Bruce McPheron, Dean

Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences

RETAINING RELEVANCE FLOATING THE COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SHIP ON A SEA OF INFORMATION

Retaining Relevance • Are we irrelevant?

• What is our trajectory?

• How do we use our strengths to our advantage?

– Examples from energy research & extension

• Building our criticality

Are We Irrelevant? • Google search results – “extension relevance”

– “about 86,400,000 results”

– In 0.18 seconds

• What is the role of our organization in this sea of information?

• Who are our students?

• Who are our stakeholders?

• Are these nouns synonymous?

What Is Our Trajectory?

• We cherish our history & the accomplishments that we have achieved

• Let us not confuse what we did with how we did it!

• Best way to see the future is to stand on the shoulders of the past

How Do We Use Our Strengths?

Historical Strengths of Extension

• Research-based

• Distributed learning

• Responsive to stakeholders

• Agile

Historical Strengths of Extension • Research-based

– Who pays for our science?

• Distributed learning

– Do we take full advantage of our synergies?

• Responsive to stakeholders

– Are we slow to embrace new “students?”

• Agile

– Do our programs change with the times?

Historical Strengths of Extension

• Research-based

• Distributed learning

• Responsive to stakeholders

• Agile

Stories of Change – Using our Strengths

• Plum Pox Virus in stone fruit

• Colony Collapse Disorder & honey bees

Marcellus Shale Natural Gas

• Devonian sedimentary rock deposit

– 5-9,000 feet deep

– Marcellus, NY

• Perhaps >500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas

Marcellus Shale Natural Gas • In 2001, Penn State Extension had essentially

zero expertise in natural gas issues or the Marcellus Shale

Marcellus Shale Natural Gas

• Initial questions involved legal issues around leases

• Questions have evolved through time

– Land use & regulatory issues; community resilience & services; water; forest fragmentation; wildlife ; invasive species; wealth management

Marcellus Shale Natural Gas

Marcellus Shale Impacts • Landowner education

• Municipal official education

• Govt agency policy recommendations

• Economic impact analyses

• Partnerships

• Applied research

– Forest fragmentation & wildlife

– Water

Using Our Strengths – Marcellus & Water

• >1 million private wells serve >3 million PA residents

• Nearly ½ of these wells have never been tested

• 1 of 2 states that do not regulate private water supplies

• Are there Marcellus impacts?

Using Our Strengths – Marcellus & Water

• Provide an unbiased study of water quality in private water wells both before and after the drilling of Marcellus gas wells nearby.

• Document both the enforcement of existing regulations and the utilization of voluntary measures by homeowners to protect water supplies.

Extension Energy Entrepreneurship • The Case of Marcellus

– Meeting fees – currently about 20,000 attendees per year

– Our usual granting sources

– New granting sources

• Heinz Foundation

• National Science Foundation

– Philanthropy

Extension Energy Entrepreneurship • Biomass energy sources

Extension Energy Entrepreneurship • Alternative energy sources

– Industry adoption

– Supply chains

– Regulatory paths

Extension Energy Entrepreneurship

• National Energy Leadership Corps

– Focus on driving implementation of home energy audits & retrofits

• Farm Energy Efficiency

Extension Energy Entrepreneurship • Renewable Energy Credit Aggregation

– Extension as an aggregator

– Information broker – value of energy in heterogeneous commercial & regulatory environment

• Mid-Atlantic Solar Resource & Training Center

• Smart Grid Training and Resource Center

• Energy Innovation Hub

Building Our Criticality • What does keep the Extension boat afloat in a

sea of information?

– Innovation

– Research base

– Minimal bias

– Local solutions

– Entrepreneurial approach

– Documenting impact of our efforts

The Big Picture • We will provide new knowledge in the food and fiber

sectors and world-class educational programs built upon that new knowledge to the citizens of Pennsylvania

• Putting Science to Work – discovery and translation

• Teaching & Learning by Doing – engagement & experiential learning

• Managing Information/Solution Distribution – ensure delivery of knowledge

• Valuing & Building Diverse Partnerships – find & use all appropriate expertise

• Leveraging Unique National Networks – use the Land-Grant system to its fullest

Resetting the Paradigm