Taking advantage of NEDA 2026’s Seattle location, the National 4-H Council dinner on Monday evening will feature a technology executive. Mary E. Snapp is a Corporate Vice President and Senior Fellow in Microsoft’s Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) department, where she leads the company’s Philanthropy team. She is a multi-decade veteran of Microsoft as the company’s fourth attorney and first female lawyer.
At Microsoft, Mary has held multiple high-level roles, including:
Deputy General Counsel — providing legal counsel for large mergers & acquisitions, IP, marketing, antitrust, and privacy matters, and leading teams on major commercial transactions.
First leader of Microsoft’s Global Philanthropies — focusing on STEM education and technology support for nonprofits worldwide
Corporate VP of Microsoft Philanthropy — overseeing the company’s mission to empower people and organizations globally through technology, funding, and partnerships
Under her leadership, Microsoft’s philanthropic team has invested the company’s strongest assets — technology, money, talent, and voice — to partner with nonprofits and communities, achieving over $1 billion in annual giving in recent years.
4-H Helping to Boost Trust in Public Universities
As trust and public confidence in higher education recently hit a record low of 36%, university presidents and chancellors are focusing on how to ensure their value to students and communities remains strong. The low confidence is attributed to rising tuition costs and perceptions that colleges fail to teach relevant work skills.
Not long ago, Jill Bramble, President and CEO of the National 4-H Council,
joined university presidents at the Association of Public and
Land-grant Universities (APLU) Council of Presidents Summer meeting to
discuss how 4-H is driving college and career readiness. Jill is appreciative to
APLU President Waded Cruzado for her vision in advancing this conversation
forward.
She is grateful for the opportunity to speak with three 4-H alumni: Dr. Tracy M. Cook
President of Alcorn
State University; Dr. Gordon
Gee President Emeritus of West
Virginia University and Chair of National 4-H
Council's Emeritus Council; and Richard Maltsbarger,
National
4-H Council Trustee, and Executive in Residence at the University
of Central Florida. Their stories reflect the long-term impact of
investing in young people.
Read more about the event here.
Five for Five Reminder
At last year’s joint agInnovation and Extension conference
in St. Louis, the Five for Five program was featured.
As a reminder, Five for Five is a physical
activity ad-on curriculum designed to easily integrate movement into existing
educational programming. The curriculum provides engaging, evidence-informed
activities that help youth and adults increase physical activity while enhancing
the learning process. Five for Five has been successfully implemented
across a variety of settings and has been well received by educators and
participants alike.
To help your Extension team get started, the Five for Five
team has developed an interactive one-hour virtual training that
introduces educators to the curriculum, demonstrates how it can be integrated
into current programs, and provides practical implementation strategies. We
would be excited to offer this training to Extension faculty and staff within
your state.
Another benefit of Five for Five is
its accessibility. Nearly the entire curriculum
is available free of charge, at the following QR Code:
The only materials available at cost are the player cards, which have consistently been one of the most popular and highly rated components of the curriculum. Participants and educators alike enjoy the interactive nature of the cards, and we currently have a healthy inventory of player card decks available for purchase.
