- (Public Value) UCANR: Developing an inclusive and equitable society
- Author: Brent Hales
It has been a while since I posted and much has happened in that time. UC ANR has begun to wrap up the Vision 2040 process. We have successfully navigated a call for positions and will soon be announcing some of the approved positions. We have engaged in budget planning as an organization. The merit and performance cycle is drawing to a close. Spring is halfway through and summer is on the horizon. We have endured challenges and seen opportunities for growth emerge as a result. Change is ever present and so it is sometimes the greatest challenges that bring the greatest opportunities.
Authors across the globe have for centuries posited on the notion that inherent in challenges lie the seeds of opportunity. Our challenge individually and organizationally is to see possibilities in our challenges and then turn those possibilities into reality. We are seeing this come to fruition with the reorganization of SAREP, with past and impending retirements of key personnel, and with the budget challenges that we face as Californians.
We also experience personal challenges. Three weeks ago, I received word that my father who has terminal pancreatic cancer was going to need round the clock care as he prepares for his self-described, "graduation from mortality." My wife and I loaded our vehicle and immediate came to Utah to assist my mother and siblings in providing this care. I have spent the last three weeks taking shifts providing this care while simultaneously trying to navigate the challenges of remotely working. I have also experienced three weeks of unbridled gratitude for the home health and hospice workers that have worked with us to provide my father with his end of life care.
To be honest, I didn't foresee me still being here in Southcentral Utah. My dad has suffered these last three weeks and multiple times we thought that we were at the end of the road. However, he has rallied each time. Each high he experiences is not quite as high and his inevitable lows continue to get lower. This is the natural progression that accompanies a diagnosis of this magnitude. He has indicated on numerous occasions that he is ready to make the inevitable transition. However, his body seems to be approaching this transition in the same stubborn way that my father has taken on life. As a farmer, coal miner, and one of the hardest working men I have ever met, he has taken challenges on like many of the bulls he raised. He simply drives forward and keeps his face to the wind.
I have seen opportunities to learn throughout this journey. I have watched a humble man accept assistance that I could not have ever foreseen him take. I have watched his sincere gratitude well up and spill over into tears of gratitude and love for all of us. I have watched my siblings and my mother take on the day-to-day care with love and with grace. In all, I have been grateful to be part of this process. While not an opportunity that I have sought, it is one that I would never pass up. To be able to provide this care has brought me closer to my family and enabled me to share my love with my dad in nearly every interaction.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to Glenda, to the entire ANR leadership team and to the Second Street staff that have worked with me to be able to provide this care for my father. I sincerely appreciate the flexibility that everyone has shown to accommodate my remote working arrangement. I look forward to being back in the office and getting back out on the road to the county offices, RECs and UC campuses. Until that time, I express my sincere gratitude to everyone in the ANR family for what you do and how you do it. You are the reason that we are able to take on challenges and turn them into opportunities. You are the reason that ANR is and will remain strong, in spite of the challenges that come our way.
- 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
Have you ever listened to the news at night and wondered why it wasn't broadcast 48 hours ahead of time with the headline of cool stuff to do? That's exactly how I felt last night as I heard the summary of the weekend's activities in Sacramento for Black History Month. The festivities were incredible. Although I missed the event, I did learn there's a Sojourner Museum. I look forward to going soon.
Thank you Stephanie Parreira-Zweier, Mary Blackburn, Esther Mosase, Tamekia Wilkins and our friends and colleagues in the Black and Allied Employees of ANR for the ANR Connected post. It's a great collection of activities to attend and resources to read. These collections are appreciated especially since everyone is fully engaged in ANR programs. The UC Black and Allied Employees strive to foster communication and create space for connection among past and present staff and academics, provide educational and professional development opportunities for Black staff and academics in pursuit of growth in their current role and advancement within UC ANR, and support and promote organizational Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals. Your contributions enrich our lives.
It's been a few weeks since the Sustainable Pest Management Roadmap was published. Jim Farrar, Margaret Lloyd and Houston Wilson did heavy lifting on this product. Karey Windbiel-Rojas was involved in the Urban subgroup. I look forward to the future dividends of their great work!
Elsewhere in the Division, Jairo Diaz (Desert REC Director) was boasting with pride when Stacey Amparano shared that the Farm Smart Program was selected as a recipient for the CA State FFA Distinguished Service Award! This award is reserved for those few who provide assistance to FFA which is of an outstanding nature, thus distinguishing the recipient from the vast list of others who provide routine assistance to the FFA. Very exciting!
At the opposite end of the state (literally) Laura Snell received the young range professional award in Boise at the Society for Range Management conference. Way to go Laura!
Last week was the World Ag Expo in Tulare (AKA Farm Show). The wind shook the portable seminar building on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday were less windy and definitely colder. The snow in the mountains was reassuring. It was great to attend the Golden State Dairy Management presentations by our colleagues Tuesday and Wednesday. I also enjoyed attending a luncheon on Sustainable Agriculture in the United Kingdom. In addition to the great speakers, I was excited to have lunch with Cooperative Extension Specialist Safeeq Kahn, UC Merced. It was great to see him in person (out of his zoom box). He's chair of a Regenerative Agriculture Specialist position recruitment at UC Merced. I'm looking forward to seeing the search committee results!
The return trip was a bit less colorful than usual. I think the blooms stalled. That was probably a good thing. Bees would not like to be outside foraging when with the wind and cold.
