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June 2018
Kim Rodrigues, Hopland REC director, retires after 27 years
When she became regional director for the 23 counties in the North Coast and Mountain Region in 1999 and relocated her family to Davis from Eureka, she recounted that “it was July, and they went from cool, coastal fog to the Valley heat and wondered about my sanity!”
She later became the executive director of Academic Personnel for ANR when the regions were restructured and ANR was centralized.
She returned to county-based academic work at HREC in the summer of 2014. Initially there as an interim assignment, Rodrigues fell in love with the place and the people and accepted the formal assignment at HREC in 2015. She notes that working at HREC has been “an excellent culmination to my career. Working with colleagues on relevant research, such as living with wildlife, integrates the many professional roles I have had throughout my career.”
Noted as a competent and trusted forester, she has served on the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (BOF) briefly and on the BOF Professional Forester's Examining Committee for several years.
Rodrigues is also known for her collaborative leadership and facilitation skills and led the public participation team, together with UCCE specialists Maggi Kelly and Lynn Huntsinger, for the long-term research titled the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project. She is recognized as an excellent facilitator for large-scale and smaller scale public meetings designed to share science with diverse public interest groups, agencies and decisionmakers, to seek new solutions for resolving ongoing conflicts over public trust resources, such as water, wildlife and more.
Her passion is working with diverse groups to address complex environmental conflicts to seek shared understanding and new agreements.
“It is amazing how diverse input can help frame innovative solutions that individuals or small groups may not readily identify,” she said.
She plans to remain engaged in research and extension related to living with wildlife, cumulative watershed effects and managing conflicts of all types. She is also looking forward to spending more time with her husband, four children and grandchild.
Although sad to leave many aspects of her work at UC ANR, she said, “I remain deeply grateful to UC ANR for such a wonderful career, and I remain committed to support UC ANR to succeed in any way I can going forward. I have been fortunate to work with amazing colleagues and truly respect the work we do for the land grant mission.”
Grant writing workshops set for September
Two grant writing workshops will be offered by UC ANR in September.
The Grant Essentials Summit, a one-day grant writing and extramural funding-focused professional development event, will be held Sept. 13, 2018, in San Diego and Sept. 27, 2018, in Davis.
The Sept. 13 session will be at the UCCE San Diego Office and led by John Crockett, senior director, Sponsored Research Project Development & Management at San Diego State University.
The Sept. 27 session will be at the UC ANR Valley Conference Center in Davis and led by Peg AtKisson, principal of AtKisson Training Group, LLC.
The Grant Essentials Summit is a one-day targeted professional development intervention focused on enhancing the performance of individual academics as well as teams in attracting and winning grants within the research and extension enterprise, specific to a single discipline as well as across disciplines. This comprehensive day-long program is designed to convey the fundamentals of proposal writing, starting with the concepts, backed up with concrete tips and operational strategies. The program will also assist in introducing participants to concepts of the self-assessment components needed to establish and maintain a research and extension program, and expose participants to concrete and practical resources that support the creation and growth of extramural funding.
The structure of the professional development experience includes a combination of lecture format, didactic presentation, “in-classroom flipped classroom”, and audience participation to engage participants throughout the day. Interactive sessions are designed to equip participants with a set of practical tools for planning, developing, and writing a funding proposal. Integrated into all sessions are ways to make the proposal process part of the everyday academic process, and to strategically plan for longer-term funding.
The seminar will cover essential topics to grant writing, such as:
- Understanding of the preparation steps before writing
- Techniques for creating a strong argument for the proposed project
- Approaches to defining a writing style and addressing writer's block
- Techniques for communicating the approach clearly
- Approaches to communicating with funding programs
- Understanding the grant review process
- Effective tools, resources, and best practices to support grant writing
The training is designed for scientists, educators, and individuals who work with or participate in academic proposal teams. Content is geared to participants at all levels who want to better prepare for leading and participating in grant efforts targeting a variety of funding programs sponsored by academia, state government, federal government, private, and industry sponsors. All ANR academics and staff are invited to participate.
Participation will be limited to a training cohort of 180 participants in Davis and 40 participants in San Diego; pre-registration will be required.
Registration details and logistics for each upcoming session will be posted soon. If you would like to attend, please mark the dates on your calendar. Staff and academics are welcome to attend.
This summit is hosted by UC ANR Academic Human Resources, Learning and Development, and the Office of Contracts and Grants.
For more information contact Vanity Campbell at vcampbell@ucanr.edu.
Mark Gaskell,UCCE small farms advisor, retires after 23 years
Mark Gaskell is best known these days for cultivating the idea of California-grown coffee that launched the emerging industry. But coffee isn't the first crop that Gaskell convinced California farmers could be locally grown. For more than 23 years, the UC Cooperative Extension advisor has been researching new specialty crops, such as blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, kiwi berries, Pakistani mulberries, sweet onions, lychees and longans, for small farms to grow for a profit.
Gaskell, who began his career with UC ANR as an advisor for small farms and specialty crops in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties in 1995, retired July 1.
“If it wasn't for Mark Gaskell, I wouldn't have lasted three years,” said Tony Chavez, who grows 40 acres of blueberries, blackberries and some raspberries in Nipomo.
Blueberries weren't grown in California until Gaskell planted test plots of southern highbush blueberries in 1996 to give small-scale growers a new crop option. What was once a niche crop is now planted on over 7,000 acres in the state and California currently leads U.S. production of fresh blueberries.
Recently Gaskell's knowledge of coffee production has been in demand.
“Personally, I would not be where I am today professionally without Mark's guidance, support and friendship,” said Jay Ruskey, CEO and co-founder of Good Land Organics. “He brought me my first coffee plants in 2002.”
With Gaskell's research-based advice, the Goleta grower has produced premium coffee. His Caturra coffee made Coffee Review's Top 30 coffees in 2014 and in 2017 Daily Coffee News reported that Blue Bottle was selling the California-grown coffee for $18 per ounce.
“Industry-wide, there are many farmers who have benefited directly from working with Mark, but there are far more farmers who are currently benefiting today from the specific crops and farming systems he has introduced through his service as a University of California farm advisor,” Ruskey said.
Read more about Gaskell's career at http://ucanr.edu/?blogpost=27600&blogasset=99473
Downing to lead Publishing and Production
Senuta joined UC ANR in 1994 after serving as an external member of the ad hoc review committee tasked to evaluate the future of publishing in the Division. She helped shape the Communication Services unit, which, in its early days, concentrated on publishing and gradually expanded to address the Division's growing information technology and strategic communications needs. With academics from the Communications Advisory Board, Senuta helped formulate all aspects of the ANR peer-review process, which ensures that ANR's education materials are accurate, useful and timely. With her staff, Senuta created a professional unit that produced, published, and marketed ANR research in awarding-winning books, online publications, California Agriculture journal, and provided attractive visual services of graphic design, photography and videography.
Senuta credits her creative staff, the committed scientists of ANR and her two supervisors – former CSIT executive director Bob Sams and AVP Tu Tran – for challenging and inspiring her. “When my son was little, he asked what I did at my job,” she said. “I told him that I help our scientists explain to Californians how to grow more food, use fewer chemicals, eat healthier and keep the land protected. That simplistic explanation has been my motivation for 24 years.”
In his new role, Downing will provide leadership of UC ANR publishing and advance Division strategic, business and operational objectives. Advised by the Communications Advisory Board, he will direct all phases of academic peer review, editorial planning and production for California Agriculture journal, print and electronic ANR publications, visual communications and, as appropriate, strategic communications materials. He will also manage the unit's professional staff, budget and physical resources.
Downing has served ANR for 3½ years as California Agriculture executive editor, steering the journal to its recent first-place award in the Periodicals category by the Association for Communications Excellence, the international professional association for agricultural communicators, educators and information technologists. Before joining UC ANR, Downing was the Sacramento Bee's agriculture, energy and climate reporter, and he produced publications on natural resources and agriculture for agency, NGO and corporate clients. He received a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering from Cornell University and master's degrees in energy and resources and in environmental engineering, both from UC Berkeley.
Gene Miyao, UC Cooperative Extension vegetable crops advisor, retiring after 38 years
Miyao had been exposed to UCCE farm advisors from a young age.
“My parents were small-scale farmers in Yolo County. We knew of the value of UCCE and the UC system,” Miyao said.
During his 38-year-career, Miyao has witnessed dramatic changes in production systems of processing tomatoes, a crop on which he focused much of his efforts. Growers went from using open-pollinated seed to hybrids and they changed from direct seeding to transplants. Tomato production has seen a major reduction in Phytophthora root rot, and a rapid spread of Fusarium wilt race 2.
Over the years, Miyao has conducted significant research, including work to better understand the benefits of cover crops, supplemental applications of potassium and phosphorous, and applying composted chicken manure in tomato production. He cooperated with a team of advisors to demonstrate the value of sulfur dust for powdery mildew control and the risk of spreading the disease fusarium wilt from infested stem pieces. Miyao was an author of the recent cost production study titled Cost of producing processing tomatoes in the Sacramento Valley and Northern Delta with sub-surface and surface drip irrigation.
In all, Miyao wrote 69 peer reviewed articles. However, he said, the local newsletters, field meetings and field calls were always his priority in order to stay well connected to his local clientele.
In retirement, Miyao said he will complete some of his 2018 field projects. He's also planning to travel with his wife Donna to national parks and other destinations. And he is looking forward to fishing in the local waters.
