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Posts Tagged: June 2020
Names in the News
El-kereamy named Lindcove REC director
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 named NORDP Rising Star for 2020
The National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP) has named Vanity Campbell, UC ANR proposal development coordinator, one of its three Rising Stars for 2020.
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
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.
Elliott's entries and the categories:
- Writing for the Web, silver award for “IPM in Yellowstone”
- Photo Essay, bronze award for “Growing in Guam”
- Social media, bronze award for single blog post, “To Communicate Better, Start with Audience”
Garvey's entries and the categories:
- Writing for Newspapers, silver award for “Paying It Forward,” about the successful career of award-winning academic advisor Elvira Galvan Hack
- Picture Story, silver award for “Kira Meets a Stick Insect” (at Bohart Museum of Entomology)
Nelson's entry and category:
- Writing for the Web, bronze award for "Can Science Save Citrus?"
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.
Read more at https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=42747.
Meyer receives Bradford-Rominger Agricultural Sustainability Leadership Award
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.”
Learning & Development: Identify major donors; fire education; science for skeptics; unwritten rules for Black youth
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Individual commitment to a group effort or goal, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” – Vince Lombardi (former head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers)
Call for proposals: National Association of Extension Programs & Staff Development Professionals (NAEPSDP) Conference Dec. 1-3, 2020
The 2020 Conference Planning Committee is requesting presentation proposals for the 2020 NAEPSDP Conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The purpose of the presentations is to share research, application, theory/philosophy, or innovative educational models related to, but not limited to: evaluation and assessment; staff development; organizational development; program development and delivery; technology; and communications. In the scenario that the 2020 NAEPSDP Conference is moved to an online format due to COVID-19 and university travel restrictions, you will be asked to deliver your presentation virtually. More information here.
Identifying major gift donors - Part 1 of 4 Part Series (Development Services)
Wednesday, July 8 (Parts 2-4 - 9/9, 10/7, 11/4)
10:00 a.m. -10:45 a.m.
Join Greg Gibbs and Kelly Scott to learn the pivotal role major gifts play in the success of fundraising campaigns. We will walk through the process of identifying major gift prospects (gifts >$25K), discuss strategies for donor engagement, and learn about various ways donors can give.
Zoom access: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/751701428?pwd=Q1ZrbUtoQVJwMXJVRkQydUlwNytJQT09 - 1 669 900 6833 or +1 646 558 8656 - Webinar ID: 751 701 428
Program Outcomes Through Common Measures - Part 1 of two-part series
Wednesday July 8, 2020 (Part 2 – 7/22)
11:00 a.m.- noon
In this webinar, Roshan Kumar Nayak will cover steps to design and incorporate evaluation into a new or an existing program. The webinars will also focus on California statewide 4-H program evaluation efforts and the procedures to access country-specific evaluation results.
Zoom access: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/751701428?pwd=Q1ZrbUtoQVJwMXJVRkQydUlwNytJQT09 - 1 669 900 6833 or +1 646 558 8656 - Webinar ID: 751 701 428
Business writing that builds relationships – Online Workshop UC Davis (Register here)
Thursday, July 9, 2020
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
We'll discuss and write emails and letters, applying relationship-building communication principles to routine situations and those that require special care and sensitivity.
You will learn:
- Ways to add “heart” to your writing to build and maintain relationships
- Risky email behaviors that lead to trouble
- Strategies for writing powerful thank-yous that build relationships
- How and why to write sincere, productive apologies
- The importance of communicating bad news, rather than concealing it
- The value of saying “no” clearly, and the necessary parts of the “no message”
- How to use MS Word tools to ensure readability
Fire education to prepare residents for wildfire in California oak woodlands
July 14, 2020
11 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Register here
Join Hannah Bird who will discuss lessons focused on the positive! She and her team don't spend time on things that cannot be changed. Rather they teach crucial concepts of fire science and build on them to make schools, families and communities more fire prepared.
https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/751701428?pwd=Q1ZrbUtoQVJwMXJVRkQydUlwNytJQT09 - 1 669 900 6833 or +1 646 558 8656 - Webinar ID: 751 701 428
Communicating science to skeptics and the uninformed – Third Thursday WebANR Series
July 16, 2020
Noon - 12:30 p.m.
Join Peggy Lemaux for some simple suggestions -
- Know your audience
- Listen to their concerns and stay calm
- Make it relevant
- Keep it simple; use analogies and avoid jargon
- Encourage questions; answer factually
Zoom access: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/751701428?pwd=Q1ZrbUtoQVJwMXJVRkQydUlwNytJQT09 - 1 669 900 6833 or +1 646 558 8656 - Webinar ID: 751 701 428
Program outcomes through common measures - Part 2 of 2 - Part Series
Wednesday July 22, 2020
11:00 a.m.-Noon
Join Roshan Kumar Nayak to learn about the 4-H National Common Measures instruments used for measuring 4-H program impacts. Participants will learn about available tools and their use. The webinars will focus on how 4-H staff can access and use these Common Measures tools to evaluate their programs. Participants will also learn the use of Common Measures reporting template. Zoom access: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/751701428?pwd=Q1ZrbUtoQVJwMXJVRkQydUlwNytJQT09 - 1 669 900 6833 or +1 646 558 8656 - Webinar ID: 751 701 428
Academic cost recovery/salary savings
Wednesday July 29
9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Kathy Nolan will provide information on why you should include full cost recovery on a proposal budget and set up a salary savings account. Salary savings can be used as a PI's discretionary account to cover expenses on other programmatic activities beyond the funded project. Zoom access: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/751701428?pwd=Q1ZrbUtoQVJwMXJVRkQydUlwNytJQT09 - 1 669 900 6833 or +1 646 558 8656 - Webinar ID: 751 701 428
‘Let's Just Make It Home.' The unwritten rules Blacks learn to navigate racism in America (Time.com)
Speak in short sentences. Be clear. Direct but not rude. Stay calm, even if you're shaking inside. Never put your hands in your pockets. Make sure people can always see your hands. Try not to hunch your shoulders. Listen to their directions. Darnell Hill, a pastor and a mental health caseworker, offers Black teenagers these emotional and physical coping strategies every time a Black person is fatally shot by a police officer. That's when parents' worries about their sons and daughters intensify. “They're hurting,” Hill says. “They're looking for answers.” (Read more here)
Confronting Bias: Thriving across our differences LinkedIn Learning modules
Verna Myers and Ariana Huffington
We're living at a time when diversity and inclusion at work and in the rest of our lives are finally beginning to be taken seriously. Not only because they make our workplaces more just, but because performance improves when we're surrounded by people who look and think differently from us. Yet for all the progress we've made we have a long to go toward creating workplaces that truly work for everyone.
For example, far too many workplaces are fueled by a culture of machismo. It's so often driven by a growth above our mindset and the glorification of burnout. We talk a lot about gender parity and how there should be more women at the top of every profession, but we're never going to get there if we don't change the day-to-day experience of women at every level. For decades Verna Myers has been helping organizations eradicate barriers based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and other differences in order to build a new stronger, more productive status quo. Read more.
Credit: https://icons8.com
Everyone can learn something new.
Learning & Development
Office: 530.750.1239
jlazulai@ucanr.edu
UCCE integrated pest management expert retires after 25-year career
Wilen earned a bachelor's degree in horticulture at the University of Maryland, a master's degree in horticulture at University of Arizona and a doctoral degree at UC Riverside. Following graduation, Wilen worked a year at UC Riverside as a post-doctoral fellow.
In 1995, Wilen was hired by UC ANR to conduct applied research in the turf, ornamental horticulture and nursery industries to develop and promote the use of integrated pest management in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange counties. She shared her results and information generated by scientists across the university with growers and pest control advisers to reduce the use of toxic pesticides, cut the cost of pest control and use environmentally sound methods in production.
Over the years, Wilen was frequently tapped to take on leadership roles while maintaining her academic program. She served as acting and interim director of the Statewide UC IPM Program, program leader of UCCE's Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases Strategic Initiative, and as county director in San Diego County. Wilen also had opportunities to take sabbatical and study leaves to improve her Spanish-speaking skills, learn about international participatory extension methodology and receive training on research methods to study snails and slugs.
“I love working with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources,” Wilen said. “The positions I held matched well with my professional and personal style. I always felt that I was responsible for choosing my destination and the journey to get there, whether that was my career or my research and extension programs.”
Wilen said she also valued the relationships she developed over the years in her job.
“I met and became friends with people in UC that I would never have been so lucky to know without the opportunities afforded me by serving on diverse committees,” Wilen said. “If I could give one piece of advice to early career people, it would be not to look at these requests as ‘but I'm so busy, I can't do it,' but rather, ‘this will expand my network and my worth to UC and the communities we serve and pay off in the long run.'”
Wilen has been awarded the honor of emeritus status, which will continue her academic relationship with UCCE even after her stint in the director post is complete.
“I have a couple of grants I'm continuing to work on,” she said.
She also has plans to do things that she didn't have time for while working full time.
“Plans for my free time include entering sweepstakes, organizing electronics cables, continuing to paddle with my outrigger canoe club, exploring the outdoors, travel, volunteering and enjoying time with my partner and the rest of my family,” she said.
Mendocino UC Cooperative Extension advisor Glenn McGourty retires
After earning a bachelor's degree in botany at Humboldt State and a master's degree in plant, soil and water science at the University of Nevada Reno, McGourty worked as a Cooperative Extension urban horticulturist in Las Vegas. Later he was a lecturer in the Environmental Horticulture Department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and managed his family's walnut farm in nearby Paso Robles part time.
When McGourty was named a UCCE farm advisor, UC was beginning to endorse a systems approach to sustainable farming.
“I was certainly one of the people who took it to heart,” McGourty said.
In the late 1980s, most grape growers in Mendocino County disked the soil in vineyard rows every year to reduce weeds. Insecticides were applied that kept workers out of the vineyard for three weeks.
“Vineyards seemed pretty barren and not friendly to nature. We had a lot of soil erosion and water quality issues,” McGourty said. “My colleagues and I tried to find solutions that would boost soil organic matter and encourage beneficial insects and mites. One of our landmark research projects was coming up with good cover cropping systems for wine grapes.”
Those practices are widely implemented today, and across California interest in soil health and sustainability continue to grow. McGourty was assigned to also serve Lake County, where wine growers there adopted a strong interest in sustainable wine-growing practices.
“We have the Healthy Soils Program, in which CDFA is paying farmers to grow cover crops and use compost to sequester carbon in the soil. This came out of our research on alternative farming systems conducted in our region,” McGourty said.
Another research interest has been evaluating wine grapes from the Mediterranean region adapted to warm climates.
“After many years of working with ornamental plants, I realized that the plants that do best in California are all from a Mediterranean climate region,” McGourty said. “It made sense for me to look for wine grape varieties that like that climate, too.”
His research included trips to the Mediterranean area where he visited the wine grape varieties he had evaluated in their native habitat. He was invited to speak at foreign universities and conferences in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Australia on projects focused on alternative wine grape farming systems, including sustainable, organic and biodynamic farming in California.
McGourty has been honored by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources with emeritus status. As an emeritus advisor, McGourty plans to work on a national online database of wine grape varieties adapted to warm climates. In addition, he will be involved in a Lake County research project conducting a detailed evaluation of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes on multiple clones and rootstocks.
Retirement promises to be busy for McGourty. In March, he received the most votes in the primary election for a position on the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. He will be immersed in campaigning until the runoff election in November.
Even if the election doesn't go his way, McGourty won't be idle. He manages a 10-acre wine grape and walnut farm on the Russian River, where he farms with the sustainable practices he taught local farmers during his career.
“I am so lucky! I have had one of the best jobs in UC and live in one of the prettiest places in California,” he said.
San Joaquin County UCCE nutrition educator Anna Martin retires after 26-year career
With a bachelor's degree in home economics from California State University, Sacramento, Martin took a part-time position in 1993 as an educator with the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education program in San Joaquin County. A year later, she was elevated to full time to also work on the Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program, which is now called CalFresh Healthy Living, UC. Both programs are federally funded initiatives administered by UC Cooperative Extension to help low-income families use their food budgets to put healthful meals on the table.
In 2001, Martin completed a master's degree in community nutrition and was named to the academic position she held in San Joaquin County the next 19 years.
“I designed my program to promote individual, community, system and environmental changes to positively impact the health behaviors of low-income youth and families,” Martin said. “Working with my colleagues across the state, we sought to understand and address obesity and chronic disease prevention, health disparities, food safety and food insecurity.”
Martin studied the health behaviors of low-income populations to develop curricula, delivery methods, evaluation tools and other materials that could be incorporated into the education programs. Over the years, Martin co-authored 26 peer-reviewed publications, 62 abstracts or posters, and 52 non-peer reviewed publications or reports.
Despite these many achievements, Martin said she most valued the interactions with current and past co-workers and colleagues in San Joaquin County and across the state, the people she describes as her “work family.”
“I think the experience has been so positive because we come together around projects and programs that make a difference in the health and welfare of the families we serve,” Martin said. “My years with Cooperative Extension have created strong bonds within UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and within my community that I foresee will last a lifetime.”
