It has been a while since I have checked in! March is always a busy month and with resumed travel, it seemed more hectic than usual this year. We held an in-person Strategic Doing workshop in Davis mid-month. It was a small, but committed group and we have some action items to advance later this month.
The Western Extension Directors Association and Western Association Agriculture Experiment Station Directors met two weeks ago in Reno. Despite the loud noise and lights of the casino/hotel environment, it was a good meeting and nice to see everyone after two years of a virtual meeting. A key theme of the meeting was ‘telling our impactful story'. I am so proud of where UC ANR is with this topic! While there will always be room for improvement, reading through this year's federal report of impacts makes clear that we are getting better at sharing and measuring our impact. Here's one example from one of our newer CE Advisors, Zheng Wang, targeting a condition change of reduced input costs: Processing tomato growers adopted UCCE's recommendations of replanting early in the season to reduce the chance of BLH feeding and BCTV infection. Some fields prevented up to $900 of losses per acre, an approximate yield reduction of 10 tons per acre, compared to growers' other fields that were not replanted.
Last week, the Extension Council on Organization and Policy (ECOP) met in California. This group represents each of the 5 Extension ‘regions' to talk about common topics around the Cooperative Extension System. Our focus was on ensuring a clear process for working topics through the system and continuation of building our national impact narrative as we pursue opportunities for the system. While thrilled to be back in person, I do have to admit that these in-person multi-day meetings require a different kind of energy than virtual sessions. I need to acclimate a bit, but will be there soon, I am certain.
Congratulations to all those who have been working hard to submit grants! Heidi and Kathy have reported that at just three quarters of the way through the fiscal year, UC ANR is already past our total awarded amount for last fiscal year! Kathy says “Our PIs have been very busy putting in proposals and securing the awards this year. What an amazing group of academics we have!”
Lenya had some airtime recently! Check out her interview with PBS News Hour. Congratulations to Lenya and the entire Fire Advisor team for the work they are doing! I am excited to see how this work expands with the new hires coming on board.
Speaking of new hires, Amrita Mukherjee started Friday, April 1 as Cooperative Extension Urban Agriculture/Small Farms Advisor, based in Highland, CA, with programmatic responsibilities in San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, and Orange Counties. Please reach out to Amrita with a warm welcome!
Program Council meets this week to finalize recommendations to the Vice President regarding CE Specialist positions. Stay tuned!