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Community Development, Mia Ljung
Fast Pitch Winner Shines at TitleTown Tech!
Congratulations to Nicole Hurd, founder of Auvia Health, Inc., for winning the NEW Launch Alliance Pitch Event on December 3! Nicole wowed judges with a 4-minute pitch and Q&A, earning $2,000 and an invitation to share her story at the New North Summit in June 2026. Auvia Health’s AI-powered platform supports maternal mental health, making a big impact in the New North region. Kudos also to The Chill Daddy and The Nook Lounge and Bookstore for taking second and third place! We’re proud to see Fast Pitch talent representing Outagamie and Winnebago counties leading the way again!
Read full news release, and check out New North’s Facebook post.
Total Reach: Local and regional pitch competition audience reach: 100 participants News and media coverage: approx. 1000 people.Planning for Introduction to Plain Language spring offerings in coordination with Cultural Linguistic Services. Registration will open soon for March 18 and April 22. These free virtual workshops offer strategies for word choice, font selection, grammar use, user testing, and more that help us communicate quickly and effectively with both native and nonnative English speakers. Learn more and register at: http://go.wisc.edu/plain
Planning for a statewide bilingual agricultural conference for Hmong farmers in collaboration with local agencies and educators, in Wausau on March 14. The goal is to provide education on sustainable farming, business development, and pest management, so that participants can improve farm profitability, adopt resilient practices, and strengthen community connections.
Participated in steering committee meetings and engaged in conference coordination tasks for the statewide annual Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities Conference, this year held in Green Lake, May 13-15. CEC is a conference about entrepreneurship in rural Wisconsin, featuring the local business ecosystem for rural economic development leaders.
Together with the Waupaca Co Community Development Educator, I presented data on measuring the economic impact of the Shamrock Club's St. Patrick’s Day week of events in New London. This included preparing and delivering a presentation to the board and members about economic impact options. As a result, the Shamrock Club will be better positioned to raise awareness of club efforts, obtain event feedback, and increase sponsorships, ultimately resulting in greater local capacity to address economic development challenges and opportunities. Total Reach: 27 members of the Shamrock Club.
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Crops & Soils, Kevin Jarek
I was part of a series of virtual meetings for crop and forage growers, consultants, agronomists, students and agency staff. Participants learned about recent research results and crop management practices learned during the 2026 growing season. Extension specialists shared talks related to nutrient management, forage and grain production and pest management with the goal that attendees can make more informed crop management decisions to improve farm resilience and profitability.
We’re also busy planning for three in-person and one virtual crop management update programs for crop growers, agency staff, consultants and educators. The goal is to provide timely crops and soils management updates where the audience learns about the most recent research findings from University of Wisconsin and Extension specialists that can help them make more productive and profitable decisions moving into the 2026 crop season.
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Dairy, Stephanie Bowers
I’m part of the planning and preparation team for a field day focused on the use of Automatic Milking Systems (AMS) for dairy producers and ag professionals where participants will increase their AMS related knowledge through facility tours, educational sessions, and peer-to-peer learning. The goal of this effort is to help farmers make informed, strategic, and economically viable decisions regarding AMS adoption and use.
Preparation is underway for spring speaking & educational opportunities at various conferences and webinars regarding virtual fence applications.
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Horticulture, Kaitlin BriccoPlanning is still going strong for the Landscape Professionals Conference, this is coming up on March 4 at Sunnyview Expo Center. This exciting one day conference is jam packed with hands-on training including pruning, planting, plan reading, patio and wall building. This is a perfect training for new hires or a good refresher for existing landscape crews.
Snow is vital for Wisconsin’s yards and gardens, read about the benefits of it in this month's Horticulture Headlines. There was also seasonal information about how to keep holiday poinsettias healthy and looking beautiful. Read it here: https://t.e2ma.net/webview/jkb0rl/20cf279e64cd46407c1c4c915e074f8c
Horticulture questions have been centered around planning for next year with cover crops, orchards, and ordering garden seeds.
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Human Development and Relationships, Katie Gellings I’m a part of the team that created and teaches Money Matters Live, a series of four 1 hour, discussion-based sessions where participants learn strategies to improve their personal finances. Topics for the series include credit, debt, financial goal setting, budgeting, savings, financial recordkeeping, and others. The goal of the series is to help improve the financial knowledge and confidence of participants and provide them with strategies to improve their personal finances.
In 2026 we’ll be hosting these classes the first Tuesday of each month. Check out https://finances.extension.wisc.edu/programs/money-matters/money-matters-live/ for more information.
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The University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension provides equal opportunities in employment and programming in compliance with state and federal law.
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