- (Public Value) UCANR: Developing a qualified workforce for California
- Author: Brent Hales
As we wrap up or have wrapped up some of the perennial activities of an academic year, it is always a good practice to reflect on the service of those who by their service on committees, keep ANR humming along. It is with a great deal of gratitude that I recognize the service of two particularly critical committees, the Peer Review Committee (PRC) and the Program Council (PC).
Every year, academic personnel put together dossiers for review under the Merit and Promotion process. A group of peers meet to review these dossiers and assess the merits of the evidence presented. The committee then deliberates with the Vice Provost and makes recommendations to the Vice Provost, Associate Vice President, and Vice President. It is a challenging task to review so many dossiers and to carefully examine them. This is not a popularity contest. It is a rigorous review. I wish to thank the members of the PRC for their continued efforts to recognize the scholarly contributions of their peers.
The members of the PRC include:
Karina Diaz-Rios, Greg Ira, Michael Jones, Shannon Klisch, Igor Lacan, Brooke Latack, Andy Lyons, Chris McDonald, Franz Niederholzer, Tapan Pathak, Niamh Quinn, Lorrene Ritchie, Yana Valachnovic, and Zheng Wang.
Similarly, the Program Council (PC) meets monthly, throughout the year to provide guidance and feedback to the Vice President. I chair the PC and work with the PC members to conduct a series of shared governance efforts. Some of these efforts include the biannual position call and the annual budget call. The position call reviews specialist and adviser position proposals put forward by counties, Research Extension Centers (RECs), and campuses. Each proposal is reviewed for its merit, its impact on the system, and how the position will impact ANR and the people of California. This is not a simple process and requires careful examination of each proposal. The recommendations are used to determine which positions should be advertised. This work positions ANR to continue to lead in California's communities.
The annual budget call requires unit leaders to put forward requests, with appropriate justifications for temporary monies to support positions, programs, and units. The PC reviews these requests and makes recommendations to the Vice President. This too is not a small task. Both of these efforts add a significant amount of service time for PC members.
The members of the PC include:
Rob Atwill, Dennis, Baldocchi, Isgouhi Kaloshian, Anita Oberbauer, Stacy Philpott, Darren Haver, Daniel Obrist, Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty, Helen Dahlke, Josh Davy, Jennifer Sowerwine, Tom Turini, Steven Worker, Dustin Blakey, and Marcel Horowitz. As ex-officio members, Joni Rippee and Tu Tran. As support staff: Kit Alviz and Katherine Webb-Martinez.
Again, I want to thank each member of these committees, along with the many, many service committees that you serve on. I realize and recognize that these are often jobs that occur behind the scenes. However, I want you to know that I am truly grateful for the service that goes into making ANR work.
- 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.
- Author: Deanne Meyer
By now academics and their supervisors are aware the deadline for Project Board and merit and promotion dossier is December 8. We've moved the date for two reasons. First, the Federal Report is due earlier, so we had to move the Project Board deadline. December 8 is now the deadline for everyone (campus and ANR). Program Planning and Evaluation needs sufficient time to harvest information out of Project Board for our Federal Report. Second, the compressed time frame for merit and promotion dossier reviews is unreasonable. Ask anyone who is on the Peer Review Committee, and they'll let you know. My suggestion was November 1. In a compromise we went with December 8. This due date can be tried for a year or more. In a few years, this date may need to move to November 1 with all our extra academics. You can expect trainings to come earlier. Stay tuned for additional information.
Last week Vice Provost Daniel Obrist and I spent a few hours with Anna Lee and Steven Worker to run through discussions related to PRC activities. Before we know it, it'll be time for our debrief in August.
I am so impressed with the scholarship, scholarly activities, ideation, and general superb work that is done throughout ANR. We have great work that makes a difference to Californians daily.
Saturday was the State 4-H Field Day and Fashion Review at Wellman Hall on the UC Davis campus. I took a break from writing merit and promotion decisions and comments to drop over. The 4-H members, leaders and support teams were in full force. Club members were in their uniforms doing presentations. Although I missed some of the events, I was able to see the great skills members gain. Presentations take organization and courage. For some, presenting to a group of people requires bravery. Everyone was happy to be back to in-person events. And it was a beautiful day! Ryan Cleland, Gemma Miner, and Carolyn Warne were busy answering questions and helping people at the ANR table. Countless others were engaged in making the event happen. Kate Lynn Sutherland (Program Support Unit) was a volunteer wrangling sound equipment proving that 4-H youth give back to their community. Way to go Kate Lynn! The day was complete when I ran into a friend who is a volunteer leader in Hilmar. It's a small world!
- Author: Deanne Meyer
Happy Mother's Day to one and all! It was nice to have a day for family and friends after a very intense week.
For those with an eye on the mountains, the snow melt continues. Concerns remain in the Tulare Lake Basin area. Thank you to a colleague who sent the link to these aerial images. The area will be water for quite some time. Hopefully, great recharge will occur as well.
The week started with a 2-hr debrief from the Peer Review Committee and a robust discussion on 71 dossiers. It's incredible to see the depth and breadth of programming within ANR. There were colleagues up for indefinite status and others doing a five-year review. Most academics did a good job describing their work and the changes clientele make over time as well as the public value of their work. We'll work with the Academic Assembly Council Personnel Committee to identify modifications to the eBook before our next merit cycle begins.
Many County Directors (CD) participated in the CD meeting Tuesday through Thursday noonish. The time was filled with many presentations from the various units that support academics. Vice President Humiston opened the meeting with an update. One of her many points was that ANR academics should be the go-to science adviser in all communities. We truly aspire to hire great people who will make a huge difference in their local communities. The human relations presentation and engagement was compelling. Information from the BOC gave CDs a chance to get detailed and specific questions answered. Vice Provost Obrist talked about the merit and promotion process and the importance of complete letters of evaluation from supervisors. One of my topics related to geography. Advisors are hired in an area. The county partners expect contributions from the Advisor. The boundaries of work are defined by the geographic area. Talk with your CD BEFORE you consider working outside your defined area. In addition to simple questions of resource use, there is a protocol to follow for anyone who works outside their geographic area. Likewise, if you are a Specialist working in county (ies), there is a different protocol to follow to connect your work to the County's needs. Reaching out to others within ANR prior to entering their area for collaborative work is a professional courtesy and an expectation. If you do work out of area, the objective is to help build capacity within ANR in the area. Hence, the importance of reaching out to Advisors or CDs and including them in your activities.
Welcome new colleagues who started in March:Krystle Hickman,IPM; Elizabeth Moon, Workplace Inclusion and Belonging; KatherineBiardi and JohnKobular Jr., Staff Research Associates; Lucas Chang andKengVue, student assistance; Joseph Simpson, Applications Manager, andKiera Scott, Lab Assistant 2. Many different people and job titles makeANRimpactful. Thank you for all you do!
Giving Day is coming this week. Stay tuned to your emails so you're able to donate to your favorite ANR program May 18-May 19.
