Video and Photo by: Jill Wells
Scott welcomes Ana Lu Fonseca, University Outreach and Engagement’s assistant director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and the newest member of the Division’s five-person executive team. She has energy, enthusiasm and ideas, including creating a team of Diversity Champions.
Post your suggestions and ideasbelow about what the team of Diversity Champions should consider to deepen our culture of diversity, equity and inclusion.
What is a Diversity Champion? The word “champions” comes from the Latin concept of “campionem” for “gladiator, fighter.” Raaawr! But there’s no need to grab your sword. A champion is also a person who fights for a cause or defends an ideal.
In our outreach and engagement work, Diversity Champions are people who use their superpowers in the name of a diversity value or ideal. That ideal could be a better world, a more inclusive or relevant program, or a greener and more loving future for generations to come. We recognize Champions who strive every day to learn, grow, and create a better future—not just those who have already succeeded at something or are an expert.
We are creating a team of Outreach and Engagement Diversity Champions!
Today’s world is a world of many ideas, thoughts, perspectives, backgrounds, experiences, philosophies, and beliefs. It is a world of individuals with multiple identities. Let’s embrace the opportunity to enrich our selves, our lives, and our work with this diversity.
As Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for University Outreach and Engagement, my vision is to create a loving, united, authentic, inclusive and powerful team with a common vision and commitment to a sustainable transformation.
To realize this vision, we must gather and invest resources to ensure we are thinking intentionally about inclusion at all levels and that people from all walks of life—who have the potential and ability to transform the world through their talents, ideas, and voices—are not just heard but embraced. As a land grant institution, we have the power to impact and learn from every person who we come in contact with.
The Outreach and Engagement Diversity Champions team will be pioneers in this transformation. They will work with me to support our Division to enhance the tools and strategies we will need to work and learn in a diverse and complex world. Our Champions will also be involved in the communities they serve and be part of a larger transformation toward a more understanding, compassionate, and open society. This will be accomplished through planning, developing, coordinating, supporting, and participating.
We will create the work together!
If you want to “strive” and be a pioneer for a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive Division of University Outreach and Engagement, please join our Diversity Champions team. Follow this link to a brief survey and let me know more about yourself. All are welcome. This team is not a “committee” with a limit to how many people can participate.
Contact me if you have questions, and stay tuned for more!
Federal and State agencies in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest have invested millions of dollars assessing watershed health and identifying habitat restoration opportunities. Unfortunately, many restoration efforts lack a clear process for prioritization of projects, leading to inefficient application of scarce financial and personnel resources.
In 2005, Guillermo Giannico (PI) and Jon Souder (co-PI) obtained National Sea Grant funding for a collaborative project between OSU Forestry Extension, Oregon Sea Grant and the Coos Watershed Association (CoosWA) to develop a series of watershed restoration plans for six lowland coastal basins north of Coos Bay. Some of the main collaborators in the development of the decision making process included Drs. Phil Roni, Tim Beechie and George Pess (NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, USA), Dr. Gordie Reeves (U.S. Forest Service), Pam Blake (Oregon Department of Environmental Quality), Bruce Miller (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife), Criag Cornue (South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve), and others.
Giannico is an Extension Fish Ecology and Watershed Specialist, has an Oregon Sea Grant appointment and is an associate professor of Fisheries and Wildlife in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Souder is an Extension Forestry and Natural Resources Specialist and assistant professor of Forestry Engineering Resources and Management in the College of Forestry.
There are at least six reasons to prioritize restoration projects. In addition to the fact that funders are asking for it, prioritization:
In order to maximize public involvement, a series of coffee klatches, i.e., informal conversations, were held within each basin to elicit landowner visions and concerns. Associated with the conversations, work with Oregon scientists led to the development of a flexible and transparent restoration prioritization process that considers both ecological and socio-economic criteria. The process is called the Coos Bay Prioritization Approach (CBPA).
The CBPA was completed in 2008 and has been applied to restoration plans for 14 watersheds on the South Coast. An outcome of these assessments was the establishment of the Partnership for Coastal Watersheds (PCW), a joint effort with the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.
The PCW convened a multi-stakeholder group and used the CBPA to revise the Coos Bay Estuary Management Plan. In addition, a multi-agency group led by the Wild Salmon Center has identified the CBPA as the preferred method for Coastal Watershed Council. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is considering requiring the CBPA for any project requesting state funding to restore Coho habitat on the coast. Several watershed councils in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia have adopted CBPA.
During 2016, Giannico and Souder hosted three workshops, which included 55 participants from 45 organizations in 10 states (and Korea). Many of these participants have requested additional training. International workshops also were conducted in the Netherlands, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, and Mexico.
Words of advice from Drs. Giannico and Souder: “Get out of the office and partner with community organizations!”
The prioritization of watershed projects was recognized as one of 10 outreach and engagement projects to receive the 2017 Vice Provost Awards of Excellence.
Oregon lacks educational resources and programming for migrant youth. To address this need, Oregon State University collaborated with the Office of Migrant Education to create the Oregon Migrant Leadership Institute (OMLI). OMLI focuses on creating a new vision and reality for migrant students.
OMLI is one of several programs at OSU—including Open Campus, part of the Division of University Outreach and Engagement—that help kids think about college as a possibility and part of their future. It was one of 10 programs singled out for a 2017 Vice Provost Awards of Excellence.
The program encompasses elements essential to exceptional outreach and engagement work:
View their presentation at the awards luncheon here.
OMLI’s objective is to develop leadership skills in Oregon’s high school migrant students. It exposes participants to college life and encourages them to attend. They also are encouraged to be proud of their heritage, and envision and build pathways to a positive future.
OSU has hosted OMLI every summer since 2009. Many university resources and community partners work together to build an institute where participants engage in scholarship, leadership and transformational learning. The program provides opportunities for migrant students to interact with other students, mentors, faculty and staff, opening new horizons to their futures. Through the OMLI experience, students return to their schools prepared to participate in leadership activities. One OMLI expectation is for students to give back to their communities.
Each summer, more than 100 high school migrant students from throughout Oregon make the trip to the OSU campus in Corvallis. Participants immerse themselves in a comprehensive leadership experience where relationships and trust are built, they begin to understand their potential and the importance of making good choices, and much more.
Participants tell their stories through technology, art and creative writing. They challenge themselves and build trust in others on the ropes course. They learn about taking risks and learn from their mistakes.
OMLI creates a supportive environment that creates positive change and growth. The impact of OMLI is immeasurable. From building self-esteem to aspirations of being the first in the family to attend college, the institute motivates participants. To date, nearly 1,000 migrant students have experienced OMLI.
Pre-assessments show that only 50 percent of participants understood how to develop action plans for their goals and 62 percent were familiar with steps to problem solving. Post-assessments show an increase to 90 percent of participants expressing competency in goal setting and problem solving. In addition, assessments indicate that over 90 percent of participants plan to enroll in college after high school.
Through OMLI, students become inspired about their education—they aim higher in their studies and emerge as leaders in their schools and communities. Many transition to higher education, including attending and graduating from OSU.
OMLI gives hope to migrant youth in Oregon as the experience sets them on a different path to fulfill their potential.
Check out this video to see more about the activities of the institute.
Photo: Jill Wells
The new OSU brand is more than the new logo. A consistent and powerful brand will increase awareness and support for the university’s mission of teaching, research and outreach. Undeniably, some patience will be required as tools and resources become available, but there is information to help you adjust to the new brand.
The first person* to tell us the official names of the primary colors in the comment section of the blog will receive some new brand swag! Brand colors can be found in the OSU brand guide.
*Staff and faculty who participated in the brand launch on April 24, or attended the Brand Conference on April 25, are ineligible to participate.
No commercially produced motorized wheelchairs are available for children under three years old with mobility challenges. That fact and his belief that mobility is a fundamental human right spurred Dr. Sam Logan to start Go Baby Go (GBG) Oregon.
GBG Oregon is a community-based outreach program that works with families and clinicians to provide modified toy ride-on cars to young children with disabilities. The ride-on cars encourage exploration and play. In Oregon alone, there are more than 3,000 children receiving early intervention services who might benefit from a modified rode-on car. To date, more than 200 Oregon families have received modified ride-on cars.
GBG Oregon was founded in 2014 by Dr. Logan, assistant professor, School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, College of Public Health and Human Sciences. Dr. Bethany Sloane, assistant professor, Oregon Health and Science University, joined the project as an equal partner in 2015. She oversees the GBG Oregon program that serves Portland-area families, including an advisory board that includes 10 clinicians, families, and community-member stakeholders.
The 15-member Children’s Adaptive Resources for Social Mobility (CARS) undergraduate club at Oregon State—for which Dr. Logan is founder and faculty advisor—supports the work of GBG Oregon. The club’s mission is to customize ride-on cars for a child’s particular disability. Dr. Logan also developed and taught an Honors College colloquial titled “Toy-based technology for children with disabilities.” This is an experimental learning course where students learn the science behind Go Baby Go, modify ride-on cars, and interact with families to customize ride-on car modifications for their children.
Logan published three peer-reviewed articles in Pediatric Physical Therapy, collaborated with Dr. Bill Smart (Mechanical Engineering, OSU), and published a technical report in Frontiers in Robotics & Artificial Intelligence outlining advances in modified ride-on car technology. He also collaborated with Dr. Kathleen Bogart (Psychological Science, OSU) on a research study that found caregivers’ attitudes toward disability and mobility may be related to the opportunities they provide to their children to use the modified ride-on cars (positive attitudes, more opportunities).
In addition to other scholarly activity, Logan represented OSU while conducting more than 20 Oregon and national workshops teaching the science behind GBG and the skills required to modify the ride-on cars. Dr. Sloane also leads monthly community workshops to modify ride-on cars.
Editor’s Note: Outreach takes on many forms. The goal most often is to understand the needs of a particular community. In this case, the goal was to improve Latino nursery worker educational materials. The results of the research can improve communication tools well beyond the nursery industry, OSU Extension, and Oregon State University. The “What Workers Think” project is one of 15 university outreach and engagement projects recognized at the 2017 Vice Provost Awards of Excellence celebration on April 17.
Spanish-speaking workers make up most of the labor force in Oregon’s horticulture industries; however, few Oregon State University Extension publications and multimedia materials are designed to meet their vocational and linguistic needs.
A team at Oregon State set out to understand how instructional materials can be designed to improve the learning process for Latino nursery workers. The team consisted of Ariel Ginsburg and Dionisia Morales, publishing managers with Extension and Experiment Station Communications (EESC); Luisa Santamaria, Extension plant pathologist for nursery crops and bilingual educator, North Willamette Research and Extension Center (NWREC) and associate professor, Botany and Plant Pathology, College of Agricultural Sciences; and Gilbert Uribe, education program assistant (NWREC), now pesticide registration and certification specialist at the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
EESC translates into Spanish some publications from the Extension catalog. Feedback from Extension faculty working in Latino communities suggested that the choice of topics was not always well-suited to horticultural workers. Publications were often too technical, written at too high a reading level, or required a computer to download and print.
This feedback sparked a number of questions: Do workers want information to help them do better at their jobs. Do they want to learn key English vocabulary to communicate more easily with their employers? Are workers more interested in web-based training they can do on their own time, or in face-to-face sessions? Are they more likely to access information on their smartphones?
Using a $1,500 professional development grant from the Association for Communication Excellence, the team conducted three focus groups. They asked workers directly about their needs and interests. Integrating into existing, employer-supported worker training events allowed maximum participation. The three focus groups conducted thus far involved 21 community members. A final focus group will take place in spring 2017.
The findings have already started to shift how EESC delivers translated content. Latino workers want more photo-rich, mobile-friendly information and they want publications in which English and Spanish appear side-by-side.
In 2017, members of the team will write an article for the Journal of Extension. Findings will be presented at conferences to help other Extension and communication specialists learn how they can engage Latino community members to learn what education needs they have and their preferred learning formats.
Editor’s Note: This story is a great example of outreach and engagement work: co-creation of solutions, cross-disciplinary collaboration, applied research, building community capacity, partnerships, and more.
West Coast crabbers and faculty with Oregon State University and Sea Grant programs in Oregon and Washington have been exploring ways to reduce injuries at sea.
The effort is part of the Fishermen Led Injury Prevention Program, which was funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
“The ideas are generated by the fishermen, and the goal is that the solutions are voluntarily embraced and are not imposed,” said Laurel Kincl, the leader of the project and an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at OSU’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences.
To gather the suggestions as well as build rapport with the fishermen, nine community members with ties to the fishing industry were contracted, including several fishermen’s wives. Kincl and others then trained them to conduct outreach, engagement and research.
As part of the project, in the fall of 2015, the nine community members surveyed 365 crabbers in Washington, Oregon and California about the types and number of injuries they may have experienced during the 2014-15 crabbing season. The crabbers reported 65 injuries, 36 of which required them to take time off work or change how they worked. Of those 36, sprains and strains were the most frequent, with 13 incidents. Out of the 36 injuries, hands, arms and shoulders were the most commonly injured body parts, with 17 reports. Nine of the 36 injuries occurred while handling gear on deck, and seven happened while hauling in gear.
When asked what they thought contributed most to injuries, fishermen gave answers that included not paying attention, weather and sea conditions, inexperience, unsafe vessels or gear, a lack of training, and poor physical shape. When asked what they thought was the most important thing for staying safe, responses included having a good captain and crew, being aware, taking care of oneself, avoiding fatigue and having a well-maintained boat and gear.
Fishermen suggested the need for a fishing-specific first aid and CPR course. As a result, a wilderness medicine expert was invited to the Oregon towns of Newport and Astoria in the fall of 2016 to train fishermen on how to treat medical conditions and at-sea injuries such as cuts, broken bones, dislocated shoulders and hypothermia.
Another fisherman suggested looking at the design of banger bars, which are metal bars that are welded to the tables where crabs are sorted. Crab pots are hoisted over and slammed against the bars to force the crabs onto the table.
“Some say the bars make it easier on fishermen’s wrists and backs if positioned correctly,” said Kaety Jacobson, a marine fisheries Extension specialist with Oregon Sea Grant and a partner on the project. “But there’s not a standard design, so crabbers make their own – if they use them at all. We’re pretty sure someone has come up with the ideal banger bar, so we’re trying to find that design and share it with the community.”
The research team is considering using fishermen-focused Facebook pages, like the Oregon Sea Grant Fisheries Extension Facebook page, to ask for information about the use, design and benefits of the bars. With this information, she said, Sea Grant could create a publication on what a banger bar is and why fishermen use them. It could also include photos or schematics of designs that work better.
Also because of fishermen’s feedback, Jacobson and the nine community members will interview experienced deckhands and boat captains about what makes a good crew, how to size up a boat to see if it’s safe, and what safety-related language fishermen should look for when signing a contract to become a crew member. Jacobson and her team plan to share this information with novice or aspiring crewmembers.
“We’ll put these findings in an infographic or factsheet that we’ll post on social media or mail out so that fishermen looking for work can have that resource,” she said.
During the 2015–16 season, fishermen in Oregon landed just over 14 million pounds of Dungeness crab, which they sold for a record $51 million, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Dubbed the official state crustacean, Dungeness crabs make up the most valuable single-species commercial fishery in Oregon.
Photo: Jill Wells via SnapChat
OSU Extension Service needs to evolve and innovate to serve Oregon and our communities. The eXtension iTeam is challenging us to think innovatively and they are providing the vehicle to amplify our innovative talents in a collaborative environment at the Innovate Extension 2017 event on May 23.
The University Outreach and Engagement Vice Provost Awards of Excellence celebration and luncheon event on April 17 also celebrates innovation, but this time its innovative outreach and engagement projects. Experience 15 award-winning projects from across the university. Register and learn more here.
Left to our own devices, most of us aren’t big risk-takers. Humans, by nature, like routine. And once we’re in our routine, it can be challenging to think differently. The thought of coming up with a new idea or launching a new “something” might be hugely intimidating. Fear not!
The work of Extension needs to embrace – and mirror – the changes we see in our communities, in our economy and in the environment. Innovate Extension 2017, produced by OSU’s eXtension iTeam, is organized in a way that will ignite and develop your talents for innovative thinking.
How awesome would it be for you to work with a team of fellow innovation-minded colleagues and have a great idea funded? Pretty awesome! How amazing would it be to create the next great opportunity for Extension to build community vitality and capacity? Pretty amazing! How great would it be to amplify, reignite and reinvigorate your gifts for innovation in an atmosphere of collaboration! Outstanding!
When & where is the 2017 OSU Innovate Extension event being held?
Tuesday May 23rd
8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The LaSells Stewart Center on OSU Campus in Corvallis.
Who is invited to participate?
ALL Extension employees are highly encouraged to participate. Please check in with your supervisor before signing up to ensure release time and travel expenses. Registration is limited to 100 participants.
How much does it cost to attend?
This year’s event is free thanks to the generosity of our sponsors: OSU Extension and the eXtension Foundation. Travel expenses to Corvallis are not covered by the sponsors.
What does the agenda look like?
The day starts at 8 a.m. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Participant teams will form up and meet their Creative Coaches. Teams will be coached on and practice idea generation, project design, budgeting, and will develop a short pitch for the team’s idea. Each team will present its idea pitch to a panel of judges and other participants. Your team’s idea could be selected for funding!
Do I need to sign up with a team to participate?
Nope! Anyone who is interested in innovation in Extension is encouraged to apply. You may sign up as a team or you will be assigned to a great team.
Register now! Participation is limited to the first 100 to register. Registration deadline is April 10.
More details Innovate Extension 2017 can be found here.
Innovate ways to update programs, ways of teaching and working, or just think of creative solutions to Extension challenges. The sky is the limit! (How often do you hear that?!?)