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.

Developed and proposed by: This position proposal was developed by San Joaquin County Director Brent Holtz, Stanislaus County Director Jennifer Heguy, California Walnut Board Director of Research, Joe Grant (UC Advisor Emeritus), and the Director of the California Cherry Board Chris Zanobini, with input from Capital Corridor County Director Susan Ellsworth, Pomology Program Team Leader Katherine Jarvis-Shean, and Pest Management Program Team Leader Cindy Kron. This area-wide pomology advisor position is a key position that will provide regional coverage and expertise to the Northern San Joaquin Valley. 

Position Title: Area Orchard Systems Advisor – Cherries, Walnuts, Olives, Apples 

Position: The advisor would be primarily responsible for developing a research and extension education program to address high priority production and pest management issues in walnut and sweet cherry in San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties. The position will also include sweet cherry in Sacramento County and area wide responsibilities for oil olives, and several other smaller-acreage crops (apples, prunes, persimmons, pomegranates). Major program emphases would be on walnut and sweet cherry. San Joaquin County is the statewide leader in both cherry and walnut production and the advisor would be expected to become a regional and statewide leader within ANR. A minimum of a Master’s degree in pomology, production horticulture, pest management or a closely related field is required. 

Justification: This proposed advisor would represent one of the most diverse and important fruit and nut tree production areas in California. San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties are home to roughly 110,540 acres of walnuts (30% of CA’s production), 25,000 acres of sweet cherries (50% of CA’s production), and 6,362 acres oil olives (2022 data). The Northern San Joaquin Valley leads the state in walnut and cherry production, with 1,836 diversified, mostly family-owned farms that produced $508 M in crop value in 2023. Since the UC Davis cherry specialist position was vacated in 2004, the San Joaquin County cherry advisor has functioned as the de facto statewide specialist for sweet cherry. It is expected that this Area Northern San Joaquin Valley advisor will continue to serve in this specialist like capacity, serving as the liaison to the California Cherry Marketing and Research Boards and as a resource to other advisors and out of state scientists working on cherry. Sweet cherries from California can be found in most grocery stores nationally in April and May, employing a tremendous labor force to pick, sort, and transport. Cherry acreage continues to expand via replacement of older orchards and the conversion of annual crops and rangeland to orchards. Entry-level growers require an extensive extension effort on basic orchard culture and pest management while experienced growers need information on new technologies, invasive pests, irrigation efficiencies, and environmental stewardship to remain competitive. Walnut acreage has retracted in recent years due to global competition driving down walnut prices, but as walnut acreage stabilizes, producers will continue to face mounting pressures of cost-competitiveness and increased regulatory and environmental compliance in an increasingly global marketplace. Allied industry professionals such as pest control advisors, handlers and packers represent a large and important secondary clientele target group for this position. 

The advisor will address UC ANR’s value statements and condition changes by promoting the economic prosperity of California while protecting our natural resources, mitigating climate change, and safeguarding abundant food for Californians. High priority issues include increasing fruit & nut tree efficiency while reducing the environmental footprint of fertilization, irrigation 

and pest management practices, the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and mitigating the effects of climate change. The likelihood of producing significant impacts is high as this position is visible and ranked as critical by the walnut and cherry industries that will provide support. The responsibilities described above were previously covered by two advisors that recently left ANR (Mohamed Nouri in San Joaquin and Kari Arnold in Stanislaus). This position proposes to combine two single county pomology positions into a multi-county pomology position that will provide area-wide coverage to the region. Pomology advisors and county directors in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, along with the pomology and pest management program team leaders, have developed and proposed this position, which is a vital component of our regional strategic plan. 

Extension: The advisor will provide research-based information produced in local field trials in addition to distributing information generated by other UC advisors, specialists, and faculty. Information will be disseminated through in-class workshops, field meetings, newsletters, commodity and popular press media outlets, telephone calls, farm visits, and various on-line and social media tools (blogs and podcasts). San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties have a mixture of part-time small acreage and full-time medium acreage growers. Extension efforts will need to cover very basic information for new, small acreage growers as well as cutting edge information for more experienced, sophisticated growers. Extension methods also need to be diverse and sensitive to the mixed learning styles and information resourcing preferences of a multi-generational and diverse audience. Statewide Cherry Day and our Northern San Joaquin Valley Walnut Day are typically held in the San Joaquin County Ag Center. 

Research: There are many critical research needs for these commodities. Research opportunities include rootstock, variety, irrigation, fertilization and pruning of walnuts and cherries; development of selective and integrated new approaches for managing endemic and invasive pests and diseases; improving cherry quality through improved growing and handling; and testing of new technologies to improve orchard efficiency and mechanization, such as higher density short stature orchard systems and mechanical or assisted harvesting innovations for cherries and apples. Current harvesting systems are highly labor intensive, supporting a large work force, integrating safe and ergonomic harvest systems will be critical, as well as improving harvest efficiencies. Sustainable and regenerative orchard management practices (carbon sequestration and whole orchard recycling) that build soil health, reduce nitrogen leaching, and mitigate climate change will be important. Emerging invasive pests like spotted winged drosophila, brown marmorated stink bug, Carpophilus beetle, and a number of virus diseases threaten these commodities and present new challenges to integrated management of orchard pests and diseases. Long-term walnut variety and rootstock trials are already in place that could ultimately provide solutions and give a new advisor immediate projects and experience. Research results will be published in commodity board reports, county newsletters and websites, blogs and podcasts, trade journals, ANR publications, California Agriculture, and other scientific journals including Acta Horticulturae, HortScience and HortTechnology. 

UC ANR Network: This position will play a key role in statewide leadership for the commodities it covers, working closely with UC Specialists and Faculty through commodity workgroups, program teams, and initiative groups. The proximity of San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties to the campuses of UC Davis, UC Merced, and UC Berkeley have provided numerous opportunities for 

collaborative research and extension activities with ANR and AES scientists in the past, and these engagements are likely to continue and expand in the future. Area-wide IPM advisor, Jhalendra Rijal, is available to collaborate on pest management research, while area-wide irrigation and soils advisor, Abdelmoneim Mohamed, is available for collaboration on research that involves water and soil. Plant Pathologist and Orchard Systems Advisor Brent Holtz is also available to collaborate on cherry and walnut diseases and whole orchard recycling. 

Network External to UC ANR: This position is very strongly supported by the California Walnut Board and the California Cherry Marketing and Research Board. This position could also work closely with USDA-ARS, CDFA, and NRCS scientists. The Farm Bureaus in both San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties are supportive of this position. 

Support: This position will be housed in San Joaquin County, at the Robert J. Cabral Agricultural Center. The Ag Center has excellent facilities, advisor office space, laboratory facilities, a vehicle with generous travel support, clerical support, field technician support, telephone and internet access, and a large equipment storage warehouse. The Center also has state-of-the-art meeting facilities that can accommodate small groups in classrooms and large groups of up to 1,000 individuals in assembly rooms. San Joaquin County will cover travel expenses for this advisor into Stanislaus and Sacramento Counties. Support includes equipment specific to pomology research: harvest weigh carts, all-terrain vehicles and trailers, drying ovens, with soils and plant grinding equipment. Various donors funding from the previous pomology advisor is available in San Joaquin County. 

Other support: UCCE enjoys strong support from San Joaquin County’s Board of Supervisors and Chief Administrative Officer, with an annual budget of $1 million. Other funding for research and extension programming could be sought from the California Association of Nurseries, the Department of Pesticide Regulation, Western IPM, and the USDA’s Sustainable Ag Research and Education grants. Other grant sources include the USDA-NIFA, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA’s) Specialty Crop Block Grants, California Department of Pesticide Regulation, CDFA’s California Fertilizer Research & Extension Program (FREP), and other federal and local government granting agencies. Grant funds are also available through the agricultural chemical industry and IR-4 program. 

Headquarters and Coverage Area: The advisor will serve under the administrative guidance of the San Joaquin County Director with input from the Stanislaus County Director. This region leads the state and nation in walnut and sweet cherry production. The geographic boundaries and commodity assignments of this position should be achievable, for advisor engagement and presence throughout the coverage area is imperative to building a successful research and extension program.