I am a Senior Extension Specialist in the Agricultural Economics department at the University of Kentucky, and I coordinate the Center for Crop Diversification and SARE programs. I have written, managed, and reported on over $600,000 in federal, regional, and state grant programs, and I have been a named partner on grant projects valued over $2 million since 2014. I spearheaded the redesign, build, and maintenance of our large, organizationally complex Extension website. After this redesign the site has seen steady growth in content and traffic, with over 300,000 users and over 1.5 million page views since 2016. 

I led a series of trainings and one-on-one meetings in March through June of 2020 and again in fall of that year directly assisting local farms and other businesses in establishing e-commerce and technological solutions for surviving the unfolding effects of a global pandemic. For that effort and in cumulative recognition of my work, I was presented the UK Outstanding Staff Award, as nominated by a co-worker and was named the 2020 Staff Member of the Year for the University of Kentucky. In 2021, I received the Dr. Lisa P. Collins Outstanding Staff Award in the College of Agriculture Food and Environment. Since 2017 I have led the development and delivery of the innovative Marketing for All educational program, which won the 2022 “Outstanding Program” award from the Kentucky Association of State Extension Professionals (KASEP). 

Everything I have written here is true, but it would be an incomplete truth to imply that I did any of these things alone. Fostering supportive and collaborative environments is at the core of my professional values, and I am lucky and grateful to have been able to work with so many kind and talented people.