- Author: Brent Hales
Recently I had the pleasure of visiting San Diego with Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty. While in town, I met with members of San Diego County Farm Bureau, San Diego County supervisors and county administrators to learn about their concerns and to find out how UC ANR can be a better partner. I had the pleasure of hanging out with our colleagues in the UC Cooperative Extension office in San Diego on Friday, Oct. 20. It's exciting and inspiring to hear what they are working on.
My plan is to visit each of the 58 counties and meet with their county supervisors, county administrators and local Farm Bureau members to better understand their needs. I want to hear and learn from our local partners.
- Author: Brent Hales
Recently I visited with our colleagues at UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz – UC's newest Agricultural Experiment Station campuses.
At UC Merced, we met with administrators, faculty and staff for a tour of campus. There, we were shown some of the vast rangelands that encompass the UC Natural Reserve System sites managed by UC Merced and the site for the new agricultural research park. The plans feature teaching spaces, research plots, public engagement opportunities, and sites for collaboration with industry leaders.
The visit to the UC Santa Cruz campus and community gardens were very different from our visit to Merced. UC Santa Cruz features a fully functional farm that provides high-quality produce to students and community members at little or no cost. We also toured their aquaculture facility wherein rainbow trout are grown for both research and consumption.
You can read more about our visit to UCSC at https://news.ucsc.edu/2023/10/aes-designation-planning-campus-visit.html.
We are excited to engage with both campuses as they become fully integrated into our Agricultural Experiment Station network.
- Author: Brent Hales
Happy Monday all,
I have had the pleasure of visiting numerous Research Extension Centers (South Coast, Hopland, Sierra Foothills, Intermountain, West Side, Lindcove, and Kearney). I have also visited UC Irvine, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley. I soon will visit UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz. I have engaged with hundreds of ANR employees, campus-based faculty, specialists, and administration, and many stakeholders. My main takeaway throughout these visits is that UC ANR is truly an amazing organization!
As I have had the pleasure of getting to know everyone, I have consistently been amazed with the people, the organizations, and the programs that are all things UC ANR. I have had the pleasure of meeting many of you and I look forward to meeting you and learning from you.
My goal has been and continues to be to improve what we do and how we do it. That only comes as we work together to improve our organization and the communities that we serve. If there is an opportunity to engage with you in your programming or if there is an event that you think it would be good for me to attend, please invite me. I won't likely be able to get to everything this year but my engagement with everyone does not have an expiration date. I genuinely want to hear from you and learn from you.
I promise to take more pictures and use less text in the future. I just had to say this. I am eager to meet you and meet with you. I hope that you know that I am so grateful for what you do to improve the lives of Californians throughout our amazing state. I wish you truly the best!
Brent
- Author: Brent Hales
Happy Thursday All,
I am excited beyond words to have joined UCANR. The opportunity to serve along with so many talented and committed people is far beyond what I thought what I would ever have the chance to do. I am honored to be included with you as we serve the people of California.
There are a few items that I would like to bring up. First of all, I would like to gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Deanne Meyer. Her exemplary service over her storied career and her most recent service as Interim Associate Vice President is aspirational. She has and continues to serve with incredible insight and unwavering grace. I am grateful for her and for her innumerable contributions to UCANR and to the people of California. I also want to express my sincere gratitude for her guidance as I have taken on this role.
Next, I would like to share my thoughts on the future of the blog. It has taken me a while to get my entries started but I am certainly committed to keeping it going. I believe that consistent, clear communication is key to providing timely and relevant information to the Division. I would also like us to consider some ways that we can improve the future directions of the blog. I invite anyone and everyone to share with me insights, opportunities to recognize colleagues, and other information that you feel that it would be good to share with colleagues. I can't promise to use everything that I receive but I would like to ensure that we provide opportunities for us to hear about the various parts of the organization, to learn what is going on across the state, and within the organizational units.
I will also be inviting leaders from across the organization to share their insights on future blog posts. The reality is that when we put on the proverbial UCANR name badge, it is helpful to know what each program does and the intersections of service that are available in our communities and across the state. Be on the lookout for posts in the coming months that reflect the broad diversity of programs and people in the organization.
Finally, I want to thank everyone. I have been extremely pleased with the open and inviting reception that I have received to date. I look forward to engaging with everyone across the system in the coming months. We are planning numerous opportunities for us to engage with one another and to get to know one another. That won't be just here in Davis. These events will happen across California. I also want to thank you for your service and commitment to the people and the communities of California. You are the reason that UCANR exists. I look forward to meeting and thanking everyone personally.
I hope that everyone is enjoying the summer and that you will take time to take care of yourself.
Sincerely,
Brent
- Author: Deanne Meyer
June zoomed by in a whirlwind. We're all excited to welcome Brent Hales as AVP for Research and Extension. Brent hit the ground running on Monday. His schedule is filled with meeting direct reports, getting to know Academic Human Resources team members, and getting his emails to work. As many know, the key item is to have a functional email. Thanks to everyone who did the pre-arrival onboarding both his ANR and UCOP emails work! This is a BIG reminder to everyone who is onboarding employees to start the email acquisition process as soon as possible so people. A huge shout out to IT Kathy Eftekhari and IT for making this all happen! I'll work with Brent over the next two months as he settles in.
I'll do a combination of June summary and July adventures over the next few weeks.
June 29 was the magical day for Advisors Jim Downer, Cindy Fake, John Harper, Craig Kallsen, Rachael Long, Brian Marsh, Fe Moncloa, and Marisa Neelon. We congratulate them on Emeritus title, wish them well in retirement and look forward to seeing them working on their emeritus workplan beginning August 1 as they finish up projects. Combined these colleagues shared over 200 years of service. Simultaneously, Specialists Alan Mchughen (housed at UCR) and Specialists Loren Oki, Stephen Kaffka, Elizabeth Mitcham, and Dan Putnam (housed at UCD) retired with 143 years of combined service. Their impacts will be realized for decades to come! Meanwhile, July 3rd marked 50 years of service (fifty, it is not a typo) for David Zilberman, Professor, Robinson Chair and CE Specialist at UCB. Congratulations one and all on incredible accomplishments and milestones!
As our academics know, the merit and promotion season ended in June. There were 68 dossiers. A huge thank you to the members of the PRC, Ad Hoc committees, and Personnel Committee for their thoughtful analyses of each dossier. This remarkable group of academics makes the process run. Thank you, Steven Worker who worked with Vice Provost Obrist, in managing the process and to Michelle Leinfelder-Miles for her leadership with the Personnel Committee. We have a remarkable group of academics who dedicate time to make this happen. A special congratulations and thank you to Daniel Obrist who championed his first merit and promotion cycle and Vanya Woodward who gathered the many letters of evaluation from external evaluators. My takeaway from reading 68 dossiers: we have impactful work occurring statewide! It's impressive. A few suggestions to all academics: 1) take time to read the eBook long before you start assembling your dossier; 2) attend trainings regularly during your first 6 years as your responsibilities in the first three terms change; 3) prepare your dossier in advance to request input from peers and your CD; and 4) view dossier preparation to reflect on your work. Since academics are proud of their work it stands to reason time is invested to assemble a fabulous dossier to share.