About Me

My mission is to enhance the lives of Oklahomans, one conversation, one program, one experience at a time. Extension is part of my DNA. Some of my earliest memories are attending Extension Homemakers (now OHCE) meetings with my mother, who started the first evening group in Nowata County back in the 1960s. I was a Kansas 4-H member for three years. My record book is still a prized possession! 

 

While attending OSU, I planned to become an Extension educator upon graduation, but because of budget cuts at the time, a job wasn’t available. I ended up teaching and having many adventures that led me all the way to Alaska, where I was a 4-H leader for a wonderful group of girls!  I returned to the heartland in 1999 and spent more than six years using my 4-H demonstration skills as a home economist for Taste of Home Cooking Schools. But in the back of my mind, I still wanted to be an OSU Extension educator. When the opportunity came, I was overjoyed to go to Osage County, which was a dream come true. 

 

Since then, I’ve married and moved to my husband’s farm in rural Dewey County. I commuted three hours round trip to Garfield County each day for four years because I loved being a Family & Consumer Sciences educator so much and it was the closest position available.

 

Now I serve fellow western Oklahomans in Custer County. I truly believe Extension is my calling in life. It was what I was born to do.

 

Programs

• Co-Parenting for Resilience
• OHCE Leader Lessons
• Tai Chi for Better Balance
• Keys to Embracing Aging
• Check & Balance financial literacy
• Poverty Simulations
• Infant Positional Asphyxiation Safety training
• Food Preservation workshops
• Nutrition & Food Preparation workshops (Dining with Diabetes, Journey through Health, Live well, Eat well & be Active with Diabetes (LEAD))
• Faithful Families: Eating Smart, Moving More
• Annie’s Project: Farm & Ranch Business Management for Women
• STEM Strawberry Jam workshops
• OSU Extension Educator Major for Grandparent University
• Let’s Do (make) Lunch Around the World

 

Articles

Cowboy Up: How Mental Health First Aid Helped Oklahoma Farmers