UNL Extension and the Nebraska Cooperative Extension Association presented awards to a number of extension faculty and staff during its annual conference, held in October in Grand Island.

UNL Extension awards:

Distinguished Managerial Professional – Kerry Elsen, extension associate, Kimball, Banner and Cheyenne counties, teaches and coordinates programs for 4-H youth. Through a grant, she has been able to provide a 4-H Robotics Lending Library for youth. She also has developed an art project education program, organizes and conducts three farm safety day events for youth and hosts numerous other educational workshops for youth.

Excellence in Team Programming – The Geospatial and Robotics Technologies for the 21st Century team was honored for its program to increase science, technology, engineering and mathematics achievement and interest using robotics and geospatial technologies. In the last four years, more than 600 youth have participated in the program from around the north central region states. UNL Extension team members include: Viacheslav Adamchuk, Kathleen Morgan, Megan Patent-Nygren, Tracy Pracheil, Katelyn Larson, Gwen Nugent, Neal Grandgenett and Bradley Barker.

Distinguished Educator – Deb Schroeder, extension educator, Cuming County, leads the Control Diabetes for Life program. The program began at eight sites in 2001 and expanded to a statewide program in 2006. The program reached 3,970 people diagnosed with diabetes, their family members and professional food service staff in 30 communities. The program also is video streamed and available on every county UNL Extension Web site in Nebraska.

Distinguished Educator – Jessye Goertz leads programming on childhood obesity. The 18-year veteran of UNL Extension teaches clientele in a variety of age groups through programs such as Small Steps to Health and Wealth, The New You and Nutrition Mission. She is the co-author of Nutrition Mission, a nutrition education program for fifth graders that is taught to more than 700 children each year in nine counties.

Extension New Employee – Sandra Barrera, extension assistant with the Nutrition Education Program, has formed collaborations and has made UNL Extension visible to the Hispanic population in Hall County. She has established 15 new working partnerships in the Grand Island area. On average she works with more than 200 limited-resource families and 300 seniors each year. In the past year she has had more than 100 adult NEP graduates.

Extension New Employee – Tamra Jackson, plant pathology specialist, has developed an extension education program focused on diseases and nematodes damaging corn and sorghum. She has developed a statewide applied research program to support her extension education program and has received external funding of nearly $1 million since 2005.

Awards from NCEA, the professional organization for UNL Extension, were:

Outstanding Media – Lisa Jasa, editor of Crop Watch, was honored for producing the newsletter that provides a medium for many UNL Extension educators and specialists to deliver information.

Outstanding Service to NCEA – Timothy Lemmons has worked with IANR’s Communications and Information Technology unit to change the NCEA Web site to a new system, where the software is updated regularly and support is available.

Meritorious Service by an Individual – Sen. Lavon Heidemann of the Nebraska Legislature has been instrumental in communicating the importance of UNL Extension.

Meritorious Service by a Group – The Nebraska Bar Association Volunteer Attorney Program/Nebraska Supreme Court was honored for its work with the UNL Extension court-mandated guardianship program.