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.

Area IPM Advisor for Field and Vegetable Crops in the San Joaquin Valley

Developed and proposed by: Atef Swelam (Director, West Side and Kearney Research and Extension Center), Tom Turini (Advisor, Fresno County), Sarah Light and Ian Grettenberger (Agronomy Program Team co-chairs), Cindy Kron (UC Pest Management Program Team Chair), and Jhalendra Rijal (Statewide UC IPM). Ranked 1st priority among Advisor positions by Pest Management PT and ranked 1st priority among Advisor positions by the Agronomic Crops PT (slightly different crop coverage). External stakeholders involved include the California Tomato Research Institute, the California Garlic and Onion Research Advisory Board, the California Melon Research Board, and California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association.

Position Title: Area IPM Advisor for Field and Vegetable Crops in the San Joaquin Valley

Position:  The Advisor will conduct a multi-county applied research and extension program that addresses insect and mite pest issues affecting field and vegetable crops in Fresno, Kings, Madera, and Tulare counties. A minimum of a master's degree in entomology, pest management, or other closely related field is required. The position requires a broad understanding of IPM including knowledge of crop production, biocontrol, pesticide use, and insect identification and biology. This position will be under the supervision of the Director of the UC IPM statewide program and headquartered at the West Side Research and Extension Center where laboratory and office space will be available.

Justification: This position was identified as a high priority in the previous and current position call, but the needs remain entirely unmet. There is no entomology disciplinary coverage of field and vegetable crops to address insect pest issues despite major changes in pest pressures in this geographically massive production area where the value of the covered commodities exceeds $3.2 billion. This Advisor will provide research-based management recommendations for key insect pests in field and vegetable crops resulting in substantial positive impacts for consultants and growers. The needs addressed by this position will be diverse and dynamic, but the following are some key needs that will be addressed:

Need 1: Field and vegetable crops in the region are attacked by a wide variety of endemic and invasive pests, which cause yield losses, increased management costs, and non-target effects through their management (e.g., off-target chemical movement). New management tactics must be developed to adapt and match the current production environment and pest situations. Furthermore, there is a need to evaluate and implement novel tools and technology for pest management. For example, lygus and stink bugs reduce yield and quality of many commodities in this production area. These pests affect dry beans, cotton, safflower, tomatoes, melons, peppers, and alfalfa. There are trapping strategies that can be investigated, thresholds that can be re-evaluated and programs developed in consideration of currently available insecticides. Alfalfa, an important forage crop in the region that supports the high-value dairy industry, has had increasing insect pest pressure with pests like the alfalfa weevil, the blue alfalfa aphid, and various caterpillar pests that severely affect yield and productivity in the region. These pests pose additional challenges due to a lack of effective management tools and insecticide resistance.

Need 2: Regulatory changes that reduce insecticide availability necessitate adapting integrated pest management approaches. For instance, recent regulatory limitations on use of neonicotinoid insecticides will change key pest management programs in annual crops. These issues include silverleaf whitefly which is an increasingly damaging pest in cotton and melons. In addition, neonicotinoids are a tool in reducing incidence of beet leafhopper-transmitted beet curly top virus, which can cause massive losses in processing tomatoes. Any promising management approaches resulting from research activities would rapidly be adopted by agricultural consultants who recognize the risks posed by the recent regulations. In addition, evaluation of new materials and determining best fit and potential risks remains a priority.

Need 3: Management plans for key pests must also adapt to challenges posed by climate change and landscape-level factors. Higher temperatures and more climate variability have led to surges in pest populations for pests whose population dynamics are heavily influenced by climate such as silverleaf whitefly in melons and cotton and lygus. Variability across the landscape, complex landscapes, interaction between non-crop/perennial crop habitats and annual crops can all contribute to difficult pest issues. There is a need for systems-based approach to pest management for pests that afflict multiple crops. In addition, increases in non-cropped areas and permanent crops in the region contribute to intensification of pest pressures in annual crops and changes in pest dynamics at local and landscape scales. Environmental and economically sustainable approaches to pest management while protecting human health is vitally important to the communities in this historically disadvantaged region of California, which is simultaneously adapting to challenges posed by a changing climate and the varied effects on agricultural communities.

UCANR Value Statements and Condition Changes: This position will help promote economic prosperity in California, protect California’s natural resources, build climate-resilient communities and ecosystems, and safeguard abundant and healthy food for all Californians. The activities of this Advisor are expected to lead to the following condition changes:  

• Improved individual and household financial stability
• Improved food security
• Improved animal management, productivity, and efficiency (in support of forage production)
• Increased agriculture and forestry efficiency and profitability
• Increased ecological sustainability of agriculture, landscapes, and forestry
• Improved water quality
• Increased preparedness and resilience to extreme weather and climate change

Extension: The primary clientele are growers and consultants of vegetable and field crops, but a variety of clientele will be reached by this Advisor. Individual contact with agricultural consultants and growers to address production issues relating to arthropod pests will be important, as will providing pest identification and management information. They will use a variety of educational approaches including presentations, field days, grower meetings, and webinars. They will publish in outlets including UCANR blogs, newsletters, ag trade magazine articles, technical reports, and social media as appropriate. Publications will include UC IPM publications, publications posted to the UC Vegetable and Agronomy Crops Research Information Center, and scientific publications in outlets such as Economic Entomology and California Agriculture. They will work closely with key stakeholders including members of the CA Tomato Research Institute, CA Cotton Growers and Ginners Association, CA Garlic and Onion Research Advisory Board, CA Alfalfa and Forage Association, CA Safflower Growers Association, CA Specialty Crop Council, CA Melon Research Board, CA Bean Board, CA Association of Pest Control Advisors, Association of Applied IPM Ecologists, and allied personnel working in the crop protection industry.

Research: Improve early detection of potential arthropod pests through monitoring, assessment, and mitigating damage through development of integrated management strategies and refining of IPM systems. Respond to endemic and invasive threats by developing immediate and long-term programs. Pests of economic importance in this area include sugarcane aphid in sorghum; mites in corn; alfalfa weevil, armyworm, and other lepidopteran pests causing yield loss and quality degradation (alfalfa, tomatoes); lygus in cotton, dry beans, and various vegetable crops; whiteflies, including insect-vectored viruses, in melons and cotton; beet leafhopper and beet curly top virus in tomatoes; and soilborne arthropods that include bulb mites and seed corn maggot in onions, darkling ground beetle in dry beans, tomatoes, and melons, and wireworm in many crops. Evaluate integrated pest management strategies as needed with the inclusion of biological, cultural, and chemical controls and/or plant resistance. As appropriate, the Advisor will engage in the work, either independently or with an existing team of Advisors and faculty members, on thrips-transmitted tomato spotted wilt virus that broke plant resistance in both tomato and pepper.

UC ANR Network: The Advisor will be part of a team of academics working on IPM and crop production issues with projects at University of California West Side Research and Extension Center, which is centrally located within a major production area of these commodities. The entomology/IPM specialization is a complement to a team located in these counties who work in plant pathology, weed management, and soil/irrigation management, as well as to IPM positions in other crops. The advisor will work with other advisors that work on field and vegetable crops. An Advisor with field and vegetable crop entomology expertise strategically located in this area can serve as a research partner to UC Davis and UC Riverside academics and increase their activity in this region.

Network External to UC ANR: External researchers for collaborative projects include UC AES academics and other UC/campus researchers, academics out of state, as well as USDA ARS scientists. In addition, personnel from California Department Food and Agriculture, the Beet Curly Top Control Board, County Agricultural Commissioner’s Offices, and NGOs can be important partners.

Support: At the UC West Side Research and Extension Center (WSREC), an office and laboratory, and a shared auditorium will be provided. Administrative and technical support will be provided by the UC IPM Team. The successful candidate is expected to acquire grants and use that support for field research, which can be conducted at the UC WSREC.

Other support: Significant funding opportunities exist for the research and extension programs of this position, Some sources include the CA Tomato Research Institute, CA Cotton Alliance, CA Garlic and Onion Research Advisory Board, CA Alfalfa and Forage Association, CA Safflower Growers Association, CA Dry Bean Advisory Board, and CA Melon Research Board as well as IR-4. Competitive grants are available from CA Department of Food and Agriculture and CA Department of Pesticide Regulation. There is also potential for funding for pest management work from private industry sources.

Headquarters and Coverage Area: The Advisor will be headquartered at the West Side Research and Extension Center. The programmatic region covered by the advisor will include Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Madera counties. West Side REC will provide space, administrative support, and research support/opportunities and will enable to incoming advisor to cover the four-county region.