrants. On Twitter, follow #SustAgUC.
The sustainability webinar series is sponsored by the UC ANR Sustainable Food Systems Initiative, UC ANR Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program and Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis.
Tom Tomich, professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis, W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems and director ASI and SAREP, kicked off the series with sustainability science. Neil McRoberts, assistant professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis, discussed “Sustainability: Linking Theory to Practice.” Ermias Kebreab, professor in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis and Sesnon Endowed Chair in Sustainable Agriculture, discussed "Environmental Sustainability of Animal Agriculture."
If you missed any of these webinars, recordings can be viewed at http://ucanr.edu/sites/StrategicInitiatives/Sustainable_Food_Systems/Outreach_814.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Neil McRoberts, assistant professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis, will present the webinar “Sustainability: Linking Theory to Practice” from 10 a.m. to noon on May 31.
McRoberts will discuss
- Using formal models for strategic planning of extension and outreach efforts
- Cross-linking of interdisciplinary scientists
- Sustainability theory Web resources
Online registration for the free webinar is required at http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=10668.
On June 13, Ermias Kebreab, professor in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis and Sesnon Endowed Chair in Sustainable Agriculture, will discuss "Environmental Sustainability of Animal Agriculture." The Kebreab webinar will also run from 10 a.m. to noon.
Kebreab will discuss
- Sustainability as a “wicked problem”
- Water quality and livestock production
- Mitigation of air emissions from livestock operation
Register for Kebreab’s free webinar at http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=10669.
The webinar series is sponsored by the UC ANR Sustainable Food Systems Initiative, UC ANR Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program, and Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis.
Tom Tomich, professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis, W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems and director ASI and SAREP, kicked off the series with sustainability science. If you missed Tomich’s webinar, a recording can be viewed at http://asi.ucdavis.edu/newsroom/blog/preview-video-for-the-upcoming-webinar-is-there-a-sustainability-science.
