– Andy Turner, Director, CCE

This workshop brings together Executive Directors and Board Presidents to strengthen governance practices while focusing on good stewardship and collaborative efforts. In a time of historic funding challenges, boards play a vital role in ensuring sustainability, vision, and leadership. Together, we’ll clarify ED/board roles, explore engagement strategies, and consider practical ways to leverage resources while maintaining local identity.

– Kate McNally, Senior Capacity Building Advisor, NYCON

– Sarah Wilkinson, VP, Nonprofit Capacity Building, NYCON

– Einhorn Center for Community Engagement – Basil Safi, Executive Director
– Cornell Small Farms Program – Anu Rangarajan, Director

Cornell Small Farms Program Presentation Slides

This session will feature a panel of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Critical Issue Leaders, each providing a brief overview of their portfolio and highlighting one example of a faculty connection that supports a current project. The panel will showcase how these partnerships drive innovation, research translation, and community impact across New York State.

The panel will also feature Chris Kai-Jones.  Chris is a Program Leader from CCE Tompkins and a liaison to the Cornell Department of Communication for their project, “Enhancing CCE Collaborations”. The Enhancing Collaborations project is focused on strengthening partnerships between Cornell, local extension associations, and community groups to better address environmental and food security challenges in New York. Using research, interviews, and feedback, the team developed and refined strategies to improve collaboration, aiming for stronger, faster, and more effective community problem-solving. Chris will provide an overview of insights from the project to date.

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the Critical Issue Leaders’ roles, current initiatives, and opportunities to connect faculty expertise with community needs.

Building Strong Campus-County Connections

CCE County Website Project

– R.J. Anderson, Communications Team Leader, CCE Administration
– Tim Senft, CALS Marketing & Communications
– Joanne Kenyon, Web community support specialist, CCE Administration

Salesforce People Platform

– Sherry Baker, IT Project Manager, Cornell CALS

– Chris Hufnagel, Office of Information Technology Director, CALS

In our upcoming working session, we’ll cover our timeline goals, early previews of the platform’s interface, review our cost sharing model for your input, and outline our onboarding needs. The platform includes Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud (CRM), Ideal-Logic (Event Registration with PW Wood-approved online form signing), and Mailchimp Integration (Communications).

Salesforce People Platform presentation slides

Hear from this year’s CCE Summer interns about their projects at Associations around the state. Each intern will give a lightning overview of their project and host a poster for deeper conversation about their summer experiences.

Led by Andy Turner and members of the Executive Director Advisory Council

The challenges of the CCE Executive Director position have increased significantly in recent years. Executive Directors are expressing concerns about the vulnerability of their position and requesting increased support and professional development from Extension Administration and their local CCE Boards as they navigate organizational challenges.

This session will:

• Provide an overview of the core responsibilities of Association Boards and Extension Administration when it comes to support and supervision of CCE Executive Directors

• Outline a goal and strategies for creating greater clarity and increased support

• Provide space for discussion of potential strategies identified by Executive Directors at the June Executive Leadership Conference and the Executive Director Advisory Committee

We face a moment of deep discourse in our society. Our communities, long standing as places through which we find belonging, are splintering around politics and viewpoints which are deeply divisive. As Extension Associations, our work is to build from within, creating spaces and community in moments in which we are seeing breaking of bonds. This session explores the unique and imperative role of the Extension offices in centering our communities, reclaiming what has been lost, and finding a pathway forward in the most trying of times. Working together, the session explores the challenges and opportunities of moving from talking past each other to talking with each other, seeing interpersonal relationships as critical in a time in which we sow division amongst ourselves. And finding not just common ground, but common struggle together as we head towards an unknown but collective future.

– J. Cody Nielsen, Executive Director, Convergence Strategies

– Scott Peters, Professor, Department of Global Development, Cornell University
– Donna Lupardo, Assemblymember, NYS Assembly

Scott Peters will invite us to reflect on the meaning and significance of the land-grant mission, both in times past and today. Through rich personal stories from people throughout our history, he will help us see the absolutely essential role extension has played and can still play in fulfilling this mission.

Assemblymember Donna Lupardo will discuss the current political landscape and how it could impact the work of CCE. She will provide insights into opportunities and challenges at the state level, offering her perspective on how CCE can continue to grow and serve New Yorkers in the years ahead.