Brown To Serve As Associate Director Of Cooperative Extension

5-30-97
University Park, Pa. -- As part of an overall plan to engage the entire Pennsylvania State University in a broadened outreach effort, Dr. Diane V. Brown has been named associate director of cooperative extension and outreach.

She will provide leadership for the day-to-day operation of Penn State Cooperative Extension and will work closely with the director of cooperative extension, Dr. Theodore R. Alter, to develop effective organizational and administrative processes.

Cooperative extension, with offices in each of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, transfers research-based information to Pennsylvania's citizens through nonformal educational programs designed to meet locally identified needs.

Brown will assist the director in facilitating cooperation and collaboration across the College of Agricultural Sciences and with other colleges and outreach units within the university to develop partnerships and multidisciplinary approaches to solving problems identified through community-based needs assessment and local, state and national priorities.

"Diane Brown provides exactly the right experience for this position," says Dr. James Ryan, vice president for outreach and cooperative extension. "She is highly committed to cooperative extension's mission, personnel and programs, and she has worked diligently over the past year to help us develop a strategy that will both strengthen cooperative extension and allow the organization to draw upon resources across the university to help Pennsylvania's citizens solve the problems they face."

"Cooperative extension has a rich history in Pennsylvania and a very promising future," Brown says. "The rapid changes that are occurring in agriculture and business, and in families and communities demand that we have a broader base of information to draw upon to continue to provide the educational programs that are really of service to people. The university's initiative will allow us to do that, and I'm very pleased and excited to be part of this effort."

Brown has a bachelor's degree in home economics education from Bridgewater College in Virginia, a master's degree in family management and community development from the University of Maryland, and a doctorate in adult education from Penn State. She has worked in extension education in four states and has experience in all program areas.

Brown began her career as a home economist in Virginia and held similar positions in Maryland and in Iowa before joining Penn State in 1980. As an extension home economist in the Southeast Region for Penn State Cooperative Extension, she led programs in family resource management, energy, equipment and food economics.

In 1983, Brown was named family living program leader for counties in southeastern Pennsylvania. In 1985, she received the Outstanding Pennsylvania Home Economist Award from the National Association of Extension Home Economists. Three years later, she received the Ruby Award, the highest award given to a state cooperative extension professional by Epsilon Sigma Phi, the national extension honorary fraternity. She was named regional director of the West Region for Penn State Cooperative Extension in 1989, and in 1995, she was named associate dean in the College of Agricultural Sciences and associate director of Penn State Cooperative Extension. That same year, she also was initiated into Gamma Sigma Delta, the honorary society of agriculture.

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EDITORS: For more information, contact Jennifer MacIsaac at (814) 865-3636.

Eston Martz (814) 863-3587 office #163 eston_martz@agcs.cas.psu.edu