Names in the News

Warner becomes UCCE livestock and natural resources area advisor 

Andrea Northup-Warner started working as a UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources area advisor for Placer, Nevada, Yuba and Sutter counties on Oct. 1.

Excited to serve the community in which she grew up, Warner will help ranchers solve their most pressing issues. Currently, small ranchers with up to 15 cows, for reference, need support establishing their operation. Commercial ranchers, however, are interested in technology and developing research that will help improve health and nutrition of their cattle.

“If a rancher's animals aren't healthy, they can't make money,” she said. “If they can't make money, they can't support their family or their business.”

Despite profitability being “priority zero” for consumers, Warner said that staying in business and/or expanding business operations is a primary goal for many ranchers. As an advisor, she's excited to not only support ranchers' endeavors to increase profits, but challenge consumers' perspectives on the matter, too.

Although a new advisor, Warner has worked for UC Cooperative Extension since 2022. First hired as a staff research associate at the Sierra Foothills Research and Extension Center in Yuba County, her research focused on nutrition and health of beef cattle, oak regeneration and rangeland management.

Warner earned a master's degree in animal science from Oklahoma State University and a bachelor's in animal science from California State University, Chico. While her academic training will certainly be useful, Warner said that the mentorship she's received from colleagues has been instrumental during her transition.

She succeeds Dan Macon, UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor, who transferred to UCCE in Calaveras County.

Warner is based at the UCCE Placer-Nevada counties office in Auburn and can be reached at alnwarner@ucanr.edu.

Rao moving to Sonoma and Marin counties

After nearly 10 years working as the UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisor for San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, Devii Rao will be moving north to become a UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor for Sonoma and Marin counties as of Jan. 1, 2025.

“It is very much a bitter-sweet move for me,” Rao wrote in a Livestock & Range blog post. “I have made great friends here and have been able to work with so many wonderful ranchers and agency people. But, now I have the opportunity to move home.”

Rao, who was born and raised in Marin County, still has family there. “So this is an opportunity for me to continue doing the kind of work I love, and to do it closer to my family,” she wrote.

She plans to continue working in the Hollister office through Dec. 11, then take the rest of the month to move.

Rao will continue to use the same email address drorao@ucanr.edu.

Vyas joins IGIS 

Priyanka Vyas joined the Informatics and GIS Statewide Program as a GIS analyst in May. She brings a strong background in applying geospatial tools in public health, urban planning and policy. In her role at IGIS, she focuses on developing capacity for ANR programs and researchers in using GIS-based tools across different program areas and scaling up existing use of geospatial tools and technology. 

“I am really excited because this position allows me to weave my prior research and teaching experience and work on topics that cut across different program areas,” Vyas said.

To develop her program support work, she has been cultivating partnerships with program teams such as the Community Economic Development Advisors, Community Nutrition and Health Network, and institutes such as the Nutrition Policy Institute. Through these and other meetings, she came to realize that many ANR programs and researchers are not fully aware of the latest GIS resources available to them.

“There is a plethora of tools that are freely available to UC ANR staff such as Business Analyst for doing needs assessment, ArcGIS Hub for developing program specific websites, ArcGIS for Excel among others. I am eager to work with county offices and advisors to increase the use of these resources,” she said.

Story Maps is another tool that has great potential for advisors and programs to communicate their impact and help their education and outreach activities. Story map websites are growing in popularity because they are easy to build and engage viewers with a broad range of multimedia content. Within UC ANR, they have been used to highlight program impacts, educate clientele, and even provide technical training. They are not always easy to discover however, so Vyas built an ANR "Story Map of Story Maps." Other ANR programs interested in Story Maps are encouraged to get in touch.

Prior to joining UC ANR, Vyas worked at multiple academic institutions in teaching, research, and consulting in the San Francisco Bay Area including San Jose State University, California State University East Bay, Stanford Geospatial Center and Stanford School of Medicine.

She started her career as a business journalist in New Delhi before moving to the U.S. for further education. She has a master's degree in public administration and policy from North Carolina State University and a Ph.D. in public policy and political economy from the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas, Dallas. She did a postdoctoral fellowship in UC San Francisco's School of Medicine.

Vyas is based at Mulford Hall at UC Berkeley and can be reached at pdvyas@ucanr.edu.

 

 

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