Three individuals were recognized at the Southern and 1890s Regional NUEL Conference, Aug 8-10 in Houston, TX.

Regional Team Innovation Awards. These awards are unique to our regions. The purpose of the NUEL Innovator Award is to recognize individuals and teams whose programming incorporates adaptation, innovation, impact, and commitment to urban communities.

An innovative program could be one that adapts an existing successful program to the needs of an urban audience or could be a completely new program. In addition, innovation could include expanding to a new audience or expansion of a current audience, a new program delivery method(s), or another creative approach with demonstrated strong impact.

• 1890 Region NUEL Team Innovation Award goes to Rukeia Draw–Hood and her Team from Prairie View A&M University and her work on Social Justice Summits. These Summits enriched youth and strengthened communities through civic engagement. Hosted by 4-H 1890 Program Leader Committee, a successful collaboration model that promotes multi-state cooperation, anticipates emerging issues, and strengthens programming throughout the region.
• 1862 NUEL Team Innovation Award goes to Mark Celestin and his Team from the University of Florida/ IFAS – for their program – Florida Friendly Landscaping – Green Industry Best Management Practices. This program provides legislatively required training and certification in sustainable landscape practices, targeted to landscape professionals, several pilot projects took this training to inmates in selected correctional institutions. Once released, those with GI-BMP certification had enhanced employment prospects and drastically lower recidivism.

• Southern Region NUEL Leadership Award goes to Ramona Mad-hos-singh Hector, from the University of Florida / IFAS. I’d like to share just a few of the notable contributions Ramona has made to “Urban Extension” Outreach and Research.

  1. S. Agriculture – University of the West Indies
  2. S. Environmental Sciences – Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University
  3. S.P. Urban and Regional Planning – Florida State University
  4. D., Environmental Science and Policy – USF (Tampa)
  5. Instrumental in Pinellas County, Florida attaining “Green Local Government and LEED Certifications”
  6. Ramona served as one of the Co-Chairs for the National Sustainability Summit
  7. She is a graduate of class XII of the Natural Resources Leadership Institute, has served in leadership positions in state and national organizations, and presented her program successes at multiple conferences both nationally and internationally.
  8. Western Center for Metropolitan Research and Extension Fellow
  9. Principal Investigator for numerous totally approximately $1 million dollars.
  10. And the recipient of numerous awards recognizing her for outstanding work in the state of Florida.

Congratulations to all!