Posts Tagged: Leadership

Look for needs assessment Aug. 18; Drake reflects on his first year in office

Tomorrow (Aug. 18) you will receive by email a survey created by the UC systemwide Talent Management Consortium with my name in the “From” line. This survey is a needs assessment to gather feedback on UC's local and systemwide training opportunities on leadership and organization development.

Your feedback is important. This survey will present you with several existing, in-development, and potential courses and/or services. Please take this opportunity to weigh in on the value and need of leadership training content and organization development services in our UC communities. Thank you in advance for your participation.

I am also pleased to share with you a video message from President Drake to the UC community as he reflects on his first year in office, thanks the UC community, and shares his optimism for the future. I echo his sentiment of pride and optimism in the work we do every day and look forward to expanding the positive impact we have in communities across the State of California.

Glenda Humiston
Vice President

A proposal to strengthen ANR’s leadership structure

Dear Colleagues,

As most of you know, Bill Frost, our associate vice president (AVP), intends to retire in June. In light of his impending departure from ANR, we are looking at augmenting the leadership structure to provide better support for ANR's extensive programs and initiatives. Currently we have challenges in balancing program delivery and administration with the need to expand our efforts in strategic initiatives, partnerships, funds development and raising the profile of ANR. To better provide for those needs, we're moving forward with a few modest but important modifications. The changes are in no way set in stone — we're going to evaluate things over the next several months and will make adjustments as needed. Those changes will be:

• The new AVP, which is under recruitment, will have several current responsibilities removed and be based at UC Office of the President in Oakland (UCOP). This will allow the new AVP and the AVP for Business Operation to work closely as a team on day-to-day operations, and to coordinate regularly with counterparts at UCOP. The new AVP will be more focused on ANR's engagement with the entire UC system, policy issues and partnerships that will benefit ANR. One aim of this change is to augment the Vice President's ability to engage more on funds development, strategic opportunities, policy development, expanding collaborations and raising ANR's profile.
  
  
• We will create a new position, Vice Provost Strategic Initiatives & Statewide Programs. The leaders of the strategic initiatives, Nutrition Policy Institute, California Institute for Water Resources and statewide programs will all report to the Vice Provost Strategic Initiatives & Statewide Programs. The position, which will be based in Davis, will coordinate ANR's engagement in the UC President's initiatives, provide leadership for ANR's Strategic Initiatives and enhance synergies between initiatives and our various programs. Like the Vice Provost for Cooperative Extension, this new position will report to the AVP.
  
  
• Management of the REC System will be removed from the AVP and the current associate director position will be elevated to director. Lisa Fischer will be appointed interim REC System director for two years, followed by an open recruitment for the director position.

Going forward, the Senior Leadership Team, along with 21 program and unit directors, will serve as my VP Council. We will meet quarterly to strategize on how best to engage with initiatives, new partners and opportunities as they arise. The VP Council will also serve as a sounding board on policy and program issues as well as help design action plans to best serve ANR goals. Shortly after these changes are implemented, we will also seek to empower both the Academic Assembly and the new Staff Assembly to serve as strong voices in the shared governance of ANR.

It is my hope that these changes will enhance our efforts to rebuild the ANR and Cooperative Extension footprint around the state. These modifications should allow me to do what I see as the core part of my job: finding new sources of funding, building new partnerships, enhancing key collaborations, and positioning ANR as the premiere source of science and solutions for the challenges facing agriculture, natural resources and the health of our communities. I also believe that improving the ability of all the voices in the ANR system to be heard will greatly improve how we advance that science and develop those solutions. We will all be able to achieve far more as a well-functioning team with access to the knowledge, information and skills of every member.

Thank you for being part of the ANR team. I look forward to working with you as we implement these changes!

Glenda

Glenda Humiston
Vice President

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

ANR seeks nominations for Western Extension Leadership Program

Dear UC Cooperative Extension Colleagues,

We are soliciting nominations for the Western Extension Leadership Development VII program, which will begin in 2013.  The 15-month professional development program is designed for Cooperative Extension faculty, advisors, educators and specialists in the western United States and territories.

In the WELD program, participants learn and apply leadership skills. Objectives for the participants include:

• Developing awareness and appreciation of their own and others’ leadership styles and learning to apply appropriate techniques in working with individuals.
• Developing skills and enabling themselves and others to develop, articulate and implement organization/group direction.
• Enabling the organization/group to effectively implement planned change.
• Developing skills to enable others to work together effectively.

The WELD program consists of four dynamic learning experiences:

• A personal leadership inventory and assessment.
• A leadership seminar covering leadership styles, defining direction, working together through teams, community action process, ethical decision-making and more.
• An individual leadership project with support and resources, such as a case study documentation and mentoring relationships.
• A capstone seminar during which participants share their innovative projects.

The first of two WELD meetings will begin Feb. 25, 2013, in San Diego. The second meeting will be in May 2014 at a site to be determined.  All costs are covered by ANR.

If you would like to discuss the WELD program with recent participants, Yana Valachovic, Khaled Bali, Shannon Dogan and Darren Haver completed the program this year. You may also contact Shannon Mueller, who serves on the WELD planning group.

If you are interested in participating in the WELD program, contact me by Oct. 31 at wefrost@ucanr.edu.

Bill Frost
Director, Research & Extension Center System
Associate Director, Cooperative Extension & Agricultural Experiment Station

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

 

Leadership notes about collaboration, budget and communication posted

An ANR leadership meeting was held June 28 at the UC Davis Activities & Recreation Center. In addition to the Executive Working Group, Strategic Initiative leaders, executive associate deans, county directors, statewide program directors, REC directors, and unit directors attended.

Dan Dooley, Barbara Allen-Diaz, Kay Harrison Taber, Bill Frost, Bob Sams and Don Klingborg gave updates on ANR’s budget and restructuring efforts that have been completed or are under way.

For the majority of the meeting, the participants formed break out groups to discuss four questions and brainstorm answers.

The four questions were:

1. How do we as ANR’s leadership catalyze the development of internal partnerships across the continuum and prevent silos from forming?
2. What changes not mentioned this morning do we need to consider to help preserve more of our budget for hiring positions?
3. Beyond the ANR Report and our weekly email updates, what can we do to more effectively communicate with you, ANR’s leadership team, and with the whole of ANR?
4. How do we better support you in your role of communicating with others in and outside of ANR?  What roles does each of us play in telling our story to achieve awareness, understanding and support?

Group responses from the brainstorm session were recorded by facilitators and are now posted at http://ucanr.org/files/117046.pdf. These brainstorming comments will be used to further develop and refine the Division's structure, procedures and communication practices.

View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

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