University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension and the Nebraska Cooperative Extension Association presented annual awards to several UNL Extension faculty and staff.
Awards were presented at the two organizations' annual fall conference in Grand Island last month.
UNL Extension awards:
Distinguished Managerial Professional
Erin Bauer, UNL Extension associate, splits her time between the Pesticide Safety Education Program and the Integrated Pest Management Program. She also is nearing completion of a distance master's degree in entomology, including serving as a TA for the "Insects in the Classroom" course.
Bauer has made more than 15 invited presentations at national and regional conferences, authored or co-authored seven training manuals and 10 NebGuides, and was a key developer in the Pest Private Eye video game.
Bauer once described this as her "dream job." Her nominators say: "This attitude clearly shines through when you look at the quality of her programs. She is well liked by those with whom she works, takes pride in what she does and works hard every day to make sure our pesticide applicators receive the best education possible."
Excellence in Team Programming
Career Explorer is an iPad app and website developed by the Extension Career Development team to help youth start on the right path to making smart life choices.
In 2008, a $7,500 grant was awarded to UNL Extension to focus on career education. As a result, the Career Development Focused Educator Team was formed. The team led development of Connecting the Dots, a program where high school students can link with post-secondary options and potential employers. Connecting the Dots workshops are now offered statewide. Based on the success of this program, the team went on to develop the Career Explorer website and app. Testimonials from users of the app state: "I've used this with my daughter looking at career options – very cool!" "Great Resource!" "This app just helped me choose my major!"
In addition to statewide success, Career Explorer will also be awarded the 2012 NAE4-HA Interactive 4-H Educational Website National Award next week in Orlando, Fla.
UNL Extension team members include: Kim Bearnes, Tracy Behnken, Heather Borck, Brian Bosshamer, Shane Potter, Tracy Pracheil, Dustin Renken, Barbara Scharf, Lila Tooker, Amy Topp, Dave Varner, Jane Armstrong and Jeff Abele.
Distinguished Educator
Aaron Berger, UNL Extension educator based in Kimball, is co-coordinator of the High Plains Ranch Practicum, as well as curriculum director and instructor; a team co-coordinator for the UNL Beef website; team co-coordinator for the Extension Drought Management Team; team leader for Ranching for Profitability; co-authored six NebGuides; and was also recognized for his other accomplishments.
Jenny Nixon, UNL Extension educator based in Sioux County, has been active in teaching in the area of entrepreneurship, working with an Extension team to produce curricula, adapt it for diverse audiences and formats, and present it to local, regional, statewide and national audiences. She also manages software for the Nebraska State 4-H Department. At the same time, with her location in the heart of cow country, she teaches and promotes range management topics. Some material on range plants that she has developed has been used abroad in Mongolia.
Extension New Employee
Lisa Franzen-Castle, UNL Extension nutrition specialist at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center, is an action team leader for the Food, Nutrition and Health spire of UNL Extension. She initiated a statewide, web-based nutrition and health programming series, and coordinated the revision of a Nebraska-based food, nutrition and health curriculum with 25 lessons that will be turned into a digital publication and made available on line for other health professionals to purchase and use. She also repurposes materials into a variety of formats for use in publications, on-line newsletters, and news media.
Distinguished Extension Specialist
Since 1999, Tom Hunt has led development and delivery of extension materials and programs concerning soybean pest management and insect management, particularly with respect to transgenic corn and European corn borer. He is the lead author on 26 Extension circulars, NebGuides and NebFacts and has developed web-based and smart phone app decision – making tools.
In addition, Tom has maintained an active research program. He published 37 refereed journal articles, made 27 scientific presentations and obtained $4.5 million in grants. He currently advises five graduate students and has graduated three doctoral and 12 Master of Science students. Chester I. Walters Extra Mile Award
The importance of UNL Extension is often found in the ability of an educator to respond to natural catastrophes. Last year, when the Missouri River flooded the countryside (over 210,000 acres), John Wilson rose to the occasion. He spent unheralded hours leading efforts which organized local, multi-state and national resources to assist stakeholders.
Wilson co-led UNL and Iowa State specialists and field staff in efforts focusing on flood damage programming. He conducted two major webinars targeting producers and landowners. He spoke on the steps of Congress to House and Senate staffers regarding flood issues. While in Washington, D.C., he met with Nebraska-elected officials to help them better understand the issues. All of this he did while leading regular programming on soybean cyst nematodes, 4-H and crop production.
Awards from NCEA, the professional organization for UNL Extension, were:
Outstanding Media Award
Kevin Horn and KCOW radio are valuable assets to the UNL Box Butte County Extension program. Horn readily uses news releases and PSAs from the extension office, both on air and on the station's web news page, for any newsworthy topic. He advocates Extension and does numerous interviews about Extension programming. He even does a live broadcast from the 4-H building during the county fair visiting with 4-Hers, alumni and county residents. Horn serves on the Box Butte 4-H Council.
Outstanding Service by a Group
Nebraska is the beef epicenter of the United States and Nebraska Cattlemen are proud to be the voice of the Nebraska beef industry. The mission of the Nebraska Cattlemen is to work for Nebraska beef producers providing leadership, education and representation. Their mission reflects strongly the mission of UNL Extension which makes the partnership which has developed between the Nebraska Cattlemen and Nebraska Extension such a solid fit. The support provided comes to each of Nebraska's counties in a variety of ways: financial support allows for programming to happen across the state, local membership allows for support at many of the extension events that occur and sticking to the current efforts in providing a stronger more unified voice in the area of agriculture literacy, once again the Nebraska Cattlemen are right there to help advocate and educate. Jim Ramm, state president of Nebraska Cattlemen, accepted the award.
Outstanding Service by an Individual
Jay Schroeder has been involved within the Extension Service in many roles. Schroeder has served as a Dodge County Extension board member for five years from 1994-1999. He also served as the East Central EPU NACEB representative. In working with the Farm Service Agency, Schroeder has been able to provide funding for 4-H member's livestock projects in the surrounding counties. One of the most time consuming and rewarding roles has been his involvement with the Fremont 4-H Fair. This fair is a combination of nine counties: Burt, Butler, Colfax, Cuming, Dodge, Douglas-Sarpy, Saunders and Washington. In 1991when the fair was struggling to survive and needed leadership, Schroeder became fair manager. This role came without pay and is a year-round commitment for Schroeder. The Fremont 4-H Fair provides another opportunity in addition to their county fair for 4-H'ers to showcase their talents through static exhibits, judging competitions, presentations, modeling and livestock shows. He also has expanded the college scholarships that are given to area youth through the Fremont 4-H Fair selection process.
Outstanding Service to NCEA
Amy Peterson, extension educator, Polk County, has been very involved with NCEA, NAEFCS and NAE4-HA since she joined extension in 1996. She has served as an active member and chair of many committees for all three organizations. She served at the state level as vice president and then president of NEAFCS and vice president of NEA4-HA. She was co-chair of a committee of the 2011 NAE4-HA conference held in Omaha. In the past decade, her dedication to NCEA has led her to serve as vice president of awards and recognition and central region director for NEAFCS. Peterson has represented Nebraska on the national level as the current president of the 2,000-plus members of NEAFCS. She has seen this group through some challenging issues with positive and optimistic focus on the future. Some of the many changes she has helped implement include overseeing the adoption of online award applications when that was a new idea, increasing mentoring and communication with affiliate presidents through technology and developing national impact reports for NEAFCS focusing on pertinent FCS issues.
UNL Extension is in the university's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.