Credit: Provided

What trends are we seeing in Extension work nationally and how are state Extension systems rising to meet needs highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic? Dr. Caroline Crocoll Henney, executive director of the national Cooperative Extension System, joins the Extension Out Loud podcast to discuss these questions and the history of the Cooperative Extension System in the latest episode of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s “Leading through Extension” podcast series.

Cooperative Extension systems leverage resources, diverse funding streams and Land-Grant University knowledge to help address the most pressing societal needs. This approach is not new but the needs and priorities of communities are constantly shifting.

Today, Henney sees Extension systems working to improve health care and broadband access in response to the pandemic. She also sees more programming focused on climate resiliency and adapting to the local impacts of climate change.

Despite the gravity of the challenges that communities across the nation are facing, Henney is encouraged by Extension’s ability to respond, "I see the [Cooperative Extension] system coming together to address these incredible challenges the nation is facing, I see that we are more valued, I think, than we have ever been."

Henney, a native of Western New York, also is the executive director of the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy and serves as assistant vice president of the Office of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Programs at the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities.

This conversation with Henney is the sixth episode of the latest “Extension Out Loud” series, “Leading Through Extension,” which features key CCE voices discussing their approaches to extension work and how history – and this past tumultuous year — are shaping the organization’s path forward.    

Listen to this and earlier episodes of Extension Out Loud on: 

• Apple Podcasts 
• Google Podcasts 
• SoundCloud 
• Spotify