It is time to recruit for the Western Extension Leadership Development program (WELD), Deadline for applications May 11th, 2025

[Gouge, Dawn H - (dhgouge)]

Dear Agriculture and Natural Resource Team,

The Western Extension Leadership Development Program (WELD) provides a 13-month program designed to enhance participants' leadership skills and impact within Extension work. The WELD experience is ideal for early—to mid-career Extension professionals whose roles may involve a broad scope, including direct programming, scholarship, and community engagement. The program requires a strong commitment and follow-through on the part of program participants. The next cohort will commence in September 2025.

The WELD Program guides and assists participants in learning and applying leadership skills in their Extension work.  Specific objectives include:

  *   Participants will develop awareness and appreciation of their own and others' leadership and problem solving style(s) and learn to apply appropriate techniques in working with diverse individuals.
  *   Participants will gain a community of practice around leadership within Extension.
  *   Participants will develop skills and enable themselves and others to develop, articulate, and implement organization/group direction.
  *   Participants will develop skills to effectively implement planned change.
  *   Participants will apply theory and practice leadership skills within an innovative project with direct impact on their work.

The WELD XIII Program will contain four sequential learning experiences:

  *   An in-person Seminar will be held in Tucson, Arizona September 22nd- 25th (2025) to introduce WELD XIII Interns to each other and Planning Team members, and to explain the purpose for and specific components that contribute to effective Innovative Project learning experiences. Interns will then develop and begin to implement their Innovative Projects with direction and leadership from the WELD XIII Planning Team, their Extension Directors, Program Leaders and Supervisors.  The seminar may include topics such as: review, discussion, and practical application of leadership inventories; recognizing leadership styles and using them to articulate personal and organizational visions and directions; motivating others to take action and facilitating change; working together through teams; effective communication; justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in Extension; and mentoring.
  *   Interns develop and begin to implement their Innovative Projects with direction and leadership from the WELD XIII Planning Team, their Extension Directors, Program Leaders and Supervisors.
  *   Interns will conduct a leadership self-analysis and then participate in a leadership inventory assessment to illustrate their strengths and challenges in organizational leadership, and the roles they are best equipped to perform in group projects and other settings.  Participants will then consider, articulate, and prepare a personal plan for developing and utilizing their leadership skills in their Innovative Projects and Extension assignments.
  *   WELD XIII Seminar 2 will be held in September 2026 in San Diego.  During Seminar 2, WELD participants present the results of, or progress on, their innovative projects to the entire group, including the WELD XIII Planning Committee. Additional training sessions will be delivered in such topical areas as empowered leadership, essential facilitation skills, ethical decision making, conflict management, and other topics identified as useful by both WELD XIII and previous WELD participants.
Extension Director Dr. Ed Martin will select two people to be our UA Extension WELD interns by mid-May and cover the fees required. If you would like to be considered, please complete the application form attached before the end of business May 11th and email this to Ms. Kelly Montez kellymontez at arizona.edu<mailto:kellymontez at arizona.edu>  for Ed’s review.

If you have any further questions about the WELD XIII Program, please feel free to contact Barbie Garnett at 303-842-6583 or by e-mail at barbie.garnett at colostate.edu<mailto:barbie.garnett at colostate.edu>.

Best wishes, Dawn.
Dawn H. Gouge PhD – pronounced Goosh (she/her) - Please do not feel obligated to respond out of your normal working hours. Please be assured that I respect different working patterns and time zones and look forward to your response when you are next at work and able to reply.

Interim Associate Director for Agriculture & Natural Resources - Cooperative Extension
Medical Entomology Professor & Public Health Professor & IPM Specialist - Department of Entomology

University of Arizona, College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences.
MAC Experiment Station, 37860 West Smith-Enke Road, Maricopa, AZ 85138.
Office 520-374-6223; Mobile 602-418-5202; Fax 520-374-6394
dhgouge at arizona.edu<mailto:dhgouge at arizona.edu>

Medical Entomology: Preventing illness and injury in the future, and saving lives today!

We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O’odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.

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“It is not the strongest of the species that survives,
Not the most intelligent that survives.
It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

  *   Charles Darwin

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