Serving Communities through Engagement

As a department, CLD is guided by the values of learning, discovery, and engagement which underlie the land-grant philosophy. As such, CLD strives to collaborate with diverse institutions, communities, and people to improve lives. In the process, the Department integrates engagement with both research and instruction. For example, the results of the Department’s upcoming statewide Kentucky Communities Survey will both be presented to local Kentucky audiences and inform community projects. In addition, our faculty with Extension title series appointments are expected to engage in applied research and publish whether or not their DOE officially includes a research component. In the case of instruction, the Department facilitates and encourages student community engagement through service learning for undergraduates and “action projects” for graduate students. A previous review of rural sociology conducted before the formation of CLD noted it was difficult for the review team to distinguish between faculty with Extension title series and regular title series appointments. We considered that a compliment and hope we have maintained a highly integrated approach in all our programs.  

It is impossible to adequately describe all of CLD’s engagement efforts in this document. Instead, recent representative work within several overlapping focus areas will be discussed along with the activities of the Nonprofit Leadership Initiative and the Center for Leadership Development. 

Center for Leadership Development  (CFLD)

The Center for Leadership Development builds leadership capacity through research, education, networks of leadership partners, and services. The Center partnered with Business Lexington and the Kentucky Educational Development Corporation to launch the annual Unbridling the Spirit of Leadership in Kentucky conference in 2005. The 2005 conference featured John Maxwell and drew approximately 1,400 attendees from business, education, and government while the 2006 event featuring Ken Blanchard drew over 900.

The Center is able to consult with community-based groups and organizations to design and develop programs to build leadership capacity through enhancing individual’s skills and group effectiveness. In the area of individual leadership skills, the Center can provide training addressing personality types (Myers-Briggs type indicator), strengths assessment (Gallup’s 34 themes of talent indicative of success), and leadership principles (based on Maxwell’s 21 laws of effective leadership). At the group level, the Center offers developing effective collaborations (characteristics of effective groups, advantages and disadvantages of collaborative efforts, goals and strategies), creating a mentoring culture (tools and methods for developing a growth environment), and situational leadership (based on work of Ken Blanchard – how to develop effective leadership in relation to followers’ abilities and maturity).

CLD’s endowed Duvall Program in Youth Leadership, Ethics, and Service is being administered by the Center. Significant activities include arranging the first Duvall Leader in Residence for  April 2007. Liz Cornish, author of Hit the Ground Running, will spend a week working with students and faculty in the College and University. In addition, Duvall funds are being used as “seed” money for the Kenton County school system to implement the Leader Next program with the understanding that they will help educate other school systems about the program. This effort is allowing the Center to be involved with a state education initiative in the area of leadership for high school students.

Dr. Patricia Dyk is the director of the center.  Additional information about the Center and the organizations it has worked with can be found on its web site at  www.uky.edu/Ag/CLD/CLD_CtrLeadrshipDev.htm.

Nonprofit Leadership Initiative (NLI)

The Nonprofit Leadership Initiative’s mission is to serve, support, and strengthen Kentucky’s nonprofit sector. As such, the Initiative provides programs and services that encourage nonprofit collaboration, effectiveness, accountability and innovation to strengthen Kentucky communities. The NLI has developed a statewide Nonprofit Network with approximately 250 members and organizes an annual fall conference or gathering of Kentucky nonprofits. A current list of network members along with detailed information on the NLI is available on the Initiative’s web site at www.kynonprofits.org.

In addition to the annual conference, the NLI organizes an extensive schedule of workshops. The NLI also sponsors “Lunch and Learn” which is a monthly luncheon designed to provide an opportunity for nonprofit professionals to come together for networking and discussion on various topics. (Engagement Appendix 2 includes a list of past Lunch and Learn topics.)

Finally, the NLI Director, Danielle Clore, either consults with or arranges consultation for individual nonprofit organizations in such areas as strategic planning, board development, board self-assessment, fiscal management, fund development, and program evaluation.  

Kentucky Entrepreneurial Coaches Institute (KECI) 

Dr. Hustedde is Director of the Kentucky Entrepreneurial Coaches Institute which combines leadership development with entrepreneurial coaching and advocacy. Funded by a grant from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, this unique educational initiative focuses on 19 tobacco dependent counties in Northeastern Kentucky and  provides intensive educational experiences for 60 civic leaders who learn to coach individual entrepreneurs and work with others to stimulate entrepreneurial friendly communities. The program was recognized as “one of the best entrepreneurial practices in the nation” by the U.S. Small Business Administration office of Advocacy, the Kauffman Foundation, and the National Lieutenant Governor’s Association in 2005. Additional information about the Institute is available on its web site at www.uky.edu/Ag/CLD/KECI.

Agricultural Education Outreach 

CLD Agricultural Education faculty have a significant outreach program in support of public school agriculture teachers and programs, school administrators, the Kentucky Department of Education, and regional university faculty. This is accomplished through work with Kentucky TEAM AG ED Joint State Staff (Horstmeier, Kitchel, Robinson) and the Kentucky Vocational Agriculture Teachers (Horstmeier, Kitchel, Robinson), being the advisor for Ag Ed REPS which recruits high school students into agricultural education (Robinson), and developing and teaching professional development seminars for the Kentucky Department of Education CTE New Teacher Academy (Horstmeier). Other activities include working with Kentucky FFA and the Kentucky FFA Foundation and hosting FFA activities at UK which bring high school agriculture teachers and their students to campus. 

Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL)

The purpose of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) is to provide teaching and learning resources for faculty in the College of Agriculture to include: a website identifying resources that faculty can look up for improving their practice; coordinating a college-wide advisory committee for teaching and learning issues; assisting the college in developing and coordinating workshops and conferences (e.g., our annual teaching workshop, NACTA Conference, etc…); and providing direction and coordination of an Academy of Teaching and Learning Scholars in the College. Tracy Kitchel is the Center's director.  The Center is housed in the Office of Academic Programs and and supported by the Associate Dean for Academic Program, Dr. Mike Mullen.   More information can be found at the Center's website: www.uky.edu/Ag/CLD/CETL/

Community Communications Interest Group (CCIG)

The Community Communications Interest Group houses three initiatives: Kentucky Online Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Project (to examine how newspaper editors/news audiences use features on online newspapers and blogs, their perceptions about credibility, attitude toward website and media and citizen journalists' role conceptions, and their civic and community engagement patterns); The Kentucky Citizen Media Project, KCMP (to initiate a citizen-based media through the Internet in Robertson County, Kentucky, which is the only county in Kentucky with no local newspaper, but a county-wide Wi-Fi wireless network. Then the KCMP will train citizens to become citizen journalists who report and deliver news and information regarding public and community affairs through the online citizen media; and The Internet and US Farmers Markets  (to examine community structural pluralism and its impact on community organizations' activities. Specifically, this study examines to what degree community features affect the Internet adoption by U.S. farmers' markets.)   Seungahn Nah  is the principal investigator.  More information can be found at their website: www.uky.edu/Ag/CLD/CCIG/