Brown County Extension Newsletter: June 2024

Judy Knudsen, Area Extension Director, will retire on July 3, 2024. Being a 4-Her in Iowa led her to a 43-year career with Extension. Her first position was with South Dakota State University Extension on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, then to Montana State University Extension serving two sparsely populated counties totaling over 6,000 square miles in southeast Montana, and finally to Brown County for 34 years. While thoroughly enjoying her career with Extension, it is time to transition on to new opportunities. Thanks to everyone who has made my career a wonderful experience.

Lisa Taylor is the UW-Madison Division of Extension Program Lead for the new Wisconsin Rural Entrepreneurial Venture (WI REV) program as of April 15. This is a statewide program that provides a foundational framework and formal coaching designed to help rural communities advance their entrepreneur-led economic development strategies. Lisa also helps rural communities connect to or develop their own entrepreneurial resources.

Prior to joining Extension, Lisa helped military families to start and grow their own businesses as the Director of the Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC). She was also on staff with the US Small Business Administration for the Wisconsin District and has been a business owner and co-founder.

Lisa has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from UW-Madison and a Master of Business Administration from UW-Whitewater.

You can connect with Lisa at lisa.taylor@wisc.edu

We are excited to announce that Liz Murphy is joining the FoodWIse Team in the role of Healthy Communities Coordinator, effective June 20th, 2024. This position creates and promotes nutrition education and outreach at the individual, family, community, and systems levels.

Prior to her role at extension, Liz worked closely with Brown County's nonprofit community to increase awareness of literacy programming, educational opportunities, and civic engagement initiatives. She is passionate about the intersection between food, nutrition, and culture. She received her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Beloit College in 2013, which included studies in French, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese.

Connect with Liz at liz.murphy@wisc.edu, or by phone at 920-391-4626.

Pearly Wong is the new regional community health coordinator for Northeast Wisconsin, as of June 16, 2023. The regional community health team is a new initiative within UW-Extension’s Institute of Health & Well-Being. The team will include three regional community health coordinators located in communities around the state, and a team supervisor. The regional community health team will work to advance community health and well-being through training, technical assistance, and capacity building to local governments, community-based organizations, and coalitions to support community engagement processes, assessment activities, and data-informed action planning.

Pearly has recently graduated from her dual PhD program in Environmental Studies and Cultural Anthropology with UW-Madison in May 2024. Before joining Extension, Pearly worked three years as a research and outreach specialist for Odyssey Beyond Bars, an initiative providing post-secondary education in Wisconsin prisons. Pearly has also worked briefly with the Health and Well-Being Institute as a qualitative data analyst and with the Wisconsin DNR as an environmental justice policy analyst.

Connect with Pearly at pearly.wong@wisc.edu

Community Development Educator/Professor Patrick Nehring had the opportunity to talk about the local food system at a national conference. At the Urban Food System Symposium, Nehring provided a presentation on describing the NEW Food Access Map, https://go.wisc.edu/903ck7, and a poster describing the impacts of community gardens.

The NEW Food Access Map contains the locations where food is distributed to the consumer in Northeast Wisconsin (NEW). It provides current locations and operational details for grocery stores, ethnic grocery stores, farmers markets, community gardens, food pantries, meal sites, and stores that accept Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card payments. EBT cards are the means used by those with limited income to purchase food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program. EBT is accepted at a variety of stores, including convenience stores, dollar stores, grocery stores, specialty food stores, and other stores that sell food to bake at home. The NEW Food Access Map was developed to enable consumers to get directions, hours of operation, website, and other information.

One of the sources of food identified on the NEW Food Access Map is community gardens. Extension conducted focus groups using the ripple effect mapping process to document the impact of community gardens. Community gardens provide food for gardeners and their families, increase the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed, and provide a means of exercise. Community gardens provide many other benefits to gardeners and the community beyond these physical health benefits. These benefits include strengthening social networks between family members and neighbors, understanding and appreciating culture and traditions, supplementing household incomes by growing rather than purchasing food and by the selling of flowers and produce, fostering an appreciation for agriculture, encouraging entrepreneurship, creating an appreciation and understanding of ecology, and providing mental health benefits. The impact of community gardens ripple out from the gardener to their family and to the broader community.

For more information about the NEW Food Access Map or the impacts of community gardens, contact Patrick Nehring (920) 391-4616 or patrick.nehring@wisc.edu. If you see a change that is need on the NEW Food Access Map, please contact Nehring or fill out the form that is found on the NEW Food Access Map website.

Patrick Nehring, Community Development Educator/Professor, at the Urban Food System Symposium with a poster describing the impact of community gardens.

Congratulations to the Area 11 Regional Dairy Educator, Aerica Bjurstrom, for receiving the Search for Excellence Award in livestock production at the Wisconsin Association of County Agricultural Agents (WACAA) annual awards and recognition program.

An affiliate of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA), WACAA is a professional organization for county, area, and state Extension professionals to encourage excellence and professionalism in their work; improve the effectiveness of Extension programs; provide assistance for agents to seek and participate in professional improvement opportunities and recognize and promote superior achievement.

Congratulations, Aerica. This award is well-deserved.

Growing and Caring for Plants in Wisconsin: Foundations in Gardening is an online introductory course where you learn key concepts for selecting, growing, and maintaining plants – from trees to houseplants to vegetables and everything in between!

Registration for the Fall 2024 course opens July 15.

In the meantime, stay informed about all our offerings, including announcements about this course. Join our mailing list to receive reminders about courses, webinars, and more!

Extension is available to provide customized training for your organization on a variety of topics depending on the needs of your organization. Contact Community Development Educator/Professor Patrick Nehring at patrick.nehring@wisc.edu or (920) 391-6160. See a summary of topics here.

In addition, Extension and UW-Green Bay have partnered to offer resources for nonprofit organizations from workshops to degree courses, more information can be found at www.uwgb.edu/nonprofit-network.

Don Buntman will conduct a workshop on dividing irises on Saturday, June 29th at 10 am.

Don will use the irises growing at the Mongin Perennial Garden at the STEM Innovation Center on the UWGB Campus for his demonstration. All are welcome, no registration needed.

Rain date will be Sunday, June 30th at 1 pm.
Address: 2019 Technology Way, Green Bay, WI 54311

September 12, 8:30-9:30 a.m. on Zoom

Artificial Intelligence (AI), what is it and how might you use it in your organization? August Neverman from Neverman Consulting will join us for a discussion about using AI to streamline operations and generate new ideas.