2023-24 Call for Cooperative Extension Positions

The 2023-24 Call for Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Positions was announced in September 2023. On May 24, 2024, Vice President Humiston announced the positions to be released, see the ANR Update blog. UC ANR doesn’t just refill past positions, instead identifies priority positions to address the most pressing needs, including California’s emerging and future needs.

The final list of the approved 29 Advisor positions and 20 Specialist positions are listed in the tables below. The UCCE Advisor positions will be released for recruitment in small batches over the next several months to facilitate engagement of various selection committees. The UCCE Specialists will be released to campuses for recruitment upon completion of the Memorandums of Agreements (MOAs) currently being renewed between UC ANR and the campuses/host sites.

Rebuilding the UCCE footprint continues to be a priority for UC ANR to provide the expertise needed to improve the lives of all Californians consistently and significantly. The historic 2021-22 state budget increase allowed UC ANR to release over 100 UCCE academic positions to date. UC ANR also continues to pursue non-traditionally funded positions as a complementary strategy to grow the programmatic footprint. There are UC ANR resources on: how to develop co-funded positions and shared benefits of funding partnerships.

NEW ADVISOR POSITIONS

NEW SPECIALIST POSITIONS

Process Information

Link to the 2023-24 Call for Positions process flowchart with more details

Resources

• Link to CE Position Proposal Template (required)
• Link to CE Position Proposal Criteria
• Link to FAQs
• Recorded webinar about the process for Program Team Leaders and campus leadership

Submittal groups were expected to work collaboratively across the UC ANR network and seek external stakeholder input. See list below.

For CE Advisor Positions:

• County Directors work with the Research and Extension Center System in their regional teams. Link to list of County and REC Directors
• Regional teams of groups listed above prioritize 6 positions per each of the 5 regional teams (listed in process PPT linked above).

For CE Specialist Positions:

• Research and Extension Centers - at least 3 for the system
• UC Campus Provosts and/or Chancellors ~18 in total; encouraging 1 per priority idea identified by each UC ANR Program Team and that align with campus academic planning priorities

Submission

• Regional team leads for County Directors and REC Directors: Use the Universal Review System (URS) accessed from the ANR Portal.
• UC Campus Provosts or Chancellors: Email proposals directly to UC ANR Associate Vice President of Research and Cooperative Extension, Brent Hales at Brent.Hales@ucop.edu. For any questions, please contact Brent. For more information regarding how appointments will be handled between UC ANR and UC campuses other than UCB, UCD, and UCR, there is a Memorandum of Understandingand the APM guidelines. The proposals will be added to URS by UC ANR so they appear on this web page, and display as "submitted by" Brent Hales.

UCCE Programmatic Footprint Maps:

• Link to maps
• These maps illustrate current positions for UCCE Advisors, UCCE Specialists, other UCCE Academics, and Community Educators, as well as the UCCE Advisor and Specialist positions under-recruitment. Secondary data layers provide county level data with relevant information that, when coupled with local knowledge, can help illuminate gaps/needs to inform UCCE position proposal development and future hiring.
• Recording to maps overview and demo (30 minutes)

For overall process questions, contact Katherine Webb-Martinez at katherine.webb-martinez@ucop.edu or (510) 987-0029.

For questions about using the Universal Review System (URS), contact Chris Hanson at christopher.hanson@ucop.edu.

The CE Specialist will provide statewide leadership in vegetable production. The focus of this position will be to improve the efficiency and sustainability of vegetable production systems. Major responsibilities will be statewide leadership of UC AES and CE research and extension efforts in vegetable production, in close coordination with California vegetable producers, allied industries and UCCE Farm Advisors. The successful candidate will work at the state and county level to solve production issues in cool and warm season vegetable crops as well as small-acreage vegetable crops. The vegetable industry has unique commodity needs and challenges, including declining water availability, water quality as well as declining availability and cost of labor. Other challenges are nutrient management to improve water quality and comply with nitrogen management regulations while maintaining crop yield and produce quality. Increasingly, shifts in production systems include organic production, greenhouse and protected culture production while the mainstay remains open field production. Work will span assisting vegetable growers, processors and fresh packers as well as associated pest control and crop production advisors across a diverse range of cool and warm season vegetable crops such as carrots, celery, cole crops, leafy greens, melons, onions and tomatoes. The educational and professional requirements are a PhD in horticulture, agronomy, cropping systems, soil science, soil-water-plant relations, plant physiology or a closely related discipline. Experience in vegetable production, irrigated agriculture, plus a working knowledge of statistical analysis and interdisciplinary research is highly desirable. The Specialist will be a faculty member of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. Supporting and collaborating units include CE advisors, CE and AES faculty in Plant Sciences, discipline related departments at UCD, UCSC and UCR (e.g. Food Science, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Entomology, Organic Production, Plant Pathology, Weed Science), USDA scientists, UC IPM, Agriculture Sustainability Institute, Small Farms Programs, Postharvest Technology Center, and several strong commodity and crosscommodity organized research and/or marketing advisory boards. The successful candidate will partner with County-based Advisors and REC personnel to conduct applied research in vegetable crops as well as coordinate and participate in outreach activities such as field days, extension meetings and publications.