Health Implementation Team Meets in Atlanta

l-r Rick Klemme, University of Wisconsin Extension; Virginia Brown, University of Maryland; Sekai Turner, North Carolina A&T University; Sonja Koukel, New Mexico State University; Roberta Riportella, Kansas State University; Celvia Stovall, Alabama Cooperative Extension System; David Buys, Mississippi State University. Atlanta, GA

Health Implementation Team Meets in Atlanta – With leadership by co-chairs Celvia Stovall, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and Rick Klemme, University of Wisconsin Extension, the ECOP-ESCOP Health Implementation Team continued its launch with its first face-to-face meeting in Altanta, GA, last week prior to the National Health Outreach Conference. All five action teams were fully represented with leadership by David Buys, Mississippi State University (Chronic Disease); Virginia Brown, University of Maryland (Health Insurance Literacy); Sonja Koukel, New Mexico State University (Health Literacy); Roberta Riportella, Kansas State University (Health Policy Issues Education), and Sekai Turner, North Carolina A&T University (Positive Youth Development for Health). Over a three-year period the effort will implement Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health and Wellness. The overall expected outcome is to increase the number of Americans who are healthy at every stage of life. The co-chairs express thanks to Cooperative Extension and Experiment Station Directors and Administrators for nominating and supporting efforts of action team members. As indicated in the national framework (pg. 2), “This same system of Extension can do for the nation’s health what it did for American agriculture.” 

BAA-BoHS Focuses on Human Health and Agriculture Nexus – Prior to the National Health Outreach Conference in Atlanta last week, Rich Linton, North Carolina State University, and Chris Ladisch, Purdue University, co-chairs of the BAA-BoHS Healthy Food Systems, Healthy People Steering Committee facilitated a face-to-face meeting. Among action items were redirection of the committee’s charge, additional focus on understanding research priorities, and planning for updates on committee actions for land-grant university system and strategic partners. The committee was launched following a work session at Joint COPs in 2014 and has as its ultimate goal to improve human health and reduce chronic disease. 

USDA-NIFA Announces Liaisons to Regions – Director Sonny Ramaswamy announces the primary agency liaisons to the Cooperative Extension regions as follows: Northeast region – Muquarrab Qureshi; Western region – Louie Tupas; Southern region – Bob Holland; North Central region – Parog Chitnis; and 1890 Institutions regions – Bob Holland. Liaisons enhance communication between USDA-NIFA and Cooperative Extension directors and administrators for the benefit of improving programs, streamlining administrative functions, and articulating outcomes and public value of our work together. Bob Holland, Associate Director for Operations, also serves as the liaison to ECOP. Paula Geiger, Budget Officer, is liaison to the ECOP Budget and Legislative Committee.

RFP for JOE Editorial Services – Extension Journal, Inc. is reopening its invitation for proposals to provide editorial services for the corporation’s flagship product, the Journal of Extension. Editorial services required range from initial review of all submissions, to writing advice for authors, to working with reviewers, to copy editing of all issues. Please consider our invitation. The deadline for proposals is May 31, 2015, with the contract to begin January 1, 2016. For the full RFP go to: http://www.joe.org/rfp.php.

Extension Award Nominations Due 6.1.15 – ECOP and USDA-NIFA announces the 2015 nomination process for the national Excellence in Extension and Diversity awards. The due date for nominations is June 1st at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Nominations, submitted online, must be completed by this date and time. Regions are subject to announcing earlier deadlines for their purposes. CLICK HERE for contact information by Region. For details and to access the online nomination forms go to http://www.aplu.org/CESAwards. Questions can be directed to Sandy Ruble, ECOP Staff Associate sandy.ruble@extension.org.