Monday, August 19, 2019

Cooperative Extension System/ECOP Seeks Executive Director

The Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) is accepting applications for the Cooperative Extension System/ECOP Executive Director. The complete announcement is found at bit.ly/ExtEDinDC. The full-time position will be based in Washington, DC. Applications will be reviewed by the Executive Director Search Advisory Committee when received and continue until the position is filled. Preference will be given to applications received by September 27, 2019.


Opportunity to Host the National Health Outreach Conference - The call for proposals to host the 2020 National Health Outreach Conference (NHOC) is open! The National Health Outreach Conference (formerly Priester Conference) was established after ECOP adopted the Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health and Wellness in 2014. The NHOC was first held in 2015 and has been hosted annually since its inception by a land-grant partner. The conference was renamed for the “purpose of greater integration of health stakeholders and current cultural change.” Please contact Ahlishia Shipley for the proposal application and additional information. Applications are due September 9, 2019.


Ask Extension, Applying Artificial Intelligence to Extension - An initial landscape investigation and overview was completed by eXtension's 2019 Artificial Intelligence Fellow, David Warren, Oklahoma State University. This investigation looks at one solution to the problem of information fragmentation and “findability” of research-based answers with local relevance: the creation of a distributed Ask Extension data registry and search interfaces. Learn more and read the full report here. Direct questions regarding the report to David Warren at david.warren10@okstate.edu.


Cooperative Extension and Data Science: A Strategy for Boosting Rural Economic Prosperity - In June 2018, the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded a workshop at North Carolina State University in partnership with Research Triangle Institute to explore leveraging Cooperative Extension’s structure to bring Data Science capability to rural areas to enhance economic prosperity. The workshop report identifies concrete next steps, follow-on efforts and recommendations on how to leverage land-grant universities and Cooperative Extension to transfer data science education, activities and literacy to the nation. The report is available at  http://go.ncsu.edu/nsf.sloan.report.