Amy Cope, assumed leadership January 21 as county extension director with the University of Illinois Extension, succeeding Pam Jacobs.

Amy holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Communications and a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture/Agriculture Business. Her work history includes experience with Farm Business/Farm Management, Bunge North America and most recently, Bayer.

Amy is familiar with Extension having served as a 4-H Leader and a Unit Advisory Council member. She is a Monroe County native who lives in rural Waterloo.

She grew up on working on a farm and being active in 4-H, 4-H Federation and FFA. She wants to support the community and staff at the extension offices of St. Clair, Madison and Monroe counties to enable the same opportunities for today’s youth and businesses.

Cope said that all her past work experience will help her in this new role. “I feel like I bring a good mix of skill sets from my experience with FBFM, the banking industry and the corporate environment really brings a different perspective,” she said.

Those skills include budgeting, analysis, cash flow, working with a diverse group of people, bookkeeping, business analytics and intelligence work and experience working with government agencies.

She said her experience on the council will also serve her well.

“I was definitely more familiar with the financial background and some of the staff here because of that opportunity,” she noted.

As she continues getting to know those staff members and the job as a whole, Cope said she has a few goals. “I want to continue the great programming that has been in the communities, expand communication efforts to the local members of the community, explore new programming opportunities in different areas of focus,” she explained. “Some of the ideas I have is how we can better support our local businesses? Are there other things we can do to support our school systems? I really want to focus on what we can do to support what the people need and want, while balancing it with the University of Illinois’ guiding principles.”

University of Illinois Extension offices are located at 901 Illinois Avenue (Monroe County Annex) Waterloo and 1 Regency Plaza Drive, Suite 200, Collinsville. The EFNEP training center is located at 1265 N. 89th Street, East St. Louis. You can reach Amy at (618) 939-3434 for more information about University of Illinois programs.