The events of last week have me thinking about influencers, those normal people with above-average impact on behaviors and decisions of others, often people with key connections. Non-profits seek out influencers to sit on their boards because of the connections and potential for fund raising that an influencer brings to the position. As I listened to a discussion during the lunch attended by the Vice President's Council and the Executive Council, it became readily apparent that the deans have sought out influencers and been quite successful. Kathryn Uhrich, at UC Riverside, has hit it out of the park in just a short time (16 months on the job!)

Influencers aren't just those connected to money. They can be people who shape the perspective of others often by providing information that allows for better decision making. For UC ANR, this includes County Directors, REC Directors, the Strategic Initiative Leaders and the Statewide Program and Institute Directors. As Program Council and the Vice President's Council discussed various items of their respective agendas I realized the missed opportunity in being task and agenda focused with little time left for unscheduled conversation. Given demands on everyone's time, I don't know what the fix is for this, or if there is a fix, but it is worth some additional thought.

The week concluded with a MOU signing ceremony at Dixon Ridge Farms to celebrate a formalization of the California Farm Demonstration Network partnership. This is the result of vision and hard work by Jeff Mitchell. As an influencer, he brought the many partners together for just the start of something that will no doubt become much larger. Betsy Karle had a big hand in pulling off the event as did a number of people from CA NRCS. It was a beautiful afternoon with some nice comments from the partners and a few demonstrations. Jeff remained inconspicuous for most of the official part but was hard at work during set up and break down. Congratulations to the entire team for what they have accomplished!

This week the County Directors are in Davis on Wednesday and then off to Academic Assembly Council on Thursday. The Academic Assembly Council is meeting in San Luis Obispo for this meeting. Following, I need to take my long-awaited driver's knowledge test. I passed all of the portions of the Cyber Security Refresher training last week so hopefully that has me primed for test taking.

Spring is in the air and my reprieve from allergies is over. There is no question my immune system has acclimated to California and is not pleased with the blowing pollen. This became readily apparent to me when I pulled into the Lodi area last Friday. The Global Food Initiative Fellows were on a tour of agriculture. Bent Holtz, Michelle Leinfelder-Miles, Paul Verdegaal, Brenna Aegerter and Karrie Reid were with the group for the day so the Fellows were in very good hands! It sounds like the group was highly engaged with their tour stops (a winery, cherry processing at Morada Produce, Staten Island, and an almond orchard plus a couple of presentations about UCCE programs back at the San Joaquin County office). I was unable to attend the tour stops but my sense was that the cherry pack line was a favorite. I have added Staten Island to my bucket list of places to see next winter, in addition to a more formal visit to the San Joaquin UCCE office in the near future. I did get a chance to speak briefly to The Nature Conservancy partner who spoke to the group about the relationship between agriculture, resource management and the environment as it relates to the work on Staten Island. The most important thing to come of the day was a better appreciation by 18 undergraduate and graduate students from across UC of what it means to farm in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and the importance of that region to food security. The day was an outstanding display of the many partnerships across UC and the role UC ANR plays in successful agricultural production in the Delta.

I was particularly excited to see everything going on in San Joaquin County now that I am very close to becoming a resident of the county! But, yes, I still have Michigan plates. In my defense, it is a process and I really don't care to take time away from work to wait in line. I have passed the Smog check (a bit of a surprise). Now I need to pass the written driver's ‘knowledge test'. Rather than study for it, I have opted to complain about it so we will see if that turns out to be the best strategy.

Today I headed off to Program Council, held down at the Hansen REC. Google Maps sent me to the Sacramento airport a different route from my usual. It reminded me how uncomfortable change can be. But I made it in plenty of time for the flight and saw some new things along the way. We started Program Council with field tours hosted by the local advisors (thanks to Ben, Sabrina, Andre, Jose and Jim!) that included an insectary, an avocado pack house and the Hendrick Reserve – all very nice but the pack line was my personal favorite because of the tech toys. Topics for the meeting tomorrow include the next steps for the competitive grants process. The list of letters of intent recommended for submission as full proposals was released. We will also talk about core issues for reporting our work. We will also provide the Program Council with updates on the Opportunity Grant program. By mid-afternoon everyone will head back home. Thanks to everyone in Ventura County for the tours and conversations! It was a nice change in pace from 2 days in a meeting room.

 

There was role playing! And homework! I survived both. Despite these surprises, the Crucial Conversations training was well worth my time. I suspect that may be why no one prepared me for the homework. The other unexpected observation was that there were no males in the class – certainly not a reflection of whose work would benefit from the training. In addition to the benefits of the training, it was nice to see a number of the people I have met through my travels across UC ANR. My learning partner and I will touch base at the end of May to share how our new skills are working for us. She was not only helpful but has an amazing story. What an inspiration!

Speaking of conversations, if you haven't already purchased your ticket for next week's screening of Food Evolution, there may still be seats left. The screening event was partially funded from the new ANR Opportunity Grants Program that was developed by Program Council. Unfortunately the screening date happens to fall during Program Council who will be meeting in Santa Paula next week (May 2-3). For more information or to purchase tickets, go to Eventbrite and search under Food Evolution for events on May 2^nd. The Global Food Initiative has a link to the Food Evolution screening on their homepage.

Tomorrow, this year's Global Food Initiative Fellows will be visiting with UC ANR and taking a food tour of the San Joaquin Valley. This should be a great opportunity to introduce the Fellows to the work of UC ANR and help improve understanding of food production and challenges in California. I am looking forward to meeting the Fellows and hearing their impressions of what they see and hear.

Students across the campuses are wrapping up classes and projects. The Berkeley Big Ideas team I worked with this semester has done quite well with their innovation. They won $750 at the University of Oregon New Venture Championship (NVC) and are competing at the UCSB NVC on May 3. Jake, one of the entrepreneurs, was selected as the UCSB winner of the UC Entrepreneur Video Campaign and will meet with 3 venture capital firms on May 5. And if that's not enough, they won an Honorable Mention in the UC competition in the Food Systems category. Way to go Jake and Caitlin!

Don't forget that Mark Bell begins May 1 as the UC ANR Vice Provost of Statewide Programs and Strategic Initiatives. You may have already seen him around the Davis ANR building as he has been lining up meetings for the last couple of weeks. Please welcome Mark!

As last week wrapped up it was easy to see elements of the UC ANR Promise everywhere. On Thursday afternoon the REC Directors shared their thoughts about how best to position the REC system to meet research needs in the future. Clearly the group has been thinking long and hard on that question with a focus on staying true to our promise to provide practical, non-biased research that people trust. Earlier in the week I had spoken with a researcher about conducting controversial research and the challenges of sharing controversial findings. That's where trust, and a long history of it, becomes so important, not to mention the courage to be non-biased even when confronted with unpopular findings. Those elements, trust and non-bias, are inseparable and the foundation of UC ANR research at the RECs and across the state.

Another component of that foundation is addressing emerging challenges through cutting edge research and technology. I read a great interview of Maggi Kelly over the weekend that highlighted how she and her lab are at the cutting edge of mapping technology to the benefit of the UC ANR network. Maggi @nmaggikelly refers to her work as special data science. Be sure to take a look at the Women in GIS interview to learn about some of Maggi's favorite projects!

I spent Friday in San Mateo County and at Elkus Ranch. It was a great day to be outside a tremendous opportunity to learn more about the outstanding team members and the great work they are doing in the counties and at the ranch. A school class was visiting and having Lunch at the Ranch while we were there. It's hard to believe how much learning is packed into the part-day class visit. The kids picked the vegetables they planned to include in the veggie pizzas they would make for lunch. I suspect the highlight of the class trip may have been the goats; everyone seemed to love petting the goats and clearly the goats were up for it. The kids learned about sheep as well and the challenge of predators (hence the looming presence of the llama). I can't help but wonder how many of the city kids were influenced enough by that trip to, like me, choose a career in agriculture. I was particularly interested to hear about the programs that include not only kids but parents each year and how much influence the program has on the parents even though the focus is on educating kids. I think this suggests that the use of participatory programs (another element of the UC ANR Promise) can change behaviors even more broadly than intended!

Predator-prey education at Elkus Ranch

Other stops for the day included meeting with the nutrition group in the San Bruno office to hear more about their programs, including EFNEP, CalFresh and the Healthy Living Ambassadors program. I had a chance to see the HLA program in action in Redwood City where trained teens educated the elementary school participants on MyPlate and helped the kids maintain a school garden.

We also met with some of the Master Gardener Volunteers (MGV) at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center in Redwood City to see the location of the satellite helpline right in the community and the demonstration garden constructed with the seniors in mind. The partnership is broader than just UC; including Girl Scouts and others throughout the community. These volunteers are certainly current on technology, using QR codes to link to information about plants sold at their plant sale! A fabulous day and another example of outstanding programs in people in UC ANR.

Crucial Conversations training is on the calendar for the next two days; as much as it pained me to do homework, I have completed the assigned reading and thought about a couple of scenario conversations. I hope there isn't too much role playing. In spite of having gone through this type of training in the past, I don't think the road to continuous improvement is comprised of ‘one and done' development opportunities so I have no doubt I will learn a few things. Hopefully the sun will be back in Oakland when I return!