Commitment and Continuity

Dear Colleagues,

As I assume the responsibilities of vice president, my strongest goal is to ensure that the entire UC Agriculture and Natural Resources community thrives. With the Strategic Vision as our guide for resource allocation and decision-making, I will work to provide continuity in our programs and operations.

To maintain the momentum already established, I will chair the Executive Council, which is comprised of the deans from the three colleges and the School of Veterinary Medicine. We will continue our critical discussions on strategically allocating our existing resources, seeking new resources, and building the research and extension continuum strengthened by the unrivaled breadth of our subject-matter expertise and our professional excellence.

The Executive Working Group will continue with its existing members, with a number of responsibilities redistributed in the new leadership structure.

Bill Frost will continue to report to me, but will assume many of the duties and relationships of my previous position. Bill will chair ANR’s Program Council. He will also provide leadership to ANR statewide and county programs, county administrative operations, academic personnel, and the Research and Extension Center System. County directors and our first multi-county partnership director report to Bill as of October 1, 2011.

Kay Harrison Taber will report to me and continue her critical leadership in seeking efficiencies in business operations. Thus far we have captured significant administrative savings while improving business and operational efficiencies and releasing additional resources for programmatic support.

Bob Sams will report to me and will take on additional responsibilities of expanding our strategic communications capabilities, advancing advocacy efforts, and improving coordination with campus and UCOP external and government relations units. He will continue to oversee Communication Services and Information Technology.

Don Klingborg will report to me and continue to establish new partnership models with county governments and enhance our local program delivery through stabilized county support.

As we progress, I want to emphasize our ability to meet our commitments and advance our vision for California. To ensure this, my top priority is to fill critical academic positions identified over the past year. We will move as quickly as possible to recruit outstanding academic specialists and advisors.

Additionally, we will move promptly to announce the awards in our competitive grants process and get to work on an exciting range of projects identified by the Strategic Initiatives.

Over the 25 years that I’ve been part of ANR, I’ve been proud to belong to this amazing community with its long list of important accomplishments. Under my leadership, ANR will continue to evolve and develop strong programs and far-reaching plans that improve the lives of Californians and, indeed, the world.

Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President, Agriculture and Natural Resources

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