The UNL Extension and the Nebraska Cooperative Extension Association presented annual awards to extension faculty and staff at their annual fall conference in Kearney this year.

UNL Extension Awards:

Distinguished Managerial Professional — Vicki Jelicka, publications and resource associate for UNL Extension in Lancaster County.

Excellence in Team Programming — In 1999, Karen Wobig and Mary Abbott (assisted by Zainab Rida) launched the Nutrition Education School Enrichment Program with a strategy of increasing nutrition education. To date, almost 35,000 students in Lincoln Title I schools have participated in this enrichment program, and the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program has invested over $750,000 as a result.

Distinguished Educator — Jenny Rees, extension educator in Clay County. Her work with the Greater Quad County On-farm Research program has resulted in reducing soybean seeding rates by as much as 40,000 seeds per acre, a savings of $9 per acre.

Extension New Employee — Lowell Sandell, extension educator since March 2007.

Distinguished Specialist — Rick Rasby, extension beef specialist and professor of animal science, is the originator of the Extension Beef Cattle website at http://beef.unl.edu, which averages 1,000 visitors daily. He was the leader of the team that developed the first micro-computer program sold by UNL, PC-CowCard.

Chester I Walters “Extra Mile” — Steve Pritchard, extension educator for 22 years.

Awards from NCEA, UNL Extension’s professional organization:

Outstanding Service Award — Tracy Behnken, a member of the NCEA for 20 years.

Outstanding Media Award — Don McCabe, editor of Nebraska Farmer.

Meritorious Service by an Individual — Richard “Dick” Earl. He has had a large influence on Nebraska’s poultry and egg industry. He worked as an extension agent between 1946 and 1947. Earl helped start the embryology project in 1975, which now reaches more than 4,100 students in 165 Nebraska classrooms, all states and 26 countries each year.

Outstanding Service Group Award — The Nebraska Agricultural Technologies Association collaborates with UNL Extension faculty to identify and explore new technologies practical for agriculture with consideration to financial returns for producers. NeATA has been instrumental in securing more than $1 million in external funding for UNL Extension and Research projects.