NTAE Catalyst

The purpose of this salary subaward grant is to support my efforts to identify and bring together LGU researchers and Extension professionals in 4 theme areas within goal 2 and goal 7 of the USDA strategic goals, which are: STRATEGIC GOAL 2: Maximize the Ability of American Agricultural Producers To Prosper by Feeding and Clothing the World STRATEGIC GOAL 7: Provide All Americans Access to a Safe, Nutritious, and Secure Food Supply I will work with a team of Research and Extension catalysts, regionally located to identify which 4 themes to pursue for the following purposes; a. to develop professional development offerings for Extension professionals in the form of new eFieldbooks, training in the form of webinars and online content, and collaboration on our new FlexLearn platform being created for this grant. I will help identify the key people to serve in key roles and write a short prospectus of the rationale and background for the 4 theme areas. These individuals will include the 4 people to serve as eFieldbook Fellows (which are editors of the books) and help them identify people for their eFieldbook advisory groups. Further, I will help the eXtension staff identify experts across the system to help us develop training curriculum and up to 2 competency frameworks. b. for two of the 4 themes, I will also work with the eXtension team to identify 2 short]term engagement initiatives. I will advise the eXtension team as they design two initiatives to engage audiences in new ways (one in Goal 2 and one in Goal 7). These two initiatives will take a deep dive into a specific audience to determine their current use of Extension information and how they make decisions and who influences them. Then, Extension interventions will be identified to meet the needs, using new technologies and new approaches. Then we will measure the level of increase in the awareness and use of Extension information and services.