Posts Tagged: May 2023

L&D - Conversations with stressed farmers, science communication, audio editing, advancing health equity, closed captioning

 

UC ANR LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
Landing page| Webinar Recordings| Learning Resources

Extension Methods & Delivery
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Office, Team, and Personal Management

Confident Conversations: Useful tools to address farmer stress and difficult topics
June 7, 2023
10-11 a.m.

Details & Registration
This four-part webinar series will provide an overview and model the Confident Conversations Curriculum developed by University of Delaware Cooperative Extension and colleagues in the Northeast. 

Multitrack Audio Editing for Beginners, Extension Skills
June 8, 2023
11 a.m.-Noon

Details & Registration
In response to your feedback from our Podcasting for Beginners Extension Skills Session led by Aaron Weibe, June's Extension Skills will focus on multitrack audio editing. In this interactive session, we'll cover the basics of what multitrack audio editing is and walk you through a basic editing session in real time using Adobe Audition!

Climate Change and Science Communication Part 2: Putting it into Practice, Dynamic Discussions
June 22, 2023
11 a.m.-Noon

Details & Registration
As Extension professionals, we communicate science to the public. In our hyperconnected world of web pages, social media, and 30-second video reels, connecting with our audiences, especially on science, can seem like a never-ending uphill battle. Science communication experts are learning how to break through barriers to have meaningful conversations across audiences and identities, in part thanks to advances in communication science. With Sarah Mae Nelson of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Environmental Climate Stewards.

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

Food Recovery for Rhode Island: Cultivating Community-Led Solutions to Food Access and Food Waste, Program Center Stage
June 26, 2023
11 a.m.-Noon

Details & Registration
The Program Center Stage will highlight programs from across the system including current and past New Technologies from Ag Extension projects, Impact Collaborative projects, National programs like EXCITE, and more on the fourth Monday of each month. Each month, we will update the information below for which program we will be putting center stage! This series is open to anyone that would like to attend. Membership in the Extension Foundation is not required to participate.

Resources for Free Stock & Wonderful tutorials on Multimedia Production (Extension Foundation)

Top of page

 

Advancing Health Equity in California: Third of three-part series 

June 7, 2023
2-3:30 p.m. 

Register Session 3 
Are you concerned about increasing health inequities across California? Have you wondered how UC ANR can make a difference?  UC ANR's Community Nutrition and Health unit is proud to host a three-part training series on “Advancing Health Equity” in collaboration with UCSF School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, and Center for Child and Community Health. UC ANR educators, supervisors, advisors and specialists from across our Statewide Programs and Initiatives are invited to attend.    

This will be an interactive learning opportunity to come together and visualize how UC ANR can address critical health disparities we face and put into practice the opportunities outlined in our Strategic Initiatives Health Equity Concept Note (found here on the UC ANR website).   

Image by mcmurryjulie from Pixabay

How to Add Closed Captioning in YouTube
June 15, 2023
Noon-12:30 p.m.

Many people at UC ANR are working to making our products and communications much more accessible. If you are one of these people, please join ANR IT Training and Development Specialist Stephen Dampier to learn how to add closed captioning to YouTube.

Zoom Meeting: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/5307501239?pwd=WDI3U2g5cXRvWUhVUlY3MitJWkVVUT09
Meeting ID: 530 750 1239 Phone +1 669 900 6833 US
Password: 4Collab

Top of page

Business Operations Center Q&A Office Hours
Second & fourth Thursdays
10-11 a.m.

Are you a CD with questions about budget and financial analysis? 
Are you a PI with questions about post-award grant management?
Are you staff with questions about payroll and fiscal close? 

Drop in with your questions. We're here to help!

Zoom: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/94023190790?pwd=a2JUQVVFQk1jRTFFTjBpSUJKWmxTUT09
bocsupport@ucanr.edu 
(530) 212-3950

UC ANR New Employee Welcome – Virtual
June 20, 2023
9-11:20 a.m.

Participate in a concise welcome to ANR! Meet our Leadership team, get to know your colleagues, and learn a bit about ANR and how your role connects to the larger ANR mission. Learn about: UC Davis Health Benefits, UC Davis Fidelity Retirement, UC Davis Ombuds, Staff Assembly, Academic Assembly, Employee Resource Groups

Presenting Technical Information with Stories, LinkedIn Learning

Course link
Storytelling can transform technical talks into dynamic and energizing presentations. In this course, you can learn the top reasons why audiences tune out and discover techniques to make your complex material more memorable and engaging. Instructors Poornima Vijayashanker and Karen Catlin share how to improve your public speaking skills and use storytelling to increase engagement and retention. Get your LinkedIn Learning account today! Contact our ANR IT team at help@ucanr.edu.

Image by Chen from Pixabay

The Eight Dimensions of Wellness
June 21, 2023
10:30-11:30 a.m.

Details & Registration
Well-being is an important part of living a healthy and fulfilled life. There are eight components of wellness defined by SAMSHA and this presentation will discuss intellectual wellness.

Top of page

Screen Shot 2023-06-05 at 3.09.09 PM

Join UC Black Staff & Faculty, BAE for Juneteenth events

UC ANR employees are invited to join the UCOP Black Staff & Faculty Organization for a Juneteenth week of events!

More information and an event flyer (PDF) can be found on the UCOP page. 

The UC ANR Black and Allied Employees are also hosting a "Celebrating Juneteenth" event on June 14, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, featuring Dr. Mary Blackburn and Dr. Keith Nathaniel (see Zoom information in event listings below).

What's Juneteenth

Monday, June 12
Noon-1 p.m.

Come learn about the significance of Juneteenth.

David H. Anthony III, professor emeritus of African History at UC Santa Cruz, will delve into the significance and history of Juneteenth, exploring its roots and its importance in American culture.

Join via Zoom https://ucop.zoom.us/j/93634417310#success

936 3441 7310

Reparations Speaker

Tuesday, June 13
1-2 p.m.

Join Cheryl Grills, Ph.D., as she discusses the meaning and importance of reparations, including the history of reparations in America. She will also provide information on how to support tangible reparations for American Descendants of Slavery.

Join via Zoom https://ucop.zoom.us/j/98089055733#success
962 5244 6327

Celebrating Juneteenth

Wednesday, June 14
10:30 a.m.-Noon

Join UC ANR Black and Allied Employees as we learn about the lives of Dr. Keith Nathaniel and Dr. Mary Blackburn — including their journeys in agriculture and extension, how their experiences shape their work, and how their lives connect to present patterns of inequity that are commonly believed to be a thing of the past. 

Voting Rights

Wednesday, June 14
Noon-1 p.m.

Kristin Nimmers from the California Black Power Network will speak about the importance of voting and voting rights.

Join via Zoom: https://ucop.zoom.us/j/98089055733#success
980 8905 5733

"Ferguson Rises" Film Screening

Thursday, June 15
3-5 p.m.

Join UC colleagues for a special movie screening of "Ferguson Rises," followed by a thought-provoking discussion with esteemed speakers who will explore the themes and issues presented in the film.

In-person at Broadway Conference Center in Oakland or join via Zoom: 

https://ucop.zoom.us/j/91215595154#success
912 1559 5154

Donors show support on UC ANR Giving Day

On UC ANR Giving Day, May 18-19, generous donors throughout the state contributed $80,737 for UC ANR research and extension programs across California.

“This show of support demonstrates the impact we are having in our communities and the role that donors play in our success,” said Emily Delk, director of annual giving.

Some donors contributed comments with their donations:

• “Continue the great education and work!” said Ralph B.
• “Thanks to all the UC Master Gardeners for their expertise and precious gift of time to help residents grow their own food and garden more sustainably,” said Janet H.
• “You help with the important things in life,” said Paul C.

Thanks to the generosity of donors who have supported the UC ANR Incentives Fund, an additional $7,500 will be distributed to UC ANR groups qualifying for our special boost incentives. The ANR Incentive Fund encourages donor engagement resulting in increased giving to all ANR programs.

Participating California 4-H programs had every gift matched thanks to an additional $20,720 in matching funds made possible by the California 4-H Foundation.

Donations received on UC ANR Giving Day go directly to the programs, locations or research area selected by the donor. We are grateful to our UC ANR community of friends and neighbors, as well as our staff and volunteers who came together to support our mission and to make “the donor difference,” that improves the lives of all Californians.

Social Media Stars (in no particular order):

California Naturalist

UC IPM

UC Cooperative Extension - Glenn County

Master Food Preservers - Mariposa

MFP - Orange

MFP - Sacramento

Master Gardeners - Statewide

MG - Colusa

MG - Fresno

MG - Nevada

MG - Orange

MG - Placer

MG - San Luis Obispo

MG - San Mateo & San Francisco

MG - Santa Clara

MG - Sonoma

MG - Stanislaus

MG - Ventura

4-H Statewide

4-H Calaveras

4-H Contra Costa

4-H Glenn

4-H Orange

4-H Sacramento

4-H Tuolumne

‘Open Conversation’ on June 20 offers chance to chat with UC ANR leaders

Many of our UC Agriculture and Natural Resources colleagues have already had the opportunity to chat – in an informal, online setting – with UC ANR leadership about a wide range of topics.

June 20 (1 to 2 p.m.) is your next chance to take part in the series, “Open Conversations with UC ANR Senior Leadership” (submit interest form to participate).

Within this small group format, you can voice your questions, comments, suggestions – or whatever is on your mind – with Vice President Glenda Humiston, Associate Vice President-Business Operations Tu Tran and interim Associate Vice President-Programs Deanne Meyer.

Past participants, such as Ricardo Vela, manager of News & Information Outreach in Spanish, recommend these sessions as a forum for candid, meaningful engagement with leadership.

“I encourage every UC ANR staff member to participate,” Vela said. “Open Conversations with UC ANR Leadership were precisely that – a very casual, open conversation about topics I was interested in. The meeting was not one-sided, and senior leadership showed genuine interest in what I had to say; in the end, participating made me feel that I mattered at UC ANR.” 

Organizers seek to limit enrollment to 20 participants to allow for more in-depth dialogue, so submit your interest form early. Attendees are expected to have mic and camera on for the duration of the online session.

Contact the Program Support Unit at anrprogramsupport@ucanr.edu with any questions.

Names in the News

Galdi moves to UCCE in Merced County 

Giuliano Galdi joined UC Cooperative Extension in Merced County on May 1 as an agronomy and crops advisor. In Merced, he will be working with alfalfa, corn, cotton, and small grain crops, as well as helping with weed management and other issues related to crop production.

He had served as a UC Cooperative Extension agronomy advisor in Siskiyou County since 2019.

While in Siskiyou County, he worked on managing blue alfalfa aphids and investigating crop injury to Roundup Ready alfalfa with Rob Wilson, director of Intermountain Research and Extension Center and UCCE in Siskiyou County; and Tom Getts, UCCE weed and crop systems advisor for Lassen County. Galdi also conducted research on irrigation efficiency, winter groundwater recharge, and soil moisture sensors. 

Prior to joining UCCE, Galdi was a junior specialist at UC Davis (May 2017–December 2018), where he worked on a variety of field trials, mainly alfalfa and forage crops, with the objective of improving the sustainability of water use and hay quality. As a master's student and student research assistant at Fresno State, Galdi evaluated salinity tolerance in different alfalfa varieties. He speaks Portuguese fluently. 

Galdi earned a M.S. in plant sciences from Fresno State and a B.S. in agronomy engineering from University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. 

Galdi is based in Merced and can be reached at (209) 385-7403 and gcgaldi@ucanr.edu.

Reyes joins UCCE as orchard systems advisor 

Clarissa Reyes joined UC Cooperative Extension on March 1 as an orchard systems advisor. Her role focuses on walnut, cling peach and kiwifruit production in Sutter, Yuba, Butte and Placer counties. Reyes serves as a point of contact for orchard owners when they need support diagnosing problems and solving them. 

Reyes is excited about developing climate-adapted management practices and working with the recently expanded team of orchard advisors serving the northern Sacramento Valley, but she also anticipates encountering some challenges. 

“Some of the challenges I expect to face are low crop prices despite increasing costs to farmers, including labor and inputs; water scarcity; and more frequent and higher temperature heat waves affecting fruit development and quality,” explained Reyes.

Reyes earned a master's degree in horticulture and agronomy from UC Davis. She also earned a bachelor's degree in biology from UC San Diego.

When describing her journey into agriculture, Reyes said that she “likes the way food makes it easy to connect with people.” She also said that after realizing a career in biotech was “not a good fit,” she let her love for gardening alter her career path.

“I'm really into food systems and food is an important part of culture,” said Reyes. “So, it was the overlap of research and food. Even though the science part can go over someone's head, everyone understands food.”

Before joining Cooperative Extension, she worked as a junior specialist studying plant-water relations at UC Davis. While her research was focused on grapevines, she started working with walnut trees, which exposed her to opportunities in orchard systems. Afterwards, she became a staff research associate in orchards systems in Butte, Glenn and Tehama Counties.

Reyes is based out of the UC Cooperative Extension office in Yuba City and can be reached at clareyes@ucanr.edu.

Sedell joins Program Planning and Evaluation 

Jennifer Sedell joined UC ANR on May 16 as a program policy analyst with Program Planning and Evaluation. Sedell will be managing the UC Delivers Blog, leading publication of future UC ANR annual reports, and providing analytical support to Vice President Glenda Humiston, among other projects.

Before joining UC ANR, she worked at UC Davis for over 10 years in the Departments of Entomology and Human Ecology, and with senior leadership for Undergraduate Education. She completed her master's in community development and Ph.D. in geography at UC Davis with a focus on agricultural and environmental policy. Her research has been published in Geoforum, Food, Culture and Society, Liberal Education, and the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council.

Sedell brings experience assessing projects and programs. With partners in entomology and human ecology, she evaluated community perceptions of plant-health emergency programs in California. The work resulted in the USDA accepting several recommendations to improve community engagement in their emergency response system. Most recently, she evaluated efforts to make agricultural education more equitable, inclusive and culturally responsive for the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, which used to include UC ANR's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

Over her career, Sedell has worked with government agencies and community-based organizations to identify community needs. She has collaborated on institutional and programmatic strategic plans. In addition to her work at UC Davis, Sedell has worked at the American Red Cross managing AmeriCorps programs across Oregon. Prior to that, she coordinated programming for the Sexual and Gender Minority Youth Resource Center in Portland as an AmeriCorps member. 

Sedell is based at UCOP in the Franklin Building in Oakland and can be reached at jennifer.sedell@ucop.edu and (510) 987-0199.

Choi joins Risk and Safety Services 

Duwon Choi joined Risk and Safety Services on March 20 as an environmental health and safety specialist.

Along with his Risk and Safety Services colleagues, Choi is responsible for overseeing safety and environmental aspects of programs and research at UC ANR. He is currently focusing on ergonomics to make sure every ANR staff member can work in a comfortable setting. 

Prior to joining UC ANR, Choi worked as an EH&S specialist at Mare Island Drydock in Vallejo, maintaining vessels for the Navy, Coast Guard and various ship liners.

Choi graduated from UC Davis in 2015 with a B.S. in neurobiology, physiology and behavior and a minor in Art Studio, with an original ambition to pursue dentistry, but he switched to environmental health and safety.

“In my spare time,” he says, “you can catch me traveling off somewhere in the world, going skiing at Lake Tahoe in the winter, or being a butler to my tuxedo cat, Bomi.”

Choi is based at the UC ANR building in Davis and can be reached at dwchoi@ucanr.edu and (530) 240-7146.

Paradise joins Risk and Safety Services 

Jacob Paradise joined Risk and Safety Services on April 24 as an environmental health and safety specialist.

Paradise will be assisting Risk & Safety in environmental stewardship and compliance, emergency preparedness and response efforts, institutional resiliency and continuity of operations, as well as integration of new software and tools from the systemwide Risk & Safety Solutions team. 

Prior to joining UC ANR, he worked in waste diversion, wine and hospitality. Paradise, who moved to Davis from Oakland two years ago, earned a degree in environmental studies from San Francisco State University.

Paradise is based at the UC ANR building in Davis and can be reached at jparadise@ucanr.edu.

Harris honored by University of Wisconsin-Madison institute

Linda J. Harris, UC Cooperative Extension food safety specialist at UC Davis, was awarded the William C. Frazier Memorial Lectureship in Food Microbiology by the Food Research Institute in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at University of Wisconsin-Madison. The award was presented at the FRI's 2023 Spring Meeting on May 16 in Madison, Wisconsin.

In her lectureship presentation, “Nuts! How a foodborne outbreak serendipitously shaped a career,” Harris described how in 2001, an outbreak of salmonellosis was linked, for the first time, to consumption of raw California almonds.

The traceback investigation identified the outbreak strain in the almonds at retail and all along the supply chain back to the orchard. As the outbreak investigation was winding down, her laboratory was beginning what became a 20+ year journey investigating Salmonella and almonds from production agriculture through final consumption. Studies sought to uncover potential routes of contamination and long-term environmental persistence of Salmonella during production, harvest and postharvest handling. Laboratory studies focused on methods to inoculate and recover microorganisms from almonds, survival of pathogens on almonds during storage, and evaluation of the thermal resistance of pathogens and candidate surrogates.

These data, along with information on the prevalence and levels of Salmonella in almonds, enabled the development of quantitative microbial risk assessments, the establishment of appropriate target reductions for lethality process controls, and validation of several key commercial practices such as blanching and oil roasting. More recent studies have explored the risks associated with soaking almonds and a range of dairy analogs made from them.

Since worldwide nut production has expanded rapidly over the past 20 years with a corresponding increase in consumption, Harris and her laboratory's work with the behavior, movement, prevalence, and especially control of foodborne pathogens, from the field to consumer handling, from almonds to pistachios and walnuts, has been and will continue to be a foundation for food-safety tree nut and produce research. – Zann Gates 

Ferguson named ASHS Fellow

Louise Ferguson, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, has been named a fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science and will be inducted into the organization's 60th class of fellows at a ceremony Aug. 1. The award recognizes decades of leadership and, more recently, Ferguson's efforts to build a leadership training program for younger members.

The recognition is “more than well-deserved and should have happened YEARS ago!” wrote ASHS Executive Director Michael Neff. ASHS fellows are elected “in recognition of outstanding contributions to the science, profession, or industry of horticulture,” he added.

“It is gratifying to be honored by one's peers,” said Ferguson.

Under Ferguson's guidance, the ASHS Leadership Academy began two years ago by offering online seminars to participants from all over the United States. “We're training them to be leaders in our professional society, and also to be advocates for the society,” Ferguson said. The program pulls together the ASHS foundations of research, teaching and practice, which was capped earlier this year by a trip to Washington, D.C., to advocate in Congress for the 2023 Farm Bill Reauthorization.

The current second class of the Leadership Academy will graduate and the third class will be inducted at the ASHS annual meeting, July 31 to Aug. 4, in Orlando, Florida.

Leadership training is important to Ferguson because she didn't get it early in her own career, she said. She wants to see the generation of new leaders coming up – as well as ASHS as a whole – to benefit from good preparation in this area, she added.

Ferguson has served as the society's president and president-elect during the challenging days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has received other honors. – Trina Kleist

Kearns wins book award 

Faith Kearns' book “Getting to the Heart of Science Communication: A Guide to Effective Engagement” was selected as a 2023 Nautilus Book Awards Gold Winner in the category of Relationships & Communication (large press).

For scientists to communicate effectively about science, they must not only be experts in their fields of study, they must navigate the thoughts, feelings and opinions of the people they engage with and with each other. 

Kearns, an academic coordinator for the California Institute for Water Resources at University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, has written about what she has learned in 25 years of practice in Getting to the Heart of Science Communication: A Guide to Effective Engagement from Island Press. The book includes on-the-ground experiences of many science communicators, including those working in Cooperative Extension. 

Dahlquist-Willard appointed to state Ag Land Equity Task Force  

Ruth Dahlquist-Willard, UC Cooperative Extension small farms advisor for Fresno and Tulare counties, has been appointed to the California Agricultural Land Equity Task Force.

She is among the 12 inaugural members appointed by the California Strategic Growth Council to the task force, which will develop policy recommendations to equitably increase access to agricultural land for food production and traditional tribal agricultural uses. Established by the Legislature last year, the task force will meet every quarter over three years and submit a full report of policy recommendations to the State Legislature and Governor by January 1, 2026.

Historically, women and people of color in California have been blocked from stable access to land and other resources necessary for successful farming, a legacy that persists today. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows only 37% of all farmers in the California are female and only 9% are Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). In 2020, the California Department of Food and Agriculture found that such farmers and ranchers often lack stable access to land, which negatively affects the long-term sustainability of their businesses. Equitably increasing stable access to agricultural land in California will promote farmers' economic resilience, a robust food system in the state, and healthy natural and working lands.

The task force will have 13 regionally diverse members, including native and tribal liaisons, a land trust representative, individuals with expertise in issues affecting socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers, an individual with expertise in agricultural land acquisition and finance, a State Board of Food and Agriculture member, a farmworker representative, a beginning farmer, the California Department of Food and Agriculture Farm Equity Advisor, and an individual from the new California Department of Food and Agriculture BIPOC Farmer Advisory Committee.

Dahlquist-Willard will contribute her expertise in issues affecting socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers.

Read more