Comments from the Dean

Congratulations!

At the Gamma Sigma Delta Initiation and Awards Banquet on Sunday evening, January 29, David Varner received the Excellence in Extension Award and Lisa Karr-Lilienthal received the Excellence in Teaching Award. Yiqi Yang (Textiles, Clothing and Design) received the Excellence in Research Award and Susan Fritz, Associate Vice President Academic Affairs and Research, was presented the Award of Merit.

Connie Francis (working with the Nebraska Rural Initiative) was recently presented the “Business of the Year” Award by the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway (SJSB) at their annual meeting. The SJSB said Connie has been an invaluable partner with the SJSB acting as a consultant and offering valued service to the Byway for many years.

Dee Griffin received the 2012 Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Educator of the Year at the 2012 Cattle Industry Convention. Nebraska Cattlemen recognized Dee’s dedication to the beef industry and nominated him for this prestigious award. The BQA Educator of the Year Award recognizes individuals in the beef industry who embrace the BQA philosophy and strive to spread the word on how to produce a high quality beef product.

Congratulations to all these award recipients!


Fulbright Specialist

Julie Albrecht was selected as a Fulbright Specialist for Mykolayiv State Agrarian University in Ukraine. She will be spending a month (February 4 to March 1, 2012) in Ukraine providing food safety education. Congratulations to Julie for being selected for this opportunity!


Nebraska Association of County Extension Boards

The Nebraska Association of County Extension Boards (NACEB) held their annual meeting at the Governor’s Mansion on Friday, February 3. Due to winter storms, many board members and Senator's from the west were not able to attend.

Susan Williams served as UNL advisor to the planning committee, and Todd Gerdes (2011 NACEB president) chaired the meeting. Alan Moeller and Ron Withem were on the program updating the group on University funding requests. There were at least 16 Senators in attendance at the luncheon. The incoming 2012 NACEB president is Linda Butcher.

NACEB 2012 Award Recipients and Scholarship Winners are:

Support Staff Award - Gordon Hansen, North Platte

Volunteer Award - Daryl Urwiler, Pender

Business/Business Person Award - Geneva State Bank, located in Geneva, Fillmore County
Geneva State Bank was represented by: President John Wilkins, Bryce Kassik and Jan Stoldorf

Young Adult Award - Stephanie Scharf, Frontier County (residing in Lincoln)

Scholarship Winners:
Freshman winner - Alyssa Dye, Alliance

Returning UNL Scholarship winner
April Lutz, Benkelman, Nebraska

NACEB is looking forward to hosting this event again next year!


Extension’s 2011 Impact

Our Extension Administration team would like to commend our Action Teams and their leadership for the excellent set of Impact Reports. The Action Teams have assembled 12 statewide reports summarizing our accomplishments and impacts. We have added to this a one page summary, “2011 – Year in Review” (http://go.unl.edu/5mj), of the highlights of our Extension systems accomplishments that has recently shared with Ronnie Green, Nebraska Ag Builders, state senators, and NACEB participants. These summaries can be found in the left hand column of our county, district and state Extension web sites. Thank you to all who contributed impact data to these reports and to the leadership of our Action and Signature Outcome Teams who assembled these valuable summaries.

I hope you will look for opportunities to share these summaries with clientele, commodity groups, Extension Boards, and County Commissioners during this coming year. These summaries will also be helpful as you prepare our advocates to share messages about the value of Extension.

-- Elbert C. Dickey