UNL Extension individuals, teams receive annual awards

Dec 4th, 2008 | By | Category: December 4, 2008, Employee News

UNL Extension and the Nebraska Cooperative Extension Association presented annual awards to a number of extension faculty and staff.

Awards were presented at the two organizations’ annual Fall Conference in Grand Island in October.

UNL Extension awards included:

Distinguished Managerial Professional

Tracy Kulm, extension associate, Lancaster County, was cited for her creative teaching style, which encourages youth to develop leadership and social skills. She organized a 4-H Clover College that had 637 youth participate over a four-day period and also maintains a viable year-round 4-H program by assisting new and established 4-H leaders.

Excellence in Team Programming

The Parents Forever and Kids Talk About Divorce Team was honored for its leadership of a program that since 1999 has seen 3,700 adults and more than 1,000 children participate. Extension team members are Gail Brand, Cindy Strasheim, Jane Armstrong, Susan Brown, Maureen Burson, Jacki Cervantes-Guzman, Leslie Crandall, Myrna Dubois, Jeanette Friesen, Marilyn Fox, Nancy Frecks, Janet Hanna, Cathy Johnston, Patricia Jones, Eileen Krumbach, Debbie Kuenning, Sarah Nelson, Deanna Peterson, Sandra Preston, Angie Rushman, Phyllis Schoenholz, Debra Schroeder, Lee Sherry, Shawna Snider, Dianne Swanson, Becky Versch, Ruth Vonderhoe, Mary K. Warner, Holli Weber, and LaDonna Werth. Community partners are Deb Iwan, Krista Dybdal, Maureen Marshall, Charlene Turner, Teri Gemar, Amy Wendquist, Trisha Crandall, Melissa Prentice, Jan Madsen, Helen Kampfe, Nancy Michaels, Kathleen Pittack, St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center and Central Plains Center for Services.

The Skip Row Corn Team was honored for developing and marketing the skip row system of planting corn, which prevents corn plants from depleting all soil moisture too early in the season. The system has helped farmers contend with drought conditions in recent years. Team members are Robert Klein, Drew Lyon, David Baltensperger, Mark Bernards, Roger Elmore, Stevan Knezevic, Steve Mason, Steve Melvin, Lenis Nelson, Alexander Pavlista, Charles Shapiro and Gary Hergert.

Distinguished Educator

Gail Brand of Seward County has led programming in a number of areas, including Parents Forever, parenting classes for child care providers and parents, Family Strengths programming, Seward County Bridges, youth development, new worker training and Building Strong Families.

Chester I. Walters “Extra Mile” Award

Gary Zoubek of York has been a key leader in many programs, including the Greater Quad County On-Farm Research team and the Nebraska Agricultural Water Management Demonstration Network team.  Producers estimate water savings on corn and soybean acres in the former program at 2.5 inches or $13.50 per acre.  Some producers reported savings of more than 3 inches ($16.20 per acre). Zoubek also has mentored several new educators and specialists during his career.

New Extension Employee

Maria (Cherry) de Guzman, based on East Campus, is part of extension’s Healthy Families and Communities Action Team and has taken the lead in writing a new high school educator handout for the Poverty Simulation program.

Lisa Kaslon, based in Platte County, helps lead the Community Together Can after-school program, designed to grow children intellectually, culturally, physically, socially and emotionally.  The program started with 88 students in 2003 and grew to 686 in 2007.

Distinguished Specialist Award

Gary Hein, extension entomology specialist at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff, was instrumental in the development of the Crop Management Workshops and the High Plains Integrated Pest Management Guide.

For additional information, including a list of awards from NCEA, the professional organization for UNL Extension, go to http://ianrnews.unl.edu/.



— Story by Dan Moser, IANR News Service

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