Pathway to Creating Engagement Through Innovation and Excellence
Message from the Dean for Extension
This document is a new pathway to guide Florida Cooperative Extension efforts for the near future, from 2024-2029. We’re calling this a pathway rather than a roadmap because it is intended as an evolving set of trail-markers through a rapidly changing landscape. With new leadership at the University level and the onset of new information technology including artificial intelligence, we need a strategic plan of work that is more agile at adapting to change. Extension is in the process of re-examining our methods of collecting, analyzing and reporting data about our impacts and our responsiveness to the needs of Florida’s residents. Nevertheless, this strategic plan must be rooted in our core values and in the priorities identified by stakeholders in our previous roadmap.
This pathway is the result of a process that began in 2020 with the formation of the Florida Cooperative Extension Strategic Plan Steering Committee. Over a period of months, the steering committee conducted engagement sessions that involved UF/IFAS and FAMU leadership, the Extension community, and key stakeholders throughout the state. In 2023, we brought on a team to fine-tune our initiatives and goals and conduct a program evaluation. The result is a pathway to excellence with priority initiatives that better align with the needs of Floridians today, and new organizational goals to address issues such as alleviating administrative burdens, improving our data infrastructure, increasing Extension’s visibility, and strengthening the bonds between personnel across UF/IFAS and FAMU.
I wish to thank every person who participated in the process of putting this pathway document together. Your guidance, insight and feedback have been invaluable, and will continue to inform our progress. The work of Extension will continue to evolve, and our path will come into sharper focus as we move forward, but the core values, goals and initiatives outlined in this document will guide us for the foreseeable future.
Andra Johnson
Dean for UF/IFAS Extension and Director of the Florida Cooperative Extension Service
Vonda Richardson
Director and Associate Administrator, Florida A & M University Extension