Mississippi State President to Deliver Knapp Lecture – Mark Keenum, president of Mississippi State University, has been selected by USDA-NIFA to deliver the prestigious Seaman A. Knapp Memorial Lecture http://www.nifa.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2014news/07301_knapp_memorial.html at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) annual meeting November 2-4, 2014 in Orlando. Keenum will focus some comments on the legacy and future of Cooperative Extension during this 100th year of the signing of the Smith-Lever Act. Knapp is often dubbed the “father of Extension” who, as an educator, inspired Congressmen Smith and Lever to introduce the law which established the nationwide Cooperative Extension System. To register for the APLU Annual Meeting, go to http://www.aplu.org/page.aspx?pid=1462. Cooperative Extension will continue the 100th celebration with a dinner Monday evening of the conference.
Cooperative Extension’s International Engagement (by Michael McGirr, USDA-NIFA) – In conjunction with the Cooperative Extension’s100th Anniversary, USDA-NIFA’s Center for International Programs is attempting to document the history of Extension’s international engagement. For the past 25 years, our office has been collaborating with land-grant universities to strengthen Extension systems overseas, starting with Poland in 1990 through our current project in Afghanistan. University Extension Services also have a rich history of working with other countries. Please help identify and describe this historical involvement, both to other countries and by enriching our own United States system. Tiffany Freer, tjoy.freer@ufl.edu, a PhD candidate at the University of Florida, will coordinate this effort. Please get information to her no later than mid-September 2014 such as descriptions of overseas Extension projects (1914-current), contact information for Extension personnel who have worked extensively overseas or have historical knowledge in this area, and publications or other resources about Extension’s foreign involvement.
National Health Outreach Conference – Linda Kirk Fox, Board on Human Sciences liaison to ECOP, University of Georgia, invites you to Atlanta, GA, May 6-8, 2015 for a conference on Promoting Connections to Create Healthy Individuals, Families and Communities. The conference is a follow-up to the work of the ECOP National Task Force on Health chaired by ECOP member Michelle Rodgers, University of Delaware. Workshops will focus on integrated nutrition, health, environment, and agricultural systems; health literacy; chronic disease prevention and management; positive youth development for health, and health policy issues education. A pre-conference workshop on health insurance literacy also is being planning. For more information about the conference at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia, see https://www.facebook.com/NationalHealthOutreachConference or contact Janet Valente, University of Georgia, 706.583.0343, jvalente@uga.edu.
White House Honors Ag Champions – At an event last week in Washington, DC, agricultural innovators from MN, AL, GA, MI, DE, NY, NJ, MA, KY, WA, NM, CA, IN and NE were honored by USDA and the White House as Champions of Change for Agriculture. Cooperative Extension, including 4-H, and land-grant universities were cited in comments by awardees. Directors and administrators may wish to make contact with awardees as listed at http://www.whitehouse.gov/champions. Jane Schuchardt, Cooperative Extension Executive Director, attended the event on behalf of ECOP.
Strong, Local Economies – Karon Harden, Director of Professional Development, Education and Training, National Association of Counties (NACo), recommends the following new research http://www.naco.org/research/Pages/strong-economies.aspx. The report Strong Economies, Resilient Counties: The Role of Counties in Economic Development was one topic of discussion during the quarterly NACo-Cooperative Extension National Leadership Team meeting last week. ECOP immediate past chair Daryl Buchholz, Kansas State University, and others have been instrumental in engaging NACo in discussions at the national level for the purpose of strengthening this critical partnership at the local and state levels.
