- (Public Value) UCANR: Safeguarding abundant and healthy food for all Californians
- Author: Deanne Meyer
Congratulations to Placer/Nevada Master Gardeners who rocked the house on giving day! This awesome group of volunteers certainly cultivated donors well to be responsible for many donations. You set an example for others to reach. Well done!
Last week was filled with evaluations, analyses and planning to move construction projects forward on three of our Research and Extension Centers (REC). On Monday,Darren Haver, Annemiek Schilder, Adam Novicki and I spent hours working through important conversations about the move from Falkner Farms to the new location. There is much planning to do and great opportunities for our future. Although every move has its disruptions, I can't wait to see the exciting new projects that will happen to address ANR program areas in Ventura County. Tuesday, at South Coast REC Darren and I worked with Chris Martinez (Center Superintendent), Adolfo Limon, Brian Krall, Brian Oatman, Jennifer Bunge, and Maru Fernandez with the ICAMP project lists (integrated capital asset management program). Items on the list are assets whose previous condition assessment fared poorly; repairs needed or falling apart. It's important to physically take the list to the locations and go through them line by line. We do not want to invest in a project that was either already completed or no longer existed. Then we braved traffic and headed southeast to Desert REC. Wednesday started early in an attempt and avoid the heat of the day. Jairo Diaz (Director) and Gilberto Magallon (Center Superintendent) hosted us as we looked at irrigation pumps/reservoirs, buildings, the feed mill, metabolism room and numerous other buildings.
Elizabeth Moon, Director of Workplace Inclusion and Belonging joined us on our journey. She was able to meet with County and ANR members at both locations and gain an appreciation for the depth and breadth of work we do. It's one thing to look at our websites. It's very different when you walk around and see, touch, smell, feel the work we do. Master Food Preservers were working on a project at SCREC. Turns out there wasn't enough liquid in what they were making so the recipe needed a modification. Everyone huddled around to figure it out. We didn't stay long enough to see their final products. I'm sure it was successful!
Academics know this is the time of year when the peer review process winds down. A HUGE SHOUT OUT of gratitude to colleagues who put in countless hours on the Peer Review Committee. The comments I've seen thus far are thorough, thoughtful, and professional. A big THANK YOU to Stephen Worker, Daniel Obrist and Anna Lee who worked made the process go as smoothly as possible. Since it's not quite done yet, there is more heavy lifting with final decision letters, updating UC Path and providing results to all applicants. I remain busy re-reading dossiers and all supporting letters while writing and refining final letters. My recommendation to all-- READ and FOLLOW the eBook guidelines. Although it may be easier for the academic to include all kinds of information in tables and lists that is outside of the review period, it leaves a poor impression on the individual reading the materials.
- Author: Deanne Meyer
It's only been a week since our CARET group met in DC. THANK YOU to our CARET representatives Ismael Herrera and Mike Mellano for making time to travel to DC, walk up and down the halls of the House of Representatives as well as the Senate to meet with staff of our representatives and senators. Also joining our group were select UC employees. We visited 24 offices including the Senate and House Ag Committees. We shared our priorities for this year's appropriations as well as Farm Bill items. The conversations were filled with how valuable ANR is to communities. We discussed impacts from trained citizen scientists to identify spotted lanternfly and the importance of prescribed burn associations. It was easy to share examples of Advisors, Specialists and Community Educators helping to assess damage from fire, floods or other disasters. Impacts from statewide programs to improve lives of Californians (Master Gardener, 4-H, Community Nutrition and Health, Integrated Pest Management, etc.) were shared. After visiting two offices I sent links to the great Small Farms website with a map of California and staffing delivery footprint as well as languages served. We do incredible work that truly impacts the lives of Californians!
CARET is the Council for Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching. Some 300 people from US Universities participated. Sunday afternoon was a heart-warming tribute to Jean-Mari Peltier (may we all remember her with fondness) who received the lifetime CARET achievement award. Jean-Mari set the gold standard as an advocate for research, collaboration, joint funding of projects, use of science to answer questions, engagement, UC ANR and so much more. The Jean-Mari Peltier Endowment in support of UC ANR Strategic Priorities was established to carry-on Jean-Mari's commitment to UC ANR, science and solving problems.
Other members not included in this office visit included Divisional Dean Isgouhi Kaloshian, UCR; Government Relations, UCR Kathy Eiler; Government Relations, UCSC Loressa Uson; and Ryan Tompkins Forester and Natural Resources Advisor for Plumas, Sierra, and Lassen counties.
Thursday, Missy Gable shared with the UC Regents the impact of capacity funds (Federal dollars) in delivery of the Master Gardener Program. She zoomed into the meeting from UC DC. It was thrilling to watch Missy present right after we had visited with our representatives about the importance of capacity funds (Hatch, Smith-Lever, and McIntire Stennis).
Meanwhile, back home Anne Megaro prepared for our Ag Day at the Capitol (coming up this Tuesday).
Switching gears, let's give a warm welcome to our some of our February hires-- David Gonzalves, Area Director (Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito), Advisors Patricia Laxicki (Capitol Corridor) and Manpreet Singh (Kearney REC), Junior Specialist Alexander Mendenhall, and SRAs Margaret Gallagher, Elle Overs, and Cristian Burgos (all Orange County), Rito Medina Fresno Madera MCP, and Andrea Northup-Warner Sierra Foothill REC. We look forward to seeing your great impacts for Californians.
- Author: Deanne Meyer
If you're a fan of Groundhog Day, you know that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow (Feb 2) and we've got six more weeks of winter. Whether you believe this tale or not, we're definitely in winter. Thank you everyone who shared pictures from throughout California over the last few days. It's been incredible to see SNOW from Arcata (sea level) to Vacaville hills (900') and elsewhere. Frankly, the photos on the evening news are awesome. The days ahead will identify how severe crop damage is and the final impact on our great agricultural bounty. The sky in Yolo County had its share of helicopters out on Saturday.
The week started off with Programmatic Orientation. Thank you Vice Provost Daniel Obrist and Greg Ira, Lead for State Wide Programs and Institutes who working along with Katherine Webb-Martinez (Program Planning and Evaluation) and Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty (Director of County Directors) to share great information to our new academics. Darren Haver shared about opportunities at our RECs for research. Although I was unable to stay for the entire orientation, I hear presentations were superb: Fadzayi Mashiri (conducting informal needs assessment), Yana Valachovic (strategies for community engagement), Margaret Lloyd (working with diverse, multilingual audiences), JoLynn Miller (increasing reach with social media) and Aparna Gazula (measuring outcomes and communicating impact). Katherine Webb-Martinez and Vikram Koundinya (Evaluation Specialist, UCD) finished off the morning with measuring outcomes and communicating impact.
It was exciting to see the information in employee news from the staff assembly. Beginning March 1, 2023, the UC ANR Wellness Reimbursement Program will begin accepting applications for reimbursements of personal wellness expenses up to $75. Thank you everyone involved in making this happen. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity! If you read the staff assembly e-news you know UC ANR Staff Assembly Ambassadors are committed to making a positive difference for our staff experience and work environment across our community, helping to make UC ANR the best to work, live and learn within the UC system. Thank you, Staff Assembly colleagues who put in time to make this program work!
There's exciting news in the ANR building. Drilling, hammering, and anything else needed is occurring to refresh all our meeting rooms. The new system will enhance our meeting rooms and the ability to zoom people into hybrid meetings. This is fantastic. Recently I used the Coast Room for a hybrid meeting (back in January during floods in Monterey) where we needed to zoom folks in. We had multiple technology failures before Sherry Cooper was able to get the temperamental system to function. Thank you to Sree Mada, David Hatter, Heather Moore, and everyone else involved in making this transition happen. Also, a quiet shout out to everyone who endured noise while working through these fabulous upgrades!
Welcome to Elizabeth Ramierz, Fresno/Madera MCP, a new Blank Assistant 2. We're excited to have new Community Education Specialists as well: Heidi Holmquist, San Diego; Brittany Gore, Los Angeles; Nancy Chang, Santa Clara; Heather Montgomery, Sutter/Yuba; Vianca Nunez, Riverside; and Kelsey Dugan, San Luis Obispo. We're fortunate to have some familiar faces in new roles as well: Lani Landayan, Immediate Office of the Controller; Bridgette Alvarez, Program Support; Jason Dillon, Resource Planning and Management; Nancy Lu, Statewide Programs and REC ops; Jessica Falor-Ward, Development Office; and Violeta Kavocevic, Facilities, Planning and Management.
