Grower Cliff Sponsell and George Goodall, right, at Sponsell Ranch in Santa Barbara, looking at Duke cutting replant in an avocado root rot grove in 1977.
George Goodall, emeritus UCCE farm advisor and county director, passed away June 22, 2020, at age 98.
A fourth-generation Southern Californian, Goodall grew up on a diversified farm in Canoga Park. After serving four years in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, he earned a degree in subtropical horticulture from UCLA in 1947. Goodall was hired the same year as a UCCE subtropical fruit farm advisor for Ventura County, then in 1951 moved to serve Santa Barbara County as a farm advisor specializing in avocados, citrus, walnuts and wine grapes. He later earned a master's degree in agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1974, he became director of UCCE in Santa Barbara County until he retired in 1987.
“George was instrumental in the creation of the Williamson Act and in establishing the avocado industry amongst a lot of other things,” said Ben Faber, UCCE subtropical crops advisor for Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
“As important as his knowledge and experience, it was his manner, attitude, personality, sense of humor, etc. that made him an ideal Extension agent,” Faber said. “He was equally comfortable in the world of academia as he was in the real world of farming and people. And he loved good food, a good bottle of wine and good company. I'll never forget his laugh and his stories. He and John Evans and Bud Lee were like the three musketeer county directors who were all excellent extension administrators and at the same time outstanding farm advisors.”
George Goodall
In 1972, Goodall received the Award of Honor of the California Avocado Society. Among other industry honors, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the California Chapter of the Soil Conservation Society of America, the Commendation Award from the Soil Conservation Society of America, and a gold watch from Calavo Growers of California.
During his career, he authored nearly 30 papers on avocado production and many more papers on subtropical fruits.
He was a member of the American Society for Horticulture Science, the American Agricultural Economics Association, the Soil Conservation Society of America, and was a past president of the California Chapter of the Soil Conservation Society of America. A member of the California Avocado Society since 1949, he also belonged to the Lemon Men's Club, The California Citrus Nurserymen's Society, and the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau.
According to his family, Goodall once bestowed a Medal of Honor to former Governor Ronald Reagan for soil conservation.
After retiring from UC, Goodall did agricultural consulting in the Mediterranean, Latin America and Africa. He also became active in the Santa Barbara Rotary Club and his local genealogical society, tracing his ancestry to the origins of man and giving presentations on genealogy.
Goodall is survived by his wife Jeanne, son Stephen (Jane), grandchildren Emily (Cheyne) and Jason and great grandchildren Lyndee and Jaxton O'Gorman.
The UCPath Center staff continues to work remotely with new phone hardware and software to support calls from employees, location administrators, former employees, vendors and third parties.
UCPath phone service information:
UCPath phone number: 855-982-7284
Business hours: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Friday starting July 27, excluding UC holidays
Callers will be asked to authenticate with their eight-digit date of birth and last four digits of their social security number
To ensure UCPath addresses employee questions or issues, callers must inform the UCPath associate if they are calling about an open inquiry
UC ANR contact information
In urgent cases where employees may not get ahold of UCPath or are not sure how to proceed, please contact:
UC's Council of Chancellors has unanimously approved a recommendation for a new paid family-leave benefit for UC employees, effective July 1, 2021. This recommendation, supported by President Napolitano and Systemwide Human Resources, provides eight weeks of leave at 70% of wages for UC faculty and staff who need time off to care for a seriously ill family member or bond with a new child.
“The chancellors were in agreement that this is the right thing to do for our employees,” said Interim Vice President of Systemwide Human Resources Cheryl Lloyd. “Offering paid family leave adds the University of California to the list of other top employers that recognize how important it is to have family friendly policies and practices to recruit and retain the best.”
Systemwide groups that include the Systemwide Advisory Council on the Status of Women (SACSW), the Council of University of California Staff Assemblies (CUCSA) and the Staff Advisors to the Regents have been advocating for this important benefit for many years. The recommendation was developed by a cross functional workgroup comprised of members representing Human Resources, Academic Personnel, UC Legal, staff representatives and leadership, and is in alignment with the paid family leave benefit that is offered by the State of California.
Over the next year, Human Resources leadership, Academic Personnel and faculty leaders across the UC system, as well as other key stakeholders, will collaborate on the development of the new paid family leave benefit, finalizing details about how this new benefit will be implemented and how it will be coordinated with existing leave policies as well as paid family leave benefits already in place at some locations. This benefit is subject to collective bargaining for represented employees. We will keep the UC community informed before the July 1, 2021, effective date, as more information becomes available.
Lauren Hull posted a picture of Happy McGivins in support of the Master Gardener Program.
BIG congratulations! Together we raised over $99,000 in new support across the state with our second annual Big Dig Day campaign. This is an increase of more than three times the individual giving tally from last year. In these unprecedented times, this show of support demonstrates the impact UC ANR is having in our communities and the value that donors place on our work.
More than $82,000 of support was designated to 50 counties and research and extension centers. We received 843 gifts from 738 donors.
We thank all of our donors for their participation, which extends our reach and helps us fulfill our mission for a healthier California. Please view our thank you video and share it with your contacts!
Ventura 4-H added the luck of the 4-H clover to Happy McGivins for Big Dig Day donations.
The following are the top recipients of Big Dig donations.
Top 5 counties:
1. San Luis Obispo
2. Sonoma
3. Contra Costa
4. Orange
5. Sacramento
4-H in San Mateo-San Francisco put Happy McGivins to work in a coloring contest.
Master Gardener volunteers in Stanislaus County planted Happy McGivins in a garden for Big Dig Day.
Happy McGivins thanks you for sharing your Dig Deep messages! With several outstanding entries in these counties, Happy is sending gift cards to these winners!
Ashraf El-kereamy will be the new director of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources' Lindcove Research & Extension Center, starting on July 1, 2020. He will continue to serve as a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences at UC Riverside and based at Lindcove Research & Extension Center.
“Elizabeth Grafton-Cardwell retires this year after 13 years as director of Lindcove REC, California's premier citrus research center,” said Mark Lagrimini, UC ANR vice provost for research and extension. “We are excited to have Ashraf in place to carry on the tremendous success attributable to the research performed at Lindcove. Ashraf brings a breadth of research, extension and leadership skills.”
El-kereamy has extensive experience with several commodities with research revolving around plant hormones, fruit ripening, plant nutrition, and the responses of different plant species to abiotic stress conditions.
Since February 2019, El-kereamy has been serving as a UC Cooperative Extension citrus specialist based at Lindcove Research and Extension Center. Prior to the specialist position, El-kereamy was a UCCE viticulture and small fruit advisor for Kern County, where he established a research and extension program serving the San Joaquin Valley table grape industry for four years. Prior to joining UC ANR, he was an assistant/associate professor in the Department of Horticulture at Ain Shams University in Egypt.
“I am honored and very excited to be the director of Lindcove Research and Extension Center, which plays a crucial role in the California citrus industry,” El-kereamy said. “I am confident that, with the support of our industry, community and the University of California, we will build tomorrow's Lindcove REC as a center of excellence in research and extension. I am looking forward to leading Lindcove REC and providing our clientele with up-to-date technologies to cope with the challenges facing the California agriculture industry.”
El-kereamy earned a bachelor's degree in horticulture and master's degree in pomology from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, and a doctorate in agriculture with an emphasis in grapevine physiology and molecular biology from Toulouse University in France.
Campbell helps UC ANR employees improve their grant applications for success in receiving funding.
“Vanity's reputation as a fierce advocate for inclusive research development, an exceptional organizer, and a passionate cheerleader for her colleagues makes her precisely the kind of person this award was designed to celebrate,” wrote her nominator. “When I think about the future of NORDP, I hope she is helping us to lead it.”
NORDP established the Rising Star Award in 2016 to recognize up to three members annually who have made outstanding volunteer contributions and show great potential for future contributions to NORDP and the research development profession. Campbell will be presented with an etched glass plaque and receive free registration for a future NORDP conference.
Communicators win global awards
Steve Elliott won a silver award for writing "IPM in Yellowstone."
Six UC ANR-affiliated communicators won writing or photography awards in a global competition hosted by the international Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences (ACE).
Steve Elliott, communications coordinator for the Western Integrated Pest Management Center, won one silver (second-place) and two bronze (third-place) for his writing and photography; Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist for the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, two silvers for her writing and photography; and Diane Nelson, communication specialist for the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, won a bronze for her writing.
Ricardo Vela, Miguel Sanchez and Norma de la Vega of UC ANR's News and Information Outreach in Spanish won a bronze award in diversity electronic media and audio for targeted audiences.
Vela, Sanchez and de la Vega's entry and category:
Diversity electronic media and audio for targeted audiences, bronze award for Breakfast - Desayuno de Campeones - English and Spanish videos
The awards were presented during ACE's virtual conference June 24. ACE is an international association of communicators, educators and information technologists who focus on communicating research-based information. The organization offers professional development and networking for individuals who extend knowledge about agriculture, natural resources, and life and human sciences.
Meyer receives Bradford-Rominger Agricultural Sustainability Leadership Award
Deanne Meyer
Deanne Meyer, UC Cooperative Extension livestock waste management specialist, is this year's recipient of the Eric Bradford & Charlie Rominger Agricultural Sustainability Leadership Award, given by the Agricultural Sustainability Institute (ASI) at UC Davis.
Meyer is being honored for her leadership in substantially improving the sustainability of California's dairy industry through her research and outreach.
The Bradford-Rominger award recognizes and honors individuals who exhibit the leadership, work ethic and integrity epitomized by the late Eric Bradford, a livestock geneticist who gave 50 years of service to UC Davis, and the late Charlie Rominger, a fifth-generation Yolo County farmer and land preservationist.
Meyer has directed the environmental stewardship efforts of the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program (CDQAP)—a voluntary partnership between the dairy industry, government and academia—since the program's inception in 1996.
Meyer's dedication to build a bridge between industry and regulatory agencies has paid dividends for California's air and water quality. With Meyer's leadership, more than 700 dairy farms have completed an on-site, third-party evaluation of their facility's manure management. The program has been so successful that it received California's highest environmental honor, the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award, in 2007.
Reflecting on Meyer's work, Glenda Humiston, UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources, said, “Serving as chair of California's Water Quality Task Force in the mid-1990s, I had a front row seat to the challenges Deanne faced as she organized CDQAP and brought many unlikely allies to the table. The many successes of that program is a testament to her skills as both a scientist and a diplomat.”
Beyond Meyer's work with CDQAP, her research in groundwater salinity has provided farmers, agency staff and other concerned stakeholders with unbiased information presented with an understanding of agricultural realities.
“Her efforts, leadership, and dedication are so valued by all the diverse sectors she works across,” said Anita Oberbauer, professor and dean for Agricultural Sciences at UC Davis. “By working closely with regulatory agencies and farmers, she ensures our state's livestock and dairy producers have the tools that they need to meet the environmental challenges.”