Recording Available Here
The Prairie View A&M University Pollinator Pilot has come to a close. Join us to find out how the campaign helped PVAMU's Cooperative Extension Program reach new audience members via radio, digital and social media outreach initiatives. Joining me will be Adam Winters, Chief Innovation Officer for Land.US and creator of AgNearMe.com, as well as Erica Overfelt and Braden Kobeski, Social Media and Engagement Officers for AgNearMe.com.
We are excited to announce we are now in the process of securing corporate sponsorship for future campaign opportunities. Sign up for our webinar to find out more about our pilot campaign outcomes and our plans for the future.
@Kara Maddox is the Creative Director of Communications for the National Pesticide Safety Education Center (NPSEC). Kara’s responsibilities include developing and implementing communications & marketing strategies, managing digital content and social media activity, and supporting Corporate Social Responsibility engagement efforts for NPSEC.
Kara joins the NPSEC team after 10 years of teaching in higher education. She is an Associate Professor of English and Communications at Georgia Military College. Her teaching career began when she was fifteen years old living just outside the city of Chicago where she worked as a Sensei with Illinois Shotokan Karate Club. She is a two-time national champion and 
junior Olympian in kumite.
In 2005, Kara moved down south to attend the University of Georgia where she double majored in English and English Education. She holds a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Augusta State University. In 2018, Kara earned her Master of Arts degree in Communications from Johns Hopkins University with concentrations in Public Relations & Digital Communications. She is the founder of KJMdigital and now lives in Colorado Springs, CO.
As the Executive Assistant, @Former Member provides administrative support to the National Pesticide Safety Education Center by coordinating meeting logistics, managing travel and expenses, preparing reports, responding to information requests, and maintaining the national Paraquat training database. 
Courtney is also an Administrative Assistant with Michigan State University Extension where she arranges travel and manages expenses as part of a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to host meetings related to Worker Protection Standard and Pesticide Certification & Training.
She holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Entomology from Michigan State University (MSU). Before joining NPSEC, she served as Lab Manager for the Benbow Applied Ecology Lab at MSU and conducted forensic entomology research.
Tom Smith is the Executive Director of the National Pesticide Safety Education Center (NPSEC), a non-profit he was hired to form and operate in 2017. NPSEC’s mission is to serve and support extension Pesticide Safety Education Programs (PSEPs) in every state and US territory. Tom works with extension Pesticide Safety Educators and other stakeholders to manage the organizational, fiscal and governing structure of the Center. He oversees the development of services and products to help state and territory pesticide safety education programs operate more effectively and efficiently. Tom also works to identify and develop new revenue streams to help support pesticide safety education and to sustain NPSEC. 
Tom is also an Extension Specialist in Agriculture and Agribusiness at Michigan State University, where he is the PI of a $2.5 million EPA Meetings Implementation Cooperative Agreement with MSU for national pesticide safety and worker protection education.
He also is a co-principal investigator for VESTA, a National Science Foundation National Center of Excellence focused on online wine and grape education. Tom also does work related to standards and has conducted training programs for international delegations for inspection and certification of agricultural products. Other international work has included skills and workforce development in East Africa and Southeast Asia as well as teaching in China.
Nathan Hermond is an entomologist with Prairie View A&M University. He studies insects, spiders and other wildlife that impact agriculture and urban environments. Between raising live insects, creating collections and presenting publicly about his studies, he is increasingly more immersed in this incredible world's scientific marvels, and is excited to share them with as many people as he can!
Braden Kobeski graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism in the spring of 2020 majoring in Strategic Communications and minoring in business. His passions range from creating comedic social media content, graphic design, data analytics, personal finance, and learning about upcoming technologies like artificial intelligence.
In the coming years, Braden aspires to work on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, SNL, and The Blue Man Group.
Erica Overfelt graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism in the spring of 2020 majoring in Science & Agricultural Journalism. She finds her passions center around science and exploration -- turning complex scientific topics into easy to read stories.
Comments (1)