- Author: Deanne Meyer
This was a roller coaster week. The ANR conference ended Thursday the 27th and the next morning Davis residents learned of the violent death of David Breaux (The Compassion Guy). Saturday night (April 29) the life of computer science major Karim Abou Najm was ended all too soon. Monday night Kimberlee Guillory was stabbed multiple times and remains in the hospital. By Tuesday mid-day you couldn't find a can of pepper spray in Davis or Woodland. The Police Department had all major TV stations' camera crews present each morning at 7am. Thursday afternoon police had arrested a suspect. Searching of the suspect's house included a helicopter for hours (presumably TV representation). Just a week later on Friday night, people were walking about individually or in groups. Some assemblage of normalcy appears to be returning after a surreal week. This is but one city that suffered unnecessary violence. Numerous others exist across the country leaving people to wonder WHY?
Communities are precious. Life is precious. In ANR, we're privileged to contribute to the goodness of making California a better place one person at a time. I'm reminded of this regularly as I review academic merit and promotion packages. Greatness is happening throughout California. For those new to the Division, UC academics are reviewed on a regular basis for merit or promotion. Expectations exist for each rank. I highly recommend academics read the eBook to understand the advancement process. These merits are not a means of granting a cost-of-living increase. These merits acknowledge improved technical and professional competence as well as development of an outreach program. Combined positive impacts are made to make California better. We're fortunate in UC to have merits built into our academic evaluation process. For many other Land Grant Universities, two types of salary increase exist: COLA (cost of living adjustment) or salary increase when a promotion is achieved. As our name suggests, increasing steps is a function meritorious work of delivering scholarship or scholarly activity, extension programming, university/public service, and affirmative action. A merit is not something one gets merely for living and breathing.
We're excited to extend a warm ANR welcome to new academics Dania Orta Aleman with Nutrition Policy Institute and Clarissa Reyes in Yuba/Sutter. Based on the email exchanges, we'll be welcoming new campus-based specialists soon enough. The following community education specialists were hired to work in counties: Victoria Sandoval, Stanislaus; Andrea Castillo, Kern; Karen Maggio, Contra Costa; Marilynn Click, San Diego; Larry Burrow, Merced; and Marlee Duane, Capitol Corridor.
- Author: Deanne Meyer
We had an incredible conference! More than 800 UC ANR members met in Fresno for our All ANR Conference. From individuals who start in fall, to those who are celebrating 40 years with ANR we had an incredible gathering. Secretary Karen Ross kicked off the event on Monday night with a captivating and challenging presentation. She also guided the Tuesday morning plenary panel. This set us up to participate in world café questions and provide input. This is the beginning of the visioning process. There will be many more opportunities for everyone in ANR to participate in the year ahead.
A HUGE thank you to everyone for participating. Gratitude and appreciation go to Program Support Unit. They made their lists and checked them multiple times. Kathy Eftekhari, Katherine Stein, the Strategic Initiative Leaders, various planning and steering committees and Strategic Communications had great input into and during the conference. THANK YOU all for your incredible efforts! Three field trips, many program team meetings, Governing Council and President's Advisory Commission, and many, many sessions. There was something for everyone! What did you like about the conference?
Recent hires included Community Education Specialists: Victoria Sandoval, Stanislaus; Andrea Castillo, Kern; Karen Joy Maggio, Contra Costa; Marilynn Click, San Diego; Larry Burrow , UC Merced; Marlee Duane, Capitol Corridor.
Saturday night before the conference I drove toTulare. This allowed plenty of time Sunday to see Lake Tulare. It's incredible how much water remains in the snow pack and how much water has flooded fields rendering crops unharvestable.
The electric poles are in water as far as the eye can see. There should be crops ready for harvest. I can't imagine the monetary loss from the flooding. Inability to harvest or plant crops will have a substantial impact to farmers' bottom lines.
A new week and month begin. Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day and Memorial Day all have much to celebrate with time with family and friends. Also, congratulations to those who have May graduations or advancements. Enjoy!
- Author: Deanne Meyer
What an exciting week! ANR advocated at the capitol Tuesday for all the great work we do. It was a day of pride as we shared our many stories with legislative staffers. We split into two groups and crossed paths occasionally. It was nice to see the capitol dome from a different vantage point. Anne Megaro and Sheron Violini did a fabulous job with the arrangements with some help from Lara Schroder. Sheron championed the team with VPHumiston, Hanif Houston (the Vine), AmiraResnick (Director of Community Nutrition and Health), Organics Advisor Stephanie Mar and 4-H Ambassador Sruthi Sudarsan. Anne's group included 4-H Ambassador Megna Nayar, Forestry Advisor Susie Kocher, Vegetable Advisor Zheng Wang, Lara and me. Thankfully there were a few breaks to catch up on emails. While Glenda worked on an important news release I continued negotiations on Specialist positions.
Wednesday we received the exciting news that Brent Hales will be our AVP beginning July 1. I'm excited to work with Brent as he assumes his new role. ANR has many moving parts and we're a bit more complex than most Land Grants where Cooperative Extension and the Ag Experiment Station reside on a single campus or at least co-locate across a system. Brent is up to the California challenge. He's excited to be joining us. I've enjoyed our interactions thus far and look forward to helping him in his transition. Please give him a warm California welcome when you see him at the conference.
We are in single digits countdown before the conference. So much organization is needed. Today PSU was in high gear just getting things done. Thank you Bridgett Alvarez, Maria Alvarez, Julia Kalika, PJ Kelly, Mariette Malessy, Kate Lyn Sutherland and Director Sherry Cooper. Kathy Eftekahri and Kathryn Stein spent the day immersed in all things conference. Katherine Hanke, Andrea Ray Ray and campus add ins (thank you Joyce Pexton and Lexi Martinez) rounded out the packing and arranging festivities. (Apologies if I've missed anyone). Getting ready for conference is similar to a big family party with all the preparations, and then it's over in the blink of an eye. Kindly join me in extending gratitude and appreciation to all who participated in the planning and execution of this conference.
The All ANR conference will be one for the records. It'll be wonderful to see new hires in person as well as old friends/colleagues. I'm especially excited to catch a minute with people who may be retiring to thank them for their contributions toANR, their county or campus, and California. Collectively we all contribute to great impacts for Californians. For the extroverts in the group this will be your energy source after a few years of zoom meetings. For my fellow introverts, please practice self-care during the conference. When the crowds and regular interaction get to be too much, take time to collect your thoughts. (It's ok to sneak into a quiet corner to regroup!)
- Author: Deanne Meyer
The Western Extension Directors had our monthly meeting on Tuesday. Our guest speaker was Donald McMoran from Washington State University. Don has gathered a group together to tackle parts of farm stress. The Farm stress group has mini-grants (10K) available to those working to reduce stress in farmers or ranchers. The group in California working in this collaboration are in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at UC Davis. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicated farmers and ranchers were twice as likely to die from suicide than any other profession says. Last month our town hall meeting had guest Dr. Amy Barnhorst from California Firearm Research Center, UC Davis Health. I highly recommend listening to the presentation if you missed the town hall. Suicides account for the largest number of gun induced deaths, followed by homicides and lastly mass shootings.
David Lewis and Jim Farrar will be stepping down as Strategic Initiative leaders after many years of incredible service. If you have experience within ANR and have served on a Strategic Initiative Panel or been a Program Team Leader consider applying for the SI Leader positions for Sustainable Natural Ecosystems or Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases. Rachel Surls likely steps down in December for Sustainable Food Systems SI. Applications are brief and due May 15, 2023.
SI Leaders devote time to managing their panels and providing input into Program Council. The next 18 to 24 months will require great engagement of ANR during our visioning process.
Everyone is getting into high gear as we approach the All ANR Conference. Kathy Eftekhari and Katherine Stein are burning candles at both ends as they put the finishing touches on the program. Everyone presenting is finishing their posters and presentations. TEAM PSU is actively engaged in making their lists and checking them many times. This is a BIG conference. My request of everyone is that they bring a double portion of patience to the conference!
Over the last weeks I've seen an alarming number of unprofessional emails. Many of these fell into the category of people telling other people how to do their job or complaining because something wasn't done fast enough. These unprofessional emails violate our principles of community. My request of supervisors is to include incorporation of our principles of community into annual goals for those in need of behavioral modification.
In the category of names in the news---at the recent Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) UC ANR folks received many kudos. Gold Awards were Tunyalee Martin, Jutta Burger, Doug Johnson, Chinh Lam, Cheryl Wilen, Information Technology 3: Website, Weed Control User Tool; Tunyalee Martin, Petr Kosina, Cheryl Reynolds, Kimberly Steinmann, Brad Hanson, Kassim Al-Khatib, Information Technology 5: Instructional Design for a Non-Academic Public Online Course, website diagnosing herbicide injury; Ricardo Vela, Linda Forbes, Marcel Horowitz, Fabian Rivera and Wendy Powers, Reaching the vulnerable: a campaign to promote vaccination among Mexican indigenous and Spanish-speaking Latino communities; A Bronze Award was received for Social Media 1, Wildfire preparedness social media campaign, Doralicia Garay, Bronze Award. Way to GO!
The 17th marks the next deadline in our annual evaluation process where supervisor evaluations are due. Thank you to everyone who has invested time in reviewing performance of our academics and providing sound feedback. We truly want everyone to be successful. The annual evaluation time gives each person a chance to push pause and take stock in how they are progressing, identify where modifications can/should be made, and set a modified course to implement adjustments.
- Author: Deanne Meyer
Last week Program Council met to review programmatic budget requests. February was our warm-up when Jennifer Bunge of Resource Planning and Management (RPM) walked us through the budget request process. Each of the statewide programs and institutes have funding that is allocated as permanent and other funding allocated as temporary. In some instances, the temporary has gone on for many years making it appear permanent. We went through each line of each budget and each organizational chart. Thank you to Jennifer and Han (RPM), each of the Program Council members and Katherine Webb-Martinez and Kit Alves for their phenomenal facilitation. A special shout out to Joni Rippee for her institutional and ability to provide important historic information.
Glenda, Erik Prose (Director of the California Institute for Water Resources) and I met with Magalí Muria-Tunon and Isidre Sala Queralt to discuss the UC Catalonia Memorandum of Understanding. Glenda and Doug Parker had visited Catalonia previously after the MOU was signed. Since we are now in a new phase after COVID 19 it's an opportune time to more fully identify the activities that will occur between the two groups. Given our climates, drought, impacts of changing climate there is no time like the present to strengthen this working relationship.
Following the UC Catalonia meeting I drove to Ukiah to work with John Bailey and Lenya Quinn-Davidson. The drive over 20 and around Clear Lake was fantastic. Hills were green and the lake was full! A year or so ago as I drove around the lake nearly all boats were out of the water and docks seemed like they were in a different zip code since water levels were so incredibly low. What a difference a year makes!
With April 1 comes the official start of “retirement season”. Whereas Daniel Obrist has the excitement of hiring new academics, I get the pleasure of thanking others for their service and wishing them a happy next chapter in their lives. Although a letter of intent to retire is not necessary, it is appreciated so we may track position gaps. It's the UC Path documentation that every retiree needs to get straight! Many in ANR have contributed for decades and likely will continue to contribute in one capacity or another. Recently I signed a plan of work for a retired advisor who continues to work 25% time (near 50 years now). It's a testament to a passion for identifying driving questions, designing, and deploying research, summarizing information, and making change happen.
Everyone working on the All ANR conference is in high gear getting the last details in place. Thank you to all committee and subcommittee members, Kathy Eftekhari and Katherine Stein as well as Sherry Cooper and Program Support for all your efforts. A huge shout out for our phenomenal IT team who in between patches has been loading new equipment for us to use.
Speaking of IT, please have patience as they work through very complex and at times unpredictable issues with our website. Keep your eyes alert for ANR updates that provide additional information. There may be a few more bumps in the road. In the meantime, any new information on outages will be available on the ANR IT information zoom channel.