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.

Position Title: Area Citrus (Tulare, Kings and Kern) and Pistachio (Kern) Advisor

Developed and proposed by: Pomology Program Team, Pest Management Program Team, Subtropical Perennial Crop Workgroup, County Directors for Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Kings Counties and Kern County with input from the pistachio and citrus industries.

Position: The Area Citrus & Pistachio Advisor will cover Tulare, Kings and Kern County citrus production, as well as pistachios in Kern County. The advisor will be responsible for developing a problem-solving and educational program for high priority production issues related to climate and drought resilience in citrus and pistachios, including warmer temperatures, decreased water availability and decreased water quality through research and extension of solutions that may include rootstock and cultivar selection, irrigation and soil management, and emerging innovative farming practices. Additionally, the advisor will work on horticultural solutions to production challenges in both crops, integrating research and expertise from colleagues in agricultural engineering, irrigation, plant pathology and entomology to address concerns such as limited labor availability, limited and increasingly expensive inputs (e.g. labor, water, nutrients), the threat of huanglongbing disease (HLB), and other emerging pests and diseases. The position requires a Master’s degree or higher in horticulture, pomology, crop physiology, agroecology, plant nutrition, or related disciplines, and experience in field research and extension service. The ideal candidate will have experience working with people of different backgrounds to work effectively with growers from different cultures and at different scales. The position will be headquartered in Tulare County, and report to the Fresno-Madera-Tulare-Kings County Director. The position will have the opportunity to become a respected expert and resource to colleagues in citrus and pistachio production. The position will work with related departments at the Riverside, Davis, Merced, and Berkeley campuses, UCCE specialists in related disciplines, the Kearney, Lindcove and Westside Research & Extension Centers, and UCCE advisors in relevant workgroups and Program Teams.

Justification: Sustaining citrus production in Tulare, Kings and Kern Counties is critical to the area’s 1,800 citrus growers, many of whom are small-scale family farmers, to the regional rural economy, which benefits from its $6.3 billion in impact across farm income, processing, input sales, etc. (given that the region represents 70% of statewide citrus production), and to the employees of the more than 15,000 FTE jobs that citrus supports in these three counties. Sustaining pistachios production in Kern County is similarly important for the state and region, with 27% of the state’s pistachio yield resulting in $1.7 billion in economic output and 14,900 jobs across farm income, processing, input sales, etc.. In many ways, citrus and pistachio are the ideal, high value “climate smart” crops to sustain rural agricultural economies in the warmer, drier decades to come. Citrus can sustain yields through the region’s increasingly warm winters, while pistachios thrive under hot summers, and tolerate higher water stress and salinity than most crops. However, both crops face challenges that require local, on the ground, research-based solutions, to continue to contribute to the rural economies of the southern San Joaquin Valley. Citrus will be challenged by the limited water availability from increased droughts and implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, along with increased input costs, decreased labor availability, and the threat of HLB disease. County-based research at a production scale is needed to optimize potential solutions such as cultivar and variety development, high density training systems and mechanical harvesting. Horticultural expertise is also needed to compliment HLB pathology (and associated Asian Citrus Psyllid entomology) research, to make trees resilient to HLB through strategies such as improved plant nutrition and irrigation management, use of plant growth regulators, resistant cultivars and rootstocks, etc. Pistachios will continue to be challenged by the increasingly warm winters resulting from climate change. Significant research into innovations in cultivars, rootstocks, dormancy manipulation, irrigation technology, etc., to generate climate smart practices for pistachios are necessary to sustain regional production and incomes. Decades of research and extension by local UCCE advisors have been instrumental to the success of these industries, but neither are currently served by a horticultural advisor to support them through continuing and emerging challenges. Commodity boards are eager to support research in both these crops. Industry organizations such as California Citrus Mutual, American Pistachio Growers, and local Farm Bureaus have all expressed concerns that growers of these crops are going unsupported by a UCCE advisor. By supporting adoption of strategies to adapt citrus and pistachio production to warmer, drier growing conditions, limited labor availability and pest and disease pressures, this position will support the ANR Public Values of “Promoting economic prosperity in California” through increases in agriculture efficiency and profitability; “Protecting California’s natural resources” by improving land management, soil quality, agricultural sustainability, water quality and water use efficiency; and “Building climate-resilient communities and ecosystems” by increasing resilience to extreme weather and climate change.

Extension: The advisor will provide research-based information developed in local field trials and by UC personnel in other counties and UC campuses with new and existing growers and production support positions (e.g. orchard managers, crop consultants). This information will be disseminated through workshops, field meetings, webinars, newsletters, industry media outlets, phone calls, and online and social media tools, as is appropriate to the target audiences. Extension efforts will need to cover basic information for small acreage, and new growers, as well as cutting-edge information for more experienced growers.

Research: The advisor will develop an applied research program focused on improving the efficiency of cultural practices in citrus and pistachio production. The focus of the Area Citrus & Pistachio Advisor’s research program will be shaped by clientele needs assessments and the advisor’s expertise. Priorities may include cultivar and rootstock screening to adapt to warmer, drier conditions, collaboration on irrigation management research, harvest mechanization to address labor shortages, horticultural considerations to improve outcomes of HLB solutions, and fertilization and irrigation strategies to optimize fruit size and quality. The research objectives should emphasize the development of orchard systems that conserve resources in compliance with state air and water regulations. Research results will be published in commodity board reports, ANR peer-reviewed publications, academic peer-reviewed journals, and through professional society meetings.

UC ANR Network: Though the research and extension efforts of this position will focus in the Tulare-Kings-Kern region, by providing expertise that is currently lacking among pomology and small farms advisors, this position will increase the impact of UC ANR throughout the state by sharing innovative research and extension resources with fellow advisors, particularly frontline solutions to warmer, drier conditions predicted to spread farther into other orchard production regions in subsequent decades. The advisor will work with CE specialists on topics including diseases, pests, tree physiology, and automation, and Agricultural Experiment Station faculty involved with these commodities, agricultural engineering, pest management, irrigation and other disciplines especially at UC Riverside, and additionally at Davis, Merced, and Berkeley campuses. There are existing citrus blocks at the Lindcove REC for this position to start using immediately, and potential to host pistachio trials at both Westside and Kearney RECs.

Network External to UC ANR: The advisor is expected to develop strong connections with agencies at the state (California  Depts of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), Water Resources,  Pesticide Regulation), regional (e.g. Regional Water Coalitions, Resource Conservation Districts), and county (Agricultural Commissioners, Farm Bureaus) levels based on prioritized clientele needs, as well as research groups outside of UC (e.g. USDA, CSUs and community colleges) and industry groups (e.g. California Assoc. of Pest Control Advisers, Citrus Research Board, American Pistachio Growers, Wonderful Farms, etc.). USDA Riverside will be a critical collaborator, given both the USDA Citrus Germplasm Repository and USDA Salinity Lab hosted at their facilities. Collaboration will be fostered by involvement in national and international research networks such as the American Society for Horticultural Science, the International Society for Horticultural Science, the International Society for Citriculture and multiple workgroups therein.

Support: The Tulare County office in Tulare would serve as the home office for this area advisor position, providing office and lab space, a vehicle, secretarial support, telephone, internet, and pesticide storage.

Other support: The advisor will be able to leverage research and extension funds from traditional funding agencies including USDA, CDFA and the California Pistachio Research Board, Citrus Research Board. State and federal granting programs including Dept. of Pesticide Regulation, USDA Sustainable Ag. Research and Education, and CDFA’s Specialty Crop Block, Healthy Soils, and Fertilizer Research and Extension programs providing grant funding support as well.

Headquarters and Coverage Area: This position will be headquartered at the UCCE Tulare County office located at 4437 S Laspina St, Tulare, CA 93274. This position will also serve Kings and Kern County. The Tulare County Board of Supervisors has always been consistent and strong supporters of the Tulare County Cooperative Extension office