We Heard You, and Your Voice Matters: During the last interim director’s video, I mentioned that we would be continuing to share the themes we discovered during the evaluation of the road show listening session comments and suggestions. The key themes that emerged included: branding, communication, diversity and inclusion, Extension administration, area leaders, stewardship, professional development, programs, promotion and hiring, finance and IT, publications, and work-life balance and morale. Our leadership team is taking a look at each of these specific areas of input and looking for opportunities to make progress in addressing each of them as quickly as possible. Some of the topics and questions will be addressed in a forthcoming frequently asked questions summary, so everyone is privy to the same information and interpretation of the response to questions. We will share more information about the FAQs in an upcoming issue of News and Notes.
We also have finalized the representation on our Extension Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, which will have its first meeting next week. My thanks to Laquore Meadows and Nicole Debose for their willingness to co-chair this important task force.
Upcoming communication: Save the date for video updates on March 19 at 9am and May 5 at 9am; and look for the next “print” News and Notes in early March.