Greetings and Happy Spring to my Extension colleagues working in Urban Communities across the Country! I serve as Chair for the National Urban Extension Leaders Steering Committee.

I am the County Extension Director in Wake County, Raleigh, North Carolina – a rapidly growing urban community home to NC State University. During my 30 years with Wake County Cooperative Extension, I have also served as a 4-H Program Assistant directly supporting justice involved youth, the Wake County 4-H Agent integrated with our Health & Human Services Department, and a leading member of Social & Economic Vitality Programs.

Wake County is a diverse community of more than 1.2 million people. Our urban Extension Center is supported by a team of 45 staff and a regular budget of ~$3 million, expanding these last few years to more than $12 million in American Rescue Plan investments. Our team in Wake County, like many of our urban counties, creates innovative and relevant educational programs, convenes our community to address a wide range of issues, and leads the way in Urban Food Systems & Youth Development spaces. We also work hard to support our farmers, preserve farmland, strengthen our green stormwater infrastructure and leverage resources to address the needs facing all of our residents.

Leading an Extension Center in the 2nd fastest growing county in the nation presents challenges unique to other North Carolina counties, so my District Director connected me to a grassroots movement among Extension professionals from metropolitan areas who wanted to come together and build a strong community of support for those of us deployed in urban areas. The common bond was a strong belief that Extension matters in these communities as well as in rural America. Our vision was to work together to become more strategic in the way we positioned Cooperative Extension in these communities, and explore new strategies for engagement, programming, evaluation & organizational development. From these connections, a small group of dedicated employees initiated what we now know as the National Urban Extension Leaders (NUEL) in 2015.

We do not call ourselves “leaders” because we are supervisors or have large budgets; we are LEADING the work to support urban Extension; and WE NEED YOUR HELP!  

Read about this year’s priorities and upcoming events to learn how you can join us to lead!

Priorities

At our most recent face to face meeting in Phoenix, AZ (December 2022), the Steering Committee and urban Extension professionals identified priorities for this year. The Notes from these work sessions and full list of priorities can be found below:

• Notes
• Priorities

Action Groups

To advance these priorities, we have created two new Priority Action Groups:

1. NUEL Structure, Alignment & Dedicated Resources: Anthony Tuggle, atuggle@tnstate.edu
2. Urban Extension Impact Reporting/Best Practices: Marie Ruemenapp, ruemenap@msu.edu

Or join our existing action groups:

Professional Development Action Team led by Brenda Rogers, bgrogers@ufl.edu.

• The Professional Development Action Team is looking for new members to develop and post new web-based learning on Urban Extension 101 to support the growing number of new staff.

NUEL’s Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) Action Team led by Durriyyah Kemp, kemp@illinois.edu, and Nicole Debose, debose.8@osu.edu.

• This Team meets monthly on the 3rd Wednesdays at Noon Central; 1 pm EST. JEDI hosts quarterly learning circles, typically on the 3rd Fridays of the selected month at Noon Central; 1 pm EST. The date for the next Learning Circle will be confirmed soon and will focus on Arab Americans.

Please consider reaching out to one of your colleagues listed above so you can help us advance these efforts or better to connect with your urban Extension colleagues.   

Conferences & More Ways to be Involved

Learn more about how we can support one another and build stronger, more effective programs uplifting the people we serve. In addition to the priority efforts mentioned above, many of our Regional Urban Networks chose to host in person summits or conferences every other year while the National Urban Extension Conference is being planned. Please check out these conferences or professional development meetings below and come and join us, stay connected to learn about presenting, or helping to plan these events.

Bi-Annual NUEL Steering Committee Meeting:  June 6-7, 2023, Madison, WI

North Central Regional Conference:  June 7-9, 2023, Madison, WI

Northeast Regional Conference:  June 14-16, 2023, Springfield, MA

South & 1890 Joint Regional Urban Conference:  August 8-10, 2023, Houston, TX

The next National Urban Extension Conference (NUEC) will be held in Nashville, TN, May 28-31, 2024. While the South and the 1890’s are looking forward to hosting, our NUEC Planning Committee includes professionals from all 5 ECOP Regions. There will be opportunities for scholarship including Presentations, Poster Sessions and additional networking in a beautiful, historic, southern city on the rise!

Further, State Extension Directors from each land grant university are asked to designate an Urban Coordinator who will work to engage professionals in their state with opportunities to connect with NUEL’s work.  Over the summer, our Vice Chair, Eric Killian, from Nevada will be hosting an update and Q&A session with urban coordinators. These dates will be announced soon.

Thank You

I have never doubted the value of exchanges with my urban colleagues. Over the last 8 years, I have learned so much, and I have always found support for developing ideas while forming long-lasting friendships. It is a great honor to serve as Steering Committee Chair this year. I am committed to working with all of you, with the designated Urban Coordinators in each State, with leadership from each Region and with our champions in ECOP.

Have a great Spring & Summer!

Katherine Williams

Chair, NUEL