There is a defined need to provide accessible and effective professional development for 4-H educators. Lesson study is a Community of Practice-based approach to educator professional development. Prior research has shown lesson study to be effective with 4-H staff, adult volunteers, and teen volunteers. This inquiry, a multisite case study, was…

Successful Extension programming relies on strong relationships between campus-based Extension faculty/specialists and the field-based Extension agents they support (Shaklee et al., 2014). Strong connections facilitate bi-directional communication, enabling specialists to understand the needs of agents and their communities. The COVID-19 pandemic…

This article describes Tennessee Extension's creation and implementation of a competency assessment and development program for new Extension agents. The program is based on results of a Delphi study that identified critical soft skill competencies new Extension agents need to be successful in building partnerships and delivering Extension…

This article provides an overview of the development and components of LEAD95, University of Tennessee (UT) Extension's comprehensive leadership program for county-level leaders. The program was designed in accordance with results from a Delphi study, which identified critical skills and resources new county directors need to be successful. The…

In response to research demonstrating that Tennessee Extension agents desired a performance appraisal system that better reflected their jobs and provided for appraisers' professional development, a committee of University of Tennessee and Tennessee State University personnel undertook a 2-year initiative to revise the performance appraisal…

Policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change interventions are a key part of comprehensive nutrition and health education. Although Extension educators find value in PSE approaches and report being involved in PSE work, many still indicate a lack of understanding regarding PSE approaches. We describe a unique multistate training designed to…

Extension educators across the United States are being asked to expand their direct education efforts to include policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes. However, professional development opportunities and tools are needed to familiarize Extension professionals with PSE change approaches, build their capacity to implement PSE change, and…

In 2010, University of Tennessee Extension conducted a strategic planning effort focused on the subsequent 10 years. The process involved approximately 3,000 Tennesseans in online surveys, area meetings, opinion polling, and focus group sessions. This article describes the process, tools, and outcomes--which included a comprehensive strategic…

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to understand the perceptions Extension professionals have about healthy food retail programs (HFRPs). Family and Consumer Science (FCS) agents from one state in the southeastern United States were interviewed about their definitions of HFRPs, what challenges and benefits existed, and strategies for…

With the current and expected impacts of climate change on the agricultural industry, it is important to provide information to farmers to allow them to adapt and reduce their risk of loss. Extension agents are an important resource and serve as intermediaries between scientists and farmers to provide this information. There is little research,…

Responding to reduced funding and organizational restructuring, many state Extension programs have reorganized counties into regional-based entities and limited family and consumer sciences (FCS) to specialized programs in areas such as foods and nutrition (Braverman, Franz, & Rennekamp, 2012; Franz & Cox, 2012; White & Teuteberg,…

Our study describes factors that influence Extension 4-H professionals' likelihood of participating in a professional development experience. We used a work group-developed survey to measure the level of influence of nine factors. Through convenience sampling, we obtained 558 responses from 4-H professionals representing all regions of the country…

The Adult Mentoring Assessment for Extension Professionals will help mentors develop an accurate profile of their mentoring style with adult learners and identify areas of proficiency and deficiency based on six constructs--relationship, information, facilitation, confrontation, modeling, and vision. This article reports on the reliability of this…

Marketing the county Extension program is a critical responsibility of the entire county staff. This article describes a unique peer-to-peer training and mentoring program developed to assist county Extension staff in improving marketing skills and successfully developing and implementing a county Extension marketing plan. Data demonstrating…

The study's purpose was to determine Extension agents' (n= 111) perceived level of importance, knowledge, and training needs for leadership skills. Mean Weighted Discrepancy Scores were calculated to determine training needs. Participants' perceived responses were average to above average importance for all skills; however, the participants'…