Central State has a new President, Dr. Jack Thomas, who is meeting regularly with Dean Kress. I have been meeting regularly with their fairly new Associate Extension Director, Dr. Sid DasGupta. Greg Davis and our Assistant Directors are meeting with Central State University program leaders. Dr. Alton Johnson has left his role as director of land-grant programs and dean, College of Engineering, Science, Technology, and Agriculture and has returned to a faculty role. Dr. Subramania Sritharan will be the interim director of land-grant programs. They are in the final stages of filling their 5 Extension regional associate positions (similar to our regional director model), and many of their educators who will be teleworking and covering multiple counties. While we knew these hires were planned, we were not made aware of the specifics or the status until they had already been filled. We have just received information this week about the types of specific hires and which professionals will be covering which counties. We will work through our area leaders next week to provide specific information to the counties where CSU will have a professional presence in the hopes of building immediate and lasting relationships that will bring value to all Ohioans.
I am pleased that CSU has received additional funding for building capacity and know that we can, as collaborative partners work in tandem to reach more audiences, increase our breadth and depth of expertise, and cooperate to meet the emerging needs of our communities. More Extension capacity in Ohio is of great benefit to Ohioans and to our organization. If you are aware of a new CSU professional, please reach out to them and offer some of your time to discuss what you do and how we might work together. We are working toward some strategic communication and regular opportunities for planning, sharing, and event coordination. Let’s show our CSU Extension colleagues how happy we are to be expanding Extension’s reach through this engaged partnership. We all have a role to play in our joint success!