| Dr. Ray Ali
Dr. Ray Ali received a B.S. in Biology (minors in Chemistry and History and Philosophy of Science) and a M.A. in Teaching - Secondary Science Education from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Ali obtained an Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership (minors in Elementary and Middle School Science Education) from Marshall University. He was the inaugural science and financial affairs teacher at the first public K-12 charter school in the City of Pittsburgh, PA. With the re-designation of West Virginia State University as an 1890 Land-Grant Institution, Dr. Ali joined its Cooperative Extension Program as an Associate Director and Department Head, where he led 4-H, youth, family, adult, and community education initiatives. Prior to joining the USDA-NIFA, Ray served as the Associate Director for Field Operations of Virginia Cooperative Extension at Virginia Tech, where he was also the Diversity Coordinator for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. As National Education Program Leader at NIFA, Ray provides leadership to the Agriculture in the Classroom Program, and several higher education scholarship and capacity-building initiatives throughout the Institute of Youth, Family, and Community. |
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| Dr. Tim Borich
Dr. Borich has been involved with the study and practice of community development for over 30 years. He presently serves as the director of the university-wide unit involved with Extension activities related to community and economic development. He also serves as the associate dean for outreach at the Iowa State University College of Design. Dr. Borich began his service with Iowa State University as an Extension Community Development Specialist based in Sioux City. He has also held positions as program coordinator and assistant director at the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, and his present position is partially funded by the ISU Extension Service.
Dr. Borich’s research and teaching interests include citizen participation in planning processes, grant writing, rural economic development, community development organization, and rural planning. His recent awards include the Federal Highway Administration’s 2003 Environmental Excellence Award for Excellence in Environmental Research and as part of a team winning the 2006 American Planning Association’s National Award for Outstanding Planning Award for a Project/Program/Tool. He is the current President-Elect of the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals.
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| Dawn Bratsch-Prince
Bratsch-Prince came to Iowa State in 1990 as an assistant professor of Spanish in the world languages and cultures department. She earned tenure and was promoted to full professor, then served as department chair from 2002 to 2008, when she was named associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Bratsch-Prince served as interim director of the women's studies program (2009-10).
Bratsch-Prince currently serves as president of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL), a division of the Modern Language Association. She also was honored by her college and the university for her departmental leadership. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native earned her bachelor's (1983) and master's (1985) degrees in Spanish from New York University. She received a Ph.D. in romance philology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1990.
Her teaching interests include applied microeconomics, experimental economics, public choice, economic history, law and economics, and public policy. She has authored or co-authored three books and dozens of articles. |
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| Dr. Maurice W. Dorsey
Dr. Maurice W. Dorsey joined the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1999. He is National Program Leader for Public Policy, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Division of Family and Consumer Sciences and is responsible for agriculture policy related to the Farm Bill, urban extension, and diversity, social justice, and inclusion.
Prior to joining USDA, Maurice began his career in extension at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), Washington, DC in 1976. During his 22 years of service at UDC he served in the roles of extension agent, county director, acting state program leader, acting associate director, and Director of the UDC Center for Cooperatives. UDC is the only totally geographically urban land grant institution in the nation simulated his doctoral research on urban cooperative extension. Working with urban county directors throughout the United States he subsequently chaired the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) National Urban Task Force and is federal representative to the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities Commission on the Urban Agenda and Coalition of Urban Serving Universities. |
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In 1990 his passion for diversity, social justice, and inclusion lead the co-authoring Pathways to Diversity the national strategic plan for the land grant system on diversity and pluralism. He subsequently chaired the National Subcommittee on Extension Diversity. He is federal representative to the Association of Public and Land Grant Colleges, Commission on Access, Diversity, and Excellence. He also holds a collateral appointment as NIFA Special Emphasis Program Manager for the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and Transgender employees. Maurice is also recipient of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture A.J. Dye Award for Diversity.
Maurice is currently Vice Chair of the Federal Interagency Diversity Partnership, reviewer for the Journal of Extension, federal liaison to Washington State University and the University of Idaho. Maurice has published numerous articles throughout his career, he has been invited guest speaker nationwide and has been active on a wide range of national, regional, state, and county committees and task forces.
Dr. Dorsey earned his Bachelor degree in Family and Consumer Science University of Maryland, College Park 1970; a Masters of Liberal Arts from The Johns Hopkins University, 1975; a Masters in Education Management and Supervision from Loyola College of Maryland, 1976; and Ph.D. in Education Policy Planning and Administration, University of Maryland, College Park, 1983. |
| Congressman Chaka Fattah
Congressman Chaka Fattah is serving in his 16th year in the U.S. House of Representatives, as a democratic representative for Pennsylvania. He is a Member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. This committee is responsible for setting spending priorities of over $1 trillion in annual discretionary funds.
Representative Fattah is also Chairman of the Congressional Urban Caucus a bipartisan group of 57 Members representing America's metropolitan centers. These Members work collaboratively with other stakeholders to address the unique challenges facing America's urban communities
During the 111th Congress, Representative Fattah has led three major legislative victories. To date, The American Opportunity Tax Credit Act, a $14 billion program to provide a $2,500 tax credit for tuition and other expenses for college students or their parents, has assisted 12.5 million students in meeting their college expenses. |
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He secured $3.2 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants Program (EECBGP) that will assist over 1,041 local communities in the development of programs to implement various energy efficiency and conservation projects. Philadelphia and its region is the recipient of $39 million in EECBG funds.
Congressman Fattah created the Emergency Homeowners’ Relief Fund, which was included in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law by President Obama. The program, patterned after Congressman Fattah’s Pennsylvania Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP), will provide $1 billion in funds to help millions of responsible American homeowners avoid foreclosure. Targeted to recently unemployed borrowers, the program will keep families in their homes and mitigate the effects of recession.
Fattah is also the architect of the country’s most successful early college awareness and preparation program – Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), which he shepherded through reauthorization in 2008. Over the past 10 years, more than $3 billion in federal funds have been used to serve some 12 million students in 49 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. GEAR UP serves as an international model to aid underserved students in their preparation and pursuit of a college education. |
| Dr. Shari O. Garmise
Dr. Shari O. Garmise serves as Vice President, USU/ A۰P۰L۰U Office of Urban Initiatives for the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (A۰P۰L۰U) and the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU). Dr. Garmise previously held the roles of Vice President for Knowledge Management & Development at the International Economic Development Council, and Assistant Professor of Economic Development at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Dr. Garmise has over 20 years of experience in economic and urban development in the United States and Europe. She has worked on a large variety of economic and urban development-related issues, including workforce development, innovation-led economic development, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and many others. Dr. Garmise recently published the book People and the Competitive Advantage of Place: Building a 21st Century Workforce. In addition, she has published work in several journals including Local Economy, Economic Development Journal and Regional and Federal Studies as well as various book chapters, working papers, and professional reports and policy analyses. |
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| Richard Klemme
Richard Klemme is the Dean and Director of Cooperative Extension. As Dean and Director Klemme is responsible for 1,000 employees located across Wisconsin's 72 counties, three tribal offices and eight UW System campuses. Prior to serving as Dean and Director, Klemme served as the Associate Dean and Program Leader for Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension, a joint position between UW-Madison's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Cooperative Extension, UW-Extension.
Dr. Klemme obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University and a B.S. in Economics and Mathematics from Illinois State University. He has been at UW-Madison since finishing his Ph.D. in 1980, starting as a farm management specialist in the Department of Agricultural Economics. Klemme was named founding Director of the UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems in 1989, a position he held until he became the Associate Dean on January 1, 2000. |
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| Trudy Rice
Trudy Rice is the 2010-2011 Ralph L. Tabor Extension Fellow to the National Association of Counties. She is on loan from Kansas State University Research and Extension where she has spent the last 25 years as a county based extension agent in the areas of family relations, financial management, community development, and administration. She currently is a Community Development Extension Associate at the state level serving over 70 communities across the state of Kansas through the PRIDE program, a community capacity building program for local communities. During her term as the NACo Fellow Trudy is working to promote the partnership between NACo, NIFA, and APLU; pursue new opportunities for the same partnership at the state level level; and to provide educational resources to local officials through Cooperative Extension that will assist them in developing lasting solutions to emerging issues. |
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| Dr. Rubén J. Saldaña
Dr. Rubén J. Saldaña, was born in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and has spent his Extension career in Mexican border assignments. He has an MPA from the University of Texas and an EdD in Agricultural Education from Texas A&M University.
Dr. Saldaña joined Extension in 1989 and has been a ‘go-to’ leader ever since. His experiences include County Extension Agent, Project Manager for Extension’s AmeriCorps program (where many of his AmeriCorps members were later recruited as County Extension Agents), County Extension Director in El Paso (where he successfully diversified the staff to better reflect the county population), and then to his current position as District Extension Director in South Texas (where he continues to increase the number of minority faculty).
Rubén has a deep appreciation for diversity, from being a member of a minority group himself, as a scholar in completing his dissertation research on Variables Affecting Hispanic Participation in Extension Programs, and as a state and national leader in diversity through service as co-chair of the Extension State Diversity Catalyst Team, co-chair of the Diversity Awards Program, PODC Subcommittee, and member of the ECOP Extension Diversity Task Force.
As a popular speaker, Dr. Saldaña, entertains his audiences as he shares practical ideas on how to make a more pluralistic society, a reality.
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| Dr. Don Tobias
Dr. Don Tobias’s past 25 years have included diverse experiences primarily in the field of education: teaching and administration in public schools, Cooperative Extension and universities; program development in both the public and private sectors. Common among these experiences is a commitment to community service and community development through education in both credit and non-credit settings. This activity has required organizing community groups from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds to better access the resources of educational institutions. The success of these efforts has been built on a clear understanding of the learner's needs, and on quality instruction using a variety of dissemination techniques.
Collaboration among all participants and a commitment to mutual gain are core values, and his duties have ranged from teaching to curriculum and grant development. As an administrator he has have been responsible for recruitment and supervision of faculty, budgeting, and long-range planning. Currently, he serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Cornell University, Cooperative Extension, New York City, where he also served as the Director for CARD, prior to this position. |
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| Alan Vandehaar
Alan Vandehaar has worked as a community development specialist with Iowa State University Extension since 1987. He has conducted numerous community development programs, including teaching planning and zoning training workshops, leadership development programs, nonprofit management programs, and facilitating numerous town meetings.
As project manager for the Iowa Precinct Election (PEO) Official Certification Training program he worked with the county auditors association and the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office and developed the curriculum and educated staff who trained over 4,000 local election officials in 75 counties. Since 2005 he has been project manager for Towncraft, a joint ISU partnership with Hometown Perry, Iowa, holding roundtables and conferences focused on identifying alternative futures and strategies to strengthen small communities. |
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He holds undergraduate degrees from Drake University and Iowa State University and a Masters degree in Community and Regional Planning from Iowa State University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and the American Planning Association. |