Professional Development

The Extension Foundation offers a wide range of professional development opportunities for both members and non-members throughout the year. Guided by insights from the 2023 Extension Foundation Professional Development Needs Assessment, ongoing survey feedback, and conversations across the Extension system, our 2026 professional development offerings are designed to be relevant, accessible and valuable to the work of all Extension professionals.

2026 Events for Members

All offerings below are for Extension Foundation Members.
Check if your institution is a Member.

Extension Skills

Now second and fourth Thursday of the month, the Extension Skills series provides an opportunity for Cooperative Extension professionals to build capacity with tools, processes and strategies to elevate your impact.

View Schedule and Register

Leadership and Team Development

With new offerings for 2026, we hope you’ll join us for a leadership development experience designed to transform your skills from good to great on your journey to leadership effectiveness. Together we’ll discover diverse skills to enhance self-awareness, communication, and collaboration to increase engagement as an influential leader!

View Schedule and Register

2026 Events Open to All Extension Professionals

Program and Research Center Stage

Each fourth Wednesday of the month, Program and Research Center Stage highlights programs, projects and emerging from across Cooperative Extension to showcase new methods, foster shared learning, collaboration, and resource exchange throughout the Extension system.

View Schedule and Register

Artificial Intelligence Fundraising and Grants Use Cases for Extension Professionals

In 2026, the Extension Foundation will partner with NTAE Key Informant Nate Birt to host a 7-part Zoom-based workshop series: Artificial Intelligence Fundraising and Grants Use Cases for Extension Professionals. ach session is designed specifically for Cooperative Extension professionals and will feature practical demonstrations, Q&A, and interactive examples grounded in real fundraising and grants work across Extension!

View Schedule and Register

What People are Saying

As Director of Cornell Cooperative Extension, I am delighted that County Associations around New York have been involved. One example of the success of this program is the unique, virtual opportunity for our Livingston County team to work through a creative and structured process to explore and develop a concept in a short period of time. It also helped with goals they had around team building. The Extension Foundation provided our team with access to effective coaching and expert informants, which will help this work not only maintain momentum, but grow. The pandemic has been challenging for all of us, but this event and the process proved a bright spot for our Livingston County team.

The Extension Foundation prepared the CIVIC team with new skills, resources, and opportunities that have helped them come together as a team to accelerate and scale their program. Their involvement has helped create new pathways for reaching a more diverse audience, find strategic ways to engage new partners, and better help Extension professionals across Florida facilitate a process that builds community capacity in addressing challenging issues such as climate change, sustainability, opioid addiction, and water quality.

The Extension Foundation prepared the CIVIC team with new skills, resources, and opportunities that have helped them come together as a team to accelerate and scale their program. Their involvement has helped create new pathways for reaching a more diverse audience, find strategic ways to engage new partners, and better help Extension professionals across Florida facilitate a process that builds community capacity in addressing challenging issues such as climate change, sustainability, opioid addiction, and water quality.

My most recent experience was simply brilliant. Having the opportunity to develop a program idea into an achievable project through numerous interactions with subject matter specialists – not programmatic subject matter specialists, but soft-skill subject matter specialists, teams of colleagues from across the country, identified coaches and my team from home was priceless. Our interactions not only gave us a more global perspective on our project – and our National mission -, it also provided us the opportunity to become a more cohesive team.

ICYMI

In case you missed one of our professional development sessions, Extension Foundation
Members can access it in our Video Resource Library on Connect after registering an account.

Register your account at connect.extension.org and visit the Video Resource Library.

Past Webinar Recordings

Quick Links

Find Extension in Your State
Search Extension
Impact Collaborative
Connect Extension

About
Team & Board
Annual Report
Contact Us

Membership
Campus
Ask Extension
Tools

Privacy Policy
Accessibility Statement
Terms of Use
Careers

Extension Foundation Logo White

Our mission is to empower a national network of community-based educators, volunteers, and partners to turn knowledge into real-world solutions for stronger communities and people.

Terms of Use

Cooperative Extension logo white

The Extension Foundation is a nonprofit established in 2006 by Extension Directors and Administrators nationwide. Extension Foundation is embedded in the U.S. Cooperative Extension System and serves on Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP).

USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture

This website is supported in part by New Technologies for Ag Extension (funding opportunity no. USDA-NIFA-OP-010186), grant no. 2023-41595-41325 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Extension Foundation.

Sign up for our Newsletter

Stay up to date with the Extension Foundation.

Subscribe