Posts Tagged: positions

New UCCE positions process and timeline announced

Because of the state's acknowledgement that growing the UC ANR academic footprint is of great benefit to the state, recruitment of UCCE Advisor and UCCE Specialist positions will resume. Earlier this year, the Program Council recommended release of 20 positions (15 UCCE Advisor plus 5 UCCE Specialist positions). Ten of these positions have been released for recruitment; the remaining positions will be released soon. Program Council will review other currently identified needs in September and advance additional recommendations to Vice President Humiston. Up to 75 additional UCCE Advisor and 18 additional UCCE Specialist positions are expected to be released in the next 12 months.

The currently identified needs reflect a position call process conducted in 2018, plus vacancies since that time. With new support from the state, we must carefully examine our needs for the future. To this end, UC ANR will be conducting a position call for UCCE Advisor and UCCE Specialist position proposals. This process will be expedited as follows, with a goal to identify priority positions early next year. A timeline, below, is followed by greater detail of the process.

Please note that the processes and timelines below are for UCCE Specialist and UCCE Advisor positions. Identification of all other positions – academic and staff – to be filled as a result of new state funding will use different processes.

UCCE Specialist positions	Campuses*	Directors*	Program Teams*	Program Council	Vice President
5 positions	Identified 2018 -2021		Prioritized spring 2021	Recommended May 2021	Released July through fall 2021
12 to 20 additional positions	Proposals developed, due Dec 10, 2021		Prioritize proposals Dec 17 – Feb 15 2022	Recommend March 2022	Select and release beginning spring 2022
UCCE Advisor positions	Campuses*	Directors*	Program Teams*	Program Council	Vice President
15 positions		Identified since 2018; prioritized spring 2021	Identified since 2018; prioritized spring 2021	Recommended May 2021	Released July through fall 2021
15 to 25 additional positions		Identified since 2018; prioritized spring 2021	Identified since 2018; prioritized spring 2021	Recommend September 2021	To be released winter 2021/2022
Up to 50 additional positions		Proposals developed, Aug 23 – Dec 10 2021	Proposals developed, Aug 23 – Dec 10 202	Recommend January 2022	Select and release beginning February 2022

*Stakeholder input considered in process of position identification. Campus members are part of Program Teams.

**Directors include county, REC, statewide program and institute directors.

 

2021 Call for CE Positions Process

Please see the 2021 position call webpage for more information including important documents. This is where submitted proposals will be available for review.

UCCE Advisor positions

County Directors, REC Directors, Statewide Program/Institute Directors, and Program Teams can submit a limited number of UCCE Advisor positions until December 10, 2021. Position number limitations are as follows for individuals or teams: County Director (1) for every county they direct, but positions do not need to be headquartered in the CD's counties), REC Director (1) per REC Director, but positions need not be headquartered at the REC), Statewide Program/Institute Director (1), Program Team (1).

Individuals, teams and units are expected to seek stakeholder input and work collaboratively across ANR units to make the best use of submission restrictions. Units are also encouraged to review thematic cluster areas for hires. UC ANR thematic cluster areas include Fire Advisor Network; Food System Resilience Network; Health Resilience Network; and Urban Community Development Network. Building capacity in each thematic cluster area is of high priority to UC ANR.

UCCE Specialist positions

Working closely with Program Teams, campuses are invited to propose UCCE Specialist positions, paying particular attention to thematic cluster areas. The UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Riverside campus submissions are restricted and must be submitted by a single Dean or Provost on behalf of the campus; 4 proposals each from UCR and UCB, plus 6 proposals from UCD. All other campuses are restricted to no more than 2 submissions per campus, to be submitted by the Provost or Chancellor. More information regarding how appointments will be handled between UC ANR and UC campuses other than UCB, UCD, and UCR is available on the 2021 position call webpage.

Stakeholder input

Units are expected to seek stakeholder input and work collaboratively to make the best use of submission restrictions. Program Teams, Directors and Work Groups are encouraged to work with campus units to co-develop specialist positions, particularly around cluster hire opportunities. Following campus submissions, due December 10, 2021, each Program Teams is invited to review UCCE Specialist proposals and identify their top two priorities, no later than February 15, 2022. Program Teams may propose amendments to proposals and are encouraged to solicit consent from campus leadership, in particular, the Executive Associate Deans who are members of Program Council.

 

UC ANR celebrates budget increase, releases 10 UCCE positions for recruitment

After three years of limited hiring due to budget constraints, Vice President Glenda Humiston announced the release of 10 UC Cooperative Extension positions for recruitment.

The new UC Cooperative Extension positions include:

• #11 Plant Pathology Area Advisor, Santa Cruz County
• #13 Soils and Irrigation Advisor, Kern County
• #15 Urban Agriculture/Small Farms Area Advisor, San Bernardino County
• #27 Community Nutrition & Innovative Technologies Specialist, UC Davis
• #31 Forest and Fuels Management Specialist, UC Berkeley
• #37 Subtropical Crops Pathology Specialist, UC Riverside
• #45 Diversified Agricultural Systems Area Advisor, Lake County
• #55 Forestry and Natural Resources Area Advisor, Sutter-Yuba counties
• #59 4-H Youth Development Advisor, San Mateo-San Francisco counties
• #63 Integrated Vineyard Systems Area Advisor, at Hopland Research and Extension Center

The county listed beside the advisor title is where the office for the employee will be located. All of the UC Cooperative Extension Advisor positions will serve multiple counties.

A full description of each position is available at the corresponding position number at the bottom of https://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/Divisionwide_Planning/2018_Call_for_Positions, with some modifications.

On July 12, the state restored UC ANR's budget to pre-COVID levels of FY 2019-20 and provided a 5% increase plus an additional $32 million in ongoing funding, bringing total state support to $107.9 million for the division.

“This budget increase is transformational,” Humiston said, “It will allow us to rebuild UC Cooperative Extension's boots-on-the-ground to help Californians cope with wildfire, drought, climate adaptation and economic development among other issues.”

Over the past 20 years, UC ANR had seen its budget decrease by almost 50% when adjusted for inflation. As a result, UC ANR was forced to reduce Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists – from 427 positions in 2001 down to only 269 in 2021 – creating vacancies in many critical positions.

Twenty UC Cooperative Extension positions have been designated as critically urgent to fill. To avoid overwhelming UC ANR's Human Resources staff, the other 10 positions of the 20 will be released in late September as they ramp up hiring for future recruitment. Seven to 10 positions will be released each of the next four months, with more positions to be released in 2022.

“We look forward to releasing additional positions for recruitment – both academic and program support members – throughout the next several months,” said Humiston. 

“We are extremely grateful to Governor Newsom, the Legislature and especially Senator John Laird, who championed the budget increase, and look forward to working with our community partners to leverage these resources.”

Visit UC ANR Jobs to see the current positions open for recruitment.

ANR releases 6 UCCE advisor positions for recruitment

I am thrilled to announce that the following 6 CE Advisor positions from the 2018 CE position proposals are released for recruitment:

• #12 Production Horticulture Advisor, San Diego County
• #42 Agronomy Area Advisor, Merced County
• #54 Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor, Siskiyou County
• #58 Nutrition, Family, and Consumer Sciences Area Advisor, San Mateo-San Francisco Counties
• #62 Vegetable Crops and Small Farms Advisor, Riverside County
• #66 Pomology and Water/Soils Area Advisor, Kings County

The Academic HR unit will begin to work on recruitment plans for the above CE Advisor positions immediately following the winter break.

In addition, I commit to refill the position “#49 Irrigation and Water Resources Advisor, Glenn County” at such time that a gap occurs.

These were difficult decisions to make because while we need the above positions, there are many more needs for both CE Specialist and CE Advisor positions that continue to wait for additional funding. Additionally, while we have grown the CE Specialist numbers over the last several years, the number of CE Advisors in the field has steadily declined. For this reason, we are not releasing additional CE Specialist positions at this time. I remain deeply committed to the 4-H Youth Development Program and support the current conversations underway about investments in expanding non-academic support to improve program delivery to our local communities.

I hope to release 5 to 6 more positions in the spring/summer. This is possible, in part, due to the advanced notice provided by individuals planning to retire June 2020. In addition, we will complete recruitment of other academic positions currently advertised, including those that are funded through partnerships. See Status of Recruitments and Hires for a list of positions under recruitment now. That list does not reflect a few recent CE Advisor and CE Specialist hires who have not yet started.

I wish to thank the Program Council for their work providing recommendations to me. Likewise, I thank the County Directors, Program Team Leaders, Statewide Program/Institute Directors, REC Directors and Associate Deans for their efforts to identify priority needs.

I look forward to sending more of these notices soon!

Glenda Humiston
Vice President

 

PAC discusses ANR Advisory Committee recommendations

The UC ANR Advisory Committee, appointed by President Janet Napolitano to consider options for UC ANR's structure, governance and funding, submitted its recommendations to her, Don Bransford told the UC President's Advisory Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources (PAC), which met Dec. 18 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Berkeley.

PAC Chair Bransford, who also served on the UC ANR Advisory Committee, said the committee saw opportunities to strengthen governance, increase budgetary transparency, provide more stable and predictable funding models and enhance collaborations between UC ANR and UC's broader academic and research enterprise.

The committee, which included deans Kathryn Uhrich of the UCR College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and Michael Lairmore of the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, consulted internal and external stakeholders, then conducted its own analyses in consultation with UC ANR leaders.

The committee made four key recommendations:

1. Maintain UC ANR's status as a systemwide program within UCOP, reporting to the president.
2. Create a UC ANR governing council for oversight and to promote greater understanding of UC ANR across the university.
3. Create a funding model using a combination of the “set-aside” and “corridor” models.
4. Retain campus oversight of and reporting responsibility for state Agricultural Experiment Station funds.

Napolitano told the PAC she would be moving forward on the recommendations because she thinks they will ensure ANR greater budget stability, a broader understanding of ANR across the UC system and create more opportunities for collaboration between ANR and campus academics. She issued a statement Dec. 19 on her decisions for UC ANR.

Uhrich said she sees the governing council as an “opportunity to educate, integrate and be inclusive” to have people from across the UC system and outside of UC participating.

UC expertise

In other discussions, Napolitano commended ANR employees for their responses to the Camp Fire and Woolsey Fire, noting that employees and volunteers lost homes in the devastating wildfires.

At a recent meeting with some legislators to discuss automation and the future of work, wildfire, health issues and homelessness, Napolitano said the policymakers told her they want to hear more from UC experts to help them think through policy challenges.

One commissioner commented, “We're going to have more fires, more foodborne illness outbreaks. Let's have our folks out there to talk to media and have them wearing a UC shirt.”

Napolitano replied, “I like the idea of folks wearing UC garb when they're on TV.”

Budget

Humiston and Tu Tran, associate vice president for business operations, briefed the PAC on ANR's budget. Administrative costs are up this fiscal year to invest $4 million to join UCPath, the new systemwide payroll and personnel system. UC ANR has begun the transition and will go live in March-April. “Ultimately UCPath will save us money, but it's costing us now,” Humiston said.

Due to budget constraints, Humiston explained that UC ANR isn't offering competitive grants nor announcing UCCE positions to be filled in 2018-19. Recruitment for previously approved positions is ongoing and new hiring will begin as resources become available to make the long-term commitment to support positions.

In her budget PowerPoint presentation for the PAC, Humiston listed actions ANR has taken in the past to compensate for budget cuts and steps that will be taken in FY 2018-19.

Tran explained that UC ANR relies on six sources of funds – state, federal, county, extramural, endowments and income from gifts, patents, investments and program fees. State funds, which constitute the largest portion of the division's funding, pay for employee salaries and benefits. He noted government funding is highly volatile so “we are trying to raise money in other ways.”

California Agricultural Resources Archive

UC Merced's librarian HaiPeng Li, project archivist Lisa Valens and project director Emily Lin gave a presentation on the California Agricultural Resources Archive or CARA. The UC Cooperative Extension archive project, which was launched after UC Cooperative Extension's centennial in 2014, started with UCCE in Merced, Humboldt and Ventura counties. The team has been digitizing annual reports and historical photos to make them accessible to the public and researchers.

“The data isn't just history,” Humiston asserted. “There are notes on research that may hold the key to something like huanglongbing.”

Mining the data, advanced analysis and linking to other information might open new avenues of research, she said.

UC ANR is seeking partners and trying to raise funds for the archive project. Jim Downing, publications director, will assume leadership of the project to succeed Jan Corlett, chief of staff to the vice president, who plans to retire in July.

Deans' updates

To help students with career planning, Helene Dillard, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said she seeks UCCE advisors to show students the research and outreach being done in the counties and planning a course on Cooperative Extension to introduce students to career options. She is in talks to partner with UC Davis medical center on health research such as the connection between diet and disease.

David Ackerly, dean of the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources, announced the recent hiring of new Cooperative Extension specialists Ellen Bruno for policy analysis and Rob York for fire and policy, and that he is striving to create new faculty positions that will not depend on state money. He also announced that UC Cooperative Extension specialist Adina Merenlender received a $5 million gift to train California climate stewards through a program similar to California Naturalist. Ackerly also noted that Giannini Hall is closing temporarily for seismic upgrades so faculty and staff are packing to move out during construction.

Katherine Uhrich, dean of the UC Riverside College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, announced CNAS has hired 24 faculty this year including two Nobel laureates – Richard Shrock and Barry Barish. She also announced that Givaudan, a Swiss company that creates fragrances and flavors, is donating funds to cover UCR's citrus variety collection, to protect the trees from pests and diseases.

Michael Lairmore, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, announced that his veterinary team worked tirelessly treating animals injured during the Camp Fire, taking in 70 animals, most of which have returned to their families. About $2 million has been donated to offset the costs of treating the animals. Veterinarian Jamie Peyton covered burns on cats and dogs with tilapia skin to help with healing and has a provisional patent for the fish skin treatment. Lairmore also announced the school is planning to build a Livestock and Field Service Center. “We are in need of donations and there are naming opportunities for interested individuals or companies,” Lairmore told PAC members. He also announced the hiring of Emmanuel Okello, the new UCCE specialist in antimicrobial stewardship.

The PAC, which meets twice a year, will meet next in the spring.

Names in the News

Bruno named dairy advisor in Fresno and Madera counties

Daniela Bruno joined UCCE on Nov. 5, 2018, as the area dairy advisor in Fresno and Madera counties.

Bruno completed a Ph.D. in comparative pathology from UC Davis and a DVM from The Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Throughout her professional and academic career, Bruno has carried out work related to animal health and welfare, food safety, milk quality, wastewater and dairy systems management. Prior to joining UCCE, Dr. Bruno was a technical services specialist/dairy advisor at DeLaval, Inc. where she provided technical support with trainings, webinars and newsletters to local California dairies and worldwide. She worked closely to field veterinarians and consultants troubleshooting problems at dairies assuring the food supply is safe. Bruno, who is fluent in Portuguese, provided oversight on field clinical trials for products developed for the U.S. and global market.

She collaborated with CSU Fresno and UC Davis in several projects, including studies on animal health, mastitis and milk quality, hoof diseases and calf management and the results from these studies have been presented at National and International meetings such as National Mastitis Council meetings, Lameness in Ruminants Conference and at the World Buiatrics Congress. From 2009 to 2012, Bruno was a dairy specialist/microbiologist at Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. There, she oversaw dairy specimens on performing diagnostic testing and assisting field veterinarians with troubleshooting problems at their client dairies. She also worked closely with the Texas A&M Extension team, providing training on milk quality and mastitis control to herdsmen and other dairy employees, helping them to be more effective in all aspects of dairy management.

Bruno is based in Fresno and can be reached at (559) 241-7552, (559) 241-7515 and dfbruno@ucanr.edu.

Okello named UCCE specialist in antimicrobial stewardship

Emmanuel Okello joined the Department of Population Health and Reproduction as Assistant Specialist in Cooperative Extension in antimicrobial stewardship on Nov. 1, 2018.

Prior to accepting his UCCE position, Okello was a postdoctoral research scholar at the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center, gaining valuable epidemiological experience on dairy production units conducting studies on selective dry cow treatment and surveys of anti-microbial resistance. This has enabled him the opportunity to establish good working relationships with extension specialists, dairy owners, herd managers, farm workers, veterinary practitioners and researchers across California.

Working with farmers and other stakeholders to improve livestock health and productivity, Okello will develop antimicrobial stewardship guidelines and best management practices for veterinarians, livestock owners and their employees that reduce antimicrobial resistance yet maintain healthy herds and flocks.

Okello earned his veterinary degree (DVM equivalent) from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, a master's in molecular biology from Katholieke University Leuven, in Belgium and a Ph.D. in bio-engineering sciences from Vrije University Brussel in Belgium.

Okello is based at the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare and can be reached at (559) 688-1731, ext. 267, and eokello@ucdavis.edu.

 

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