Steering Committee Bios

National Initiative to Internationalize Extension

Mary Andrews will co-chair the management of the project at Michigan State University with her colleague, Diane Ruonavaara. Mary is currently the Coordinator of Professional Development at MSUE and is the Director of International Extension Programs, a position she has held for the past 20 years. She manages an in-depth training program for experienced staff called the "International Extension Training Program" (IETP). Group XIII will be starting their two-year training program this fall. In addition, her office supports a variety of professional development experiences for extension staff to internationalize their careers. She is the contact person for hosting and training international guests within Extension, supports the development of international grants, projects, study tours and resource materials, alerts staff to potential international assignments and encourages a variety of international activities within Extension. A website describing the IETP is: http://www.msue.msu.edu/intext Currently MSUE is supporting the ESP Study Tour to SE Asia as a professional development opportunity for anyone in Extension. Mary started her international career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South India (Karnataka) in the 60's!

Deanna Behring is the Director of International Programs at the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State University.  She joined the College last year after more than a decade of experience in Washington, D.C. where she worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Commerce, as well as on projects for the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Agency for International Development.  While at OSTP, she served as the Assistant Director for International Affairs, where she was responsible for coordinating international policy and programs across the technical agencies of the U.S. Government. Ms. Behring holds several board appointments, including the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Foundation Board of Directors.  Ms. Behring has a B.A. in Economics, an M.A. in International Economic Development and speaks Chinese and French. 

Ikbal Chowdhury, serves as the Director of International Programs for Lincoln University. He has thirty-eight years of teaching, research and administrative experience at the university, federal and international levels. In the area of International Development he is very familiar with many bilateral and multilateral funding agencies and research and development organizations. He has developed and/or managed projects for many agencies including USAID, USDA, USIA/Fulbright, EPA, NASA, TVA, NIH, FDA, the World Bank and the Regional Banks, FAO/UNDP, NATO, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Interior, Energy/Atomic Energy Commission, most land grant universities and many other universities in the US, Canada and other continents. Ikbal is a Soil Scientist by training, and he earned his Ph.D. from North Dakota State University, and both his Bachelor and Masters from Dhaka University/Dhaka/Bangladesh.          

Robert J. (Bob) Haggerty, Director of International Programs in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Idaho, is a food

scientist with twenty years of experience in teaching, research, administration, regulatory, and consulting work in food science and nutrition in the US and abroad.

Currently, Haggerty is responsible for providing leadership in international affairs in CALS. Haggerty also holds the positions of Adjunct Assistant Professor of

Agricultural and Extension Education and of Food Science and Toxicology at the University of Idaho. He has wide experience in educational, technical, institutional,

and programmatic aspects of controlling postharvest/postmortem losses of foods in order to ensure a safe, nutritious, affordable food supply to consumers. He has

extensive experience dealing with training and adaptive research under the auspices of USAID, FAO, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, USDA, and various

private programming agents contracted to these funding agencies. The geographical region of greatest familiarity to him outside the US is Southeast Asia, particularly

Indonesia, where he had a two year in-country assignment. He has considerable experience in Pakistan, Nepal and Romania, with additional experience in Jamaica,

Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China. Haggerty was recently elected to NASULGC’s Board on Agriculture Assembly Board of Directors.

Barbara Ludwig is the Chair for the Department of Extension at Ohio State University.  She provides administrative leadership for OSU Extension's Personnel and Operations Team and guides the daily operations of the Extension organization of 1400 employees.  Ludwig serves as a liaison with the College's International Programs Office including editing a quarterly newsletter, Around the Globe, that features Extension and College faculty/staff accomplishments in internationalizing.  Ludwig has an ongoing interest in fostering internationalization of Extension. She has worked to facilitate international experiences for county agents and to reduce organizational barriers.   She has taught, conducted applied research and is recognized nationally and internationally through her journal articles, papers and service as a president of The Association of International Agricultural and Extension Education. 

Vickie Parker-Clark:  before becoming District 1 Extension Director last September, Vickie worked with small acreage farmers and direct farm Marketers in Idaho and eastern Washington.  This has been her primary focus since 1987. Her international experience includes:  3 week assignment in South Africa teaching extension methodology to S.A. Dept. of Agriculture employees who worked with small-scale farmers in the very rural areas of the Northern Transvaal and Qua-Zulu Natal provinces. Vickie's interest in globalizing Extension is primarily on training faculty to work with other cultures in their day-to-day programming in the U.S. She is on the Board of Directors for the North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association, and is active in Epsilon Sigma Phi.

Carol Radomski works part-time with IP/CSREES.  She is currently working with a national advisory group of university professionals and the Aspen Institute on a communications strategy entitled, the Global Interdependence Initiative (GII). Carol grew up in rural Pennsylvania and holds a Master of Social Work degree from West Virginia University.  She first became involved in international issues as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines in the early 1980's.  Upon return from the Philippines, she worked with refugees in the Washington, DC area.  In the mid-1980's Carol was an International Program Specialist with the Extension Service, USDA.  In that capacity, she worked with Mary Andrews and others on a project to educate Americans about the US stake in international development. After leaving USDA, Carol became Director of Development Education for OEF International.  For the past decade, Carol has been mostly "mom at home" with occasional ventures into the paid work force, including training for the National Peace Corps Association, teaching English as a second language, and reviewing grants for USAID's development education program.  For the past two years, Carol has worked part-time with IP, focusing primarily on global education.

Diane Ruonavaara has seventeen years experience studying and/or working internationally in Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ecuador, Vietnam. She has also traveled to Mali and India.  For the last five years, Dr. Ruonavaara has been a consultant to the Permanent Seminar of Resources for Rural Development (the Seminar), an indigenous community development organization located in Oaxaca, Mexico. Diane received her Ph.D. from the Department of Resource Development at MSU (2000) with a dual specialization in "Women in Development and International Development" and in "Latin American Studies." Her dissertation work, funded by the InterAmerican Foundation, occurred with the Seminar and focused on organizational change and community development in Oaxaca Mexico. Diane is also a participant and assistant to Mary Andrews for the "International Extension Training Program."

Dr. Pete Vergot, District Extension Director, University of Florida Extension, is the International Program Liaison for Extension and has served this role for the past five years. In this position he designed and implemented the first International training program for University of Florida Extension in 2002. Uof FL currently supports a variety of professional development experiences for extension staff to internationalize their careers. Pete is the contact person for hosting and training international guests within Extension, supports the development of international grants, projects, study tours and resource materials, alerts staff to potential international assignments and encourages a variety of international activities within Extension. He developed and maintains a website supporting the International Extension Programming at: http://ded.ifas.ufl.edu/IET2001/index.htm