OTTUMWA, Iowa -- Sue Henderson has 16 years of experience as a director of county extension programming in southeast Iowa. Since Aug. 1 she has been applying that knowledge on a regional basis as a result of a restructuring of how Iowa State University Extension delivers its services.
Henderson was selected as the regional extension education director for Region 19 in June. She had about a month to make the transition from her role as a county director serving Monroe and Wapello counties to the new position that serves her previous counties plus six more -- Lucas, Wayne, Appanoose, Davis, Jefferson and Van Buren.
Shortly after starting her new duties she invited all of the elected extension council members in each of the eight counties to attend one of two short get-acquainted sessions where they could discuss how to build on the strengths of previous ISU Extension programming without losing momentum, and how to prosper in a regional environment.
“We had very good attendance and got a start on the conversation of what our priorities should be as a group,” she said.
ISU Extension provides educational programs that support healthy people, healthy environments and healthy economies. The first step in Region 19 will be to form regional committees for each of the ISU Extension program areas -- 4-H and youth development, families, business and economic development, and agriculture and natural resources. Henderson said each county will have at least one representative on each committee, and council members can participate in multiple committees if they are interested.
“First, we need to do the right things (to get organized), and then we can do the right programs,” Henderson said. Programs such as Pick a Better Snack and Serve Safe Food will continue in the short term while the new committees work on priorities. Partnerships with organizations such as the Iowa Department of Health on issues such as obesity education also will be important going forward.
Henderson knew while she was still a college student that she wanted to be involved in extension work. She earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a master’s in agriculture from Iowa State University and then spent 13 years as a hog farmer. Along the way her family grew to include 11 children, now ranging in age from 9 to 27. A single mother for the past decade, she still has six children at home.