Tag Archive for: fellow

Cooperative Extension Service Immunization Education Project Immunization Education Fellow

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This project is a collaborative effort among the Extension Committee on Policy (ECOP), , eXtension, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  It grew out of efforts undertaken by the ECOP Health Innovation Task Force. eXtension anticipates receiving funding for Immunization Education efforts.  Key Extension leaders on this project are Dr. Roger Rennekamp, Dr. Michelle Rodgers, Dr. Caroline Henney, Ms. Ali Mitchell Dunigan and Dr. Chris Geith.  This project will allow CDC and the Cooperative Extension System to address health disparities among rural and other underserved communities by facilitating discussions at the community level to address barriers and concerns about COVID-19, flu and other adult vaccinations.  It is designed to help increase connections and communication between the community and health care practices, as well as increase accessibility and acceptability of local vaccination clinics and opportunities with the goal to and mobilize communities to implement public health programs to reduce health disparities, especially in rural areas. The four broad areas of emphasis for this project are:

  • A National Assessment
    • Create a landscape report through a national assessment of current activities, locations and delivery of extension immunization education, community dialogue, and the cooperative delivery of immunization clinics.  Timeline:   April-July 2021 
  • Vaccinate with Confidence National Campaign
    • Work with all 111 LGUs who are eligible to apply for funding to support their customization and deployment of the Vaccinate with Confidence Campaign. The package includes materials from the CDC, professional development offerings by the Vaccinate with Confidence technical assistance team available to all LGU’s and funding. LGU’s will complete a standardized and simple online application organized around a rubric to ensure funding priorities, such as serving underserved audiences and collecting standard data.  This information will be built into an application form briefly requiring a description of their planned implementation and their planned budget.  
  • An Impact Collaborative Summit
    • Work with eXtension Foundation to offer an Impact Collaborative Summit to develop opportunities for immunization education and clinics utilizing Extension resources, staff and locations as well as their partnerships with local health education resources, staff and immunization locations.  This Summit will help potential pilot recipients incubate and plan to accelerate opportunities for immunization education in rural and underserved communities.   Timeline:  April 2021.
  • Implement immunization education and clinic pilots, community dialogues, and the cooperative delivery of immunization clinics. Timeline:  May 2021-March 2022.
    • Pilots will test out immunization education programs, community dialogue frameworks, and clinic models in rural and underserved communities that will include data collection and use of common metrics for reporting.
    • A non-research report of what is learned will be created and shared with the Cooperative Extension System and collaborative leaders of this project. This report is to be a brief report and summary of the pilots from the pilot leaders. 

This project is seeking an Immunization Education Fellow who will work collaboratively with the Project Director and Assistant Project Director of the Immunization Education Project. This will be a one year buyout from a land grant university for approximately 10% time.   eXtension will serve as the principal investigator for the project and eXtension will serve as a backbone for the project efforts. 

The work of the fellows will focus on building the capacity and expanding the portfolio of the Cooperative Extension System’s work focused on health and well being.  Much of this will be accomplished through a Connect Extension subgroup where fellows will work as a team to foster identification and sharing of programmatic resources, expertise and collaboration around priority themes determined by Roger Rennekamp. This position will report to Dr. Roger Rennekamp.  

  • Engage Connect Extension group members weekly in planned activities such as learning circles, webinars, cafes, dialogs, and chat events. 
  • Create content that encourages engagement of members such as blog posts, forum questions and surveys related to Immunization Education. 
  • Catalyze the growth and effectiveness of the Immunization Education community on the Connect Extension digital platform.   
  • Develop a tagging vocabulary in Connect Extension to make resources easy to find. 
  • Design and host at least three national professional development online events to the Cooperative Extension System with eXtension; for example, an action dialog or a webinar.
  • Report monthly on group engagement to Roger Rennenkamp.
  • This position will work remotely.  Knowledge and experience with virtual work and computer skills are needed for this position.

The projected timeline for this position is  April 1, 2021 through March 30, 2022: (dependent upon project funding)

February 18 until position is filled:  Accept letters of interest and resumes

April 1, 2021: Start date for Immunization Fellow

April 1, 2021: Official start for the Project

If there are questions, please contact Dr. Roger Rennekamp Ph.D., Extension Health Director, at rogerrennekamp@extension.org

Persons interested in this position should apply here:  https://form.jotform.com/210485133469154

Contact Brenna Kotar, eXtension Foundation at ceoassistant@extension.org with questions pertaining to the application.  

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Megan Hirschman joins eXtension as Partner & Development Specialist

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For Immediate Release
October 10th, 2019
Contact: Aaron Weibe, aaronweibe@eXtension.org

The eXtension Foundation is pleased to announce that Megan Hirschman has accepted the position of Partner & Development Specialist.

In this role, Megan will be designing and implementing strategies for external and internal partnerships, and fund-development relationships. She will identify and execute on unique business opportunities that exist in collaboration between corporations, foundations, and nonprofit organizations. Megan will be developing new and additional internal and external partnerships using a long-term relationship approach with CES and eXtension Foundation, and cultivate opportunities for resource enhancement and co-creation of local impact.

Megan Hirschman has over 15 years of experience working in many areas of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and over 10 years of Development experience.  She currently serves as a Consultant supporting large farms across Michigan in compliance and permitting for Nutrient Management with DEQ. Megan has also served as Director of Development for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University, and Director of the Michigan FFA Foundation. She is an active board member of the Michigan Quarter Horse Association, and enjoys showing horses and participating as a 4-H leader in her spare time.

According to Megan, “I’m very excited for this opportunity to help find even more innovative ways to generate local impact in the wonderful communities we serve.”

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eXtension Fellowship Opportunity: Technology in Extension Education & Organizations

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Technology in Extension Education and Organizations Fellow
Funded by the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) Project

The purpose of this Fellowship is to catalyze adoption and awareness of new educational technologies and practices among professionals in the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service. The Fellow will serve as editor of a peer-reviewed publication and leader of related professional development offerings with production and technical assistance of the eXtension Foundation. The Fellow will work in alignment with a new Futuring Panel for Technology in Extension Education and Organizations. This panel will be preparing a separate trend report of technology use in the practices of Extension professionals and in Extension organizations.

The Fellow will lead the offering of at least 4 synchronous online professional development opportunities and serve as editor of Version 1 of the Technology in Extension Education and Organization eFieldbook to be published with eXtension no later than June 1, 2020. The eXtension eFieldbook is a digital platform for aggregating content, tools and engagement available to all professionals in Cooperative Extension. The professional development will use the eXtension social intranet platform called FlexLearn.

Responsibilities:

    • Serve in the role of editor of the eFieldbook Version 1 and identify a review group and authors/contributors and follow the publication guidelines of eXtension.
    • Identify and offer 4 online professional development opportunities in the form of learning circles, webinars or other synchronous, online awareness-building and skill-building experiences for Extension professionals using eXtension’s FlexLearn platform. 
    • eXtension provides technical assistance and serves as publisher of the eFieldbook. The Journal of Extension provides peer review. eXtension also provides technical support and marketing for the 4 professional development offerings.  

Reporting and Stipend:

  • The Fellow will report to the eXtension Foundation COO. eXtension will provide $5,000 to support this work to the Fellow or the Fellow’s institution, depending on the best way to handle the funds for the institution. 

Duration:

  • Beginning on, our near November 1, 2019 to August 1, 2019.

Apply

To apply for this fellowship, please submit the following information to Brenna Kotar, Assistant to the CEO, eXtension Foundation, ceoassistant@extension.org:

  • Cover Letter
  • Resume
  • Three professional references, including email and phone number contact
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eXtension Announces New Fellowship Opportunity: Technology in Extension Education and Organizations Fellow Funded by the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) Project

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The purpose of this Fellowship is to catalyze adoption and awareness of new educational technologies and practices among professionals in the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service. The Fellow will serve as editor of a peer-reviewed publication and leader of related professional development offerings with production and technical assistance of the eXtension Foundation. The Fellow will work in alignment with a new Futuring Panel for Technology in Extension Education and Organizations. This panel will be preparing a separate trend report of technology use in the practices of Extension professionals and in Extension organizations.

The Fellow will lead the offering of at least 4 synchronous online professional development opportunities and serve as editor of Version 1 of the Technology in Extension Education and Organization eFieldbook to be published with eXtension no later than June 1, 2020. The eXtension eFieldbook is a digital platform for aggregating content, tools and engagement available to all professionals in Cooperative Extension. The professional development will use the eXtension social intranet platform called FlexLearn.

Responsibilities:

  • Serve in the role of editor of the eFieldbook Version 1 and identify a review group and authors/contributors and follow the publication guidelines of eXtension.
  • Identify and offer 4 online professional development opportunities in the form of learning circles, webinars or other synchronous, online awareness-building and skill-building experiences for Extension professionals using eXtension’s FlexLearn platform. 
  • eXtension provides technical assistance and serves as publisher of the eFieldbook. The Journal of Extension provides peer review. eXtension also provides technical support and marketing for the 4 professional development offerings.  

Reporting and Stipend:

  • The Fellow will report to the eXtension Foundation COO. eXtension will provide $5,000 to support this work to the Fellow or the Fellow’s institution, depending on the best way to handle the funds for the institution. 

Duration:

  • Beginning on, our near November 1, 2019 to August 1, 2019.

Apply

To apply for this fellowship, please submit the following information to Brenna Kotar, Assistant to the CEO, eXtension Foundation, ceoassistant@extension.org:

  • Cover Letter
  • Resume
  • Three professional references, including email and phone number contact

 

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Using Artificial Intelligence to Support Extension Services

By David Warren
eXtension Artificial Intelligence Fellow

Alexa, Siri, Google Search and other consumer-facing machine learning services have revolutionized the way that many people find answers to questions that occur in everyday life. With this thought in mind, eXtension is investigating how AI and machine learning tools could be applied to both improve access to information and increase the local impact of Extension Services. 

Our investigation has led to a scoping effort and preparation of a grant application that envisions the creation of a machine learning service. This service would accept questions from clients of partner Extension Services via text input, and deliver answers and resource links.

The type of service we are envisioning is a “chatbot”, which will utilize machine learning algorithms to find the best answers to questions. The chatbot will built on top of eXtension’s large database of thousands of questions and answers gleaned from years of the Ask an Expert service. Additional content hosted by partner Extension Services such as fact sheets, reports, links to workshops, and connections to local offices and resources could also form part of the answers that would be supplied to questioners. 

The chatbot would be accessible via API’s by the various Extension Services for use with websites, text response from phones, and potentially other uses. We hope to superpower local extension websites with this service, with eXtension remaining invisible behind the scenes. The goal is to provide local information and local connections, capitalizing on national data for machine learning to provide high-quality chats/answers.

This project in no way conceived as a replacement for the vitally important people who work in Extension Services. Instead, it is intended to leverage the expertise of Extension personnel in a new way, in order to reach people who likely would not have connected to Extension. We will work hard to give it the Extension feel, with right touch and local feeling.

The initial meeting of an ad hoc advisory group was held on April 10, 2019. Attendees from Land Grant Universities included: Becky Griffin of the University of Georgia; Rose Hayden-Smith of the University of California; Steve Judd of the University of New Hampshire; Robin Baumgartner of the University of Idaho; Eli Sagor of the University of Minnesota; and David Warren of Oklahoma State University.

A second meeting of the ad hoc advisory group is planned for April 29, 2019. The grant application for this project will be submitted at the beginning of June, and if funded, the project should begin late in the summer. Look for further updates here at eXtension.org. 

 

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David Warren named as eXtension’s 2019 Artificial Intelligence Fellow

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For Immediate Release
April 10th, 2019
Contact: Aaron Weibe, aaronweibe@eXtension.org

eXtension has named David Warren from Oklahoma State University as the 2019 Artificial Intelligence Fellow. He will guide and frame a digital content scoping project which will be conducted by an eXtension technical partner in April, 2019.

According to David,

“I’m both honored and excited to work with eXtension to help move forward the use of AI and machine learning for Extension Services across the country. This technology has great potential to build on the enormous knowledge that the professionals in Extension have built up over time, and help organize and deliver that knowledge in an innovative manner.”

David Warren is a strategist with expertise in driving change and launching digital businesses and products. The creation, management, and marketing of online businesses and data products has been the focus of David’s career for over twenty years.

David is currently Senior Director of Integrated Digital Strategies for the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University. He has previously held executive positions at large global corporations including VP of Data & Marketing Technology, VP of Digital Media, and Global Channel Manager for Ecommerce.

David holds an MBA from Oklahoma State University and has co-authored articles on the topic of Internet business that have appeared in peer-reviewed journals.

 

 

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