North Dakota State University’s eXtension institutional team was recognized with a 2012 Be, Grow, Create Outstanding Institutional Team Award at the National eXtension Conference in Oklahoma City.

eXtension (pronounced E-extension) is a national initiative of the Cooperative Extension System. A main feature is the collaborative website at http://www.extension.org.

Team members who accepted the award were Bob Bertsch, Ag Communication Web technology specialist; Debra Pankow, Human Development and Family Science associate professor/Extension family economics specialist; Becky Koch, Ag Communication director; and Greg McKee, Agribusiness and Applied Economics associate professor and Quentin Burdick Center for Cooperatives director. Glenn Muske, Extension rural and agribusiness enterprise development specialist in the Center for Community Vitality, also attended the conference.

Others on the institutional team are Donna Bernhardt, Grand Forks County Extension agent; Lynette Flage, northeast district director; Dan Folske, Burke County Extension agent; Linda Hauge, 4-H youth development specialist in the Center for 4-H Youth Development; Ken Hellevang, Extension agricultural engineer in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABEN); Roxanne Johnson, ABEN Extension water quality associate; Dena Kemmet, Mercer County Extension agent; John Nowatzki, ABEN Extension agricultural machine systems specialist; J.W. Schroeder, Extension dairy specialist in the Department of Animal Sciences; and Charlie Stoltenow, Extension veterinarian and interim assistant director for agriculture and natural resources.

According to the nominators, “This team works diligently to keep North Dakota Extension colleagues in on every way eXtension can help them. They regularly promote Learn sessions, attend the monthly national institutional team Web conferences, and as a result of their work, there are more than 78 North Dakota faculty and staff involved in 40 of the 71 approved Communities of Practice … and in several cases those faculty have leadership roles. North Dakota has a 96 percent rate of answering Ask an Expert questions, and they’re answering nearly twice as many questions from outside North Dakota as those in the state.”

NDSU Agriculture Communication - Nov. 19, 2012