What You Should Know About the New Leader of UF/IFAS Extension
September 19, 2021 There’s a new leader for nearly 650 Extension agents and specialists who work in every Florida county to help growers stay profitable and to help all Floridians lead better lives. Dr. Andra Johnson starts as Dean of UF/IFAS Extension and Director of the Florida Cooperative Extension Service on Nov. 1.
Here’s why I chose Johnson from among six highly qualified finalists who interviewed in two rounds of searches:
He’s an aggie. Johnson pledges to keep a focus on production agriculture. The vision he presented for modernizing Extension includes an expansion of service to production agriculture.
Andra Johnson
Johnson grew up in rural Louisiana in a family that raised cattle, cotton, corn, and wheat. His aunt served more than 30 years at USDA. He has previously worked at three land-grant universities and earned three academic degrees from land-grants.
Florida ag leaders supported his candidacy. Whatever you grow, your commodity association was likely represented on the search committee or at the stakeholder interviews of the candidates.
He wants your agent to stay your agent. We lose too many agents too early in their careers. Sometimes you hire them, and that’s OK. But Johnson has a vision for removing the university-created drivers of attrition. He plans to beef up support so agents are not bogged down in administrative duties instead of the programming they’d rather be doing.
He’ll advocate for higher salaries to retain high-performing agents. And he’ll work to improve the promotion process that ultimately gives an agent freedom to determine in concert with stakeholders how best to serve the local community as well as job security to build years-long relationships.
He’s a triple threat. In addition to Extension administration experience, he has taught extensively, and he has a record securing funding for research. He has also skillfully integrated the three major land-grant mission areas—using classes in agricultural Extension, for example, as a training ground for future agents.
Johnson will be his own man. One of my few directives to him will be to get out of the office and visit you. As of this writing, I’ve visited 47 of our 67 Extension offices. I want Johnson to get to them all before I do, and to visit with stakeholders like you while he’s at it. Please invite him to your farms as well.
Johnson has been emerging as a national leader who represents the future of Extension. At UF/IFAS, we’re in the business of getting you to the future first, ahead of your national and global competitors.