Staff FYI News

    
Whew! It’s fall, y’all, or at least I think it is. Morning temperature lows have dipped into the mid- to upper 50s, the State Fair is behind us, leaves are beginning to change colors, and Illini football kicks off this week.

If you haven’t heard, Memorial Stadium has undergone quite a few upgrades during the off-season. The most obvious is in the south end zone, which now features a new video board. Back in the old days, we called these scoreboards, but they’re so much more than that nowadays. Our home institution now boasts the largest video board, at roughly 17,000 square feet, in all of college sports. Beat that, Boilermakers and Hawkeyes! The stadium lighting system has also been upgraded to better accommodate the light shows that have become commonplace in collegiate sports. The former system took more than 30 minutes to “warm up.” The new system is instantaneous. How exciting to have these features front and center here in Champaign-Urbana!

As we think about Illinois Extension, there’s also much to celebrate in our current season.

One initiative we’re excited to announce is the startup of the Center for Food Systems, Nutrition Security, and Health Integration. This is the next phase of interdisciplinary efforts and opportunities within our Health and Community Wellness team. We’re optimistic that the center will strengthen connections among food producers, consumers, and everyone in between, while creating new opportunities for collaboration across Illinois Extension. Just as importantly, it provides another avenue to demonstrate the breadth and impact of our work to partners beyond our organization.

I’m also particularly proud that Illinois will host the 2026 ESP National Conference in October. A tremendous amount of work has gone into planning the Epsilon Sigma Phi event in Springfield, and I’m grateful for the leadership of conference co-chairs Tara Buerster and Jessie Streit. It seems especially fitting that the conference theme is “Leading with Lincoln,” that it will be held in our state capital, and that the land-grant mission and Extension have such deep connections throughout Illinois. This promises to be a wonderful experience, and I strongly encourage your participation.

These examples speak to the larger theme of where Illinois Extension is headed and how we prepare for the opportunities and transitions ahead. As I approach the one-year mark of working alongside you, I would be remiss if I didn’t say thank you. Thank you for opening doors, welcoming me with open arms, and creating space to listen, learn, and better understand this great organization. I remain incredibly excited about what lies ahead, as our opportunities are significant. We can deepen connections within Extension, across the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and campus, and throughout the communities we serve. We can also continue examining how we work, how we support one another, and how we position Illinois Extension for the future.

That requires us to look forward. It can be easy to become consumed by some of our history, the challenges we’ve faced, the struggles we’ve endured, and the noise that can sometimes be deafening. We should learn from those experiences without allowing them to define what comes next. Instead, let’s focus our energy on identifying solutions, embracing opportunities, working together, and finding new ways to advance the mission of Extension.

What a fun time to be in Illinois — and what an exciting time to be part of Illinois Extension!