The 2021 Excellence in Extension and National Extension Diversity awards were recently given to cooperative extensions that exemplify “visionary leadership and diversity in educational programming,” a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) press release said.
Ann Allgood Berry of the University of Tennessee (UT) received the Excellence in Extension Award, the release said. Coming Together for Racial Understanding Team received the National Extension Diversity Award.
“Each year, these awards showcase the fundamental, transformative difference Cooperative Extension continues to make in our society,” National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Director Dr. Carrie Castille said in the release. “This important partnership and excellent programs like these are a testament to the true value of Cooperative Extension capacity funds more than a century after the Smith-Lever Act created this unparalleled system of outreach and education that enriches every community across the nation.”
The Excellence in Extension Award goes to a “cooperative Extension professional who excels at programming, provides visionary leadership and makes a positive impact on constituents served,” the release said.
Berry, an extension specialist at UT, is responsible for developing and implementing consumer economic programs for the purposes of outreach, the release said. She conducted 124 teacher workshops and personal finance instructions reaching 1.2 million high school students with an estimated impact of $297,261,026.
The National Diversity Award “recognizes significant contributions and accomplishments in achieving and sustaining diversity and pluralism,” the release said.
The Coming Together for Racial Understanding Team was responsible for training facilitators across the country who guided community dialogues on race and discrimination, the release said. The team is comprised of extension specialists from 22 land-grant universities from 17 states. Twenty-nine states sent teams for training, with more than 100 participants completing the workshops and over 900 completing some portion of the training.
The USDA-NIFA, along with the Cooperative Extension and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, give these awards annually. USDA-NIFA and Cooperative Extension have sponsored the awards since 1991.
