AgriProspects Professional Development Series

September 18, 2024, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET

Join us on Wednesday, September 18th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern/11:00 a.m. Pacific for our first webinar! Rob Russell, Senior Program Director with the Business and Communities Program at the University of Missouri Extension will help to answer the question, what is Extension workforce development? Kate Venturini Hardesty, Programs Administrator and Extension Educator at the University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension will share information about the RI Agriculture and Food Systems Fellows Program, a yearlong, extension-led experiential learning program for URI undergraduates and Community College of Rhode Island students.

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Rob Russel

Rob Russell is an Assistant Extension Professor at the University of Missouri and serves as the Senior Program Director of University of Missouri Extension’s Business & Communities Program. In this role, he provides leadership for Extension’s programs in Business Development, Community Development, Labor and Workforce Development, and Regional Economic Development.

Prior to moving into this role, he has served as the Education Director of Extension’s Labor and Workforce Development Program. His academic work focuses broadly on workforce issues facing the state of Missouri, including workforce trends and the ways communities and businesses can tackle those trends; labor and employment law; and Extension’s role in workforce development.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from the University of Missouri; a Master’s in Geography from the University of Alabama; and a PhD in Geography from the University of Iowa.

In her nearly 20-year career working with Extension at the University of Rhode Island, Kate Hardesty has served as a program manager, an educator, a program development specialist, and an administrator of educational programs that serve college students, professionals, community-based volunteers, and consumers. A self-proclaimed “Jill-of-all-trades”, Kate works across disciplines to build programs that disseminate timely, science-based horticultural, agricultural and clean energy-related information to individuals, families, communities and governments. These include the RI Agriculture and Food System Fellows Program (2023), Home Horticulture Certificate (est. 2018), Energy Fellows Program (2008) and the Invasive Plant Management Certification Program (2008), to name a few. Kate earned her Bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture and her Master of Arts in marine affairs from URI. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, hiking and playing oboe in a rock band.

Kate Hardesty

AgriProspects is supported through a cooperative agreement between the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Extension Foundation under the AFRI Education and Workforce Development Competitive Grant 2023-67037-40533. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website and consultative support are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Extension Foundation.

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Extension Foundation
AgriProspects Workforce Development Network

The Extension Foundation is a nonprofit established by Extension Directors and Administrators nationwide. Extension Foundation is embedded in the U.S. Cooperative Extension System and serves on Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP).

This work is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)-National Extension Clearinghouse for Industry and the Workforce, project award no. 2023-67037-40533, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website and consultative support are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Extension Foundation.

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