December 1997
UC SAREP's Jill Shore Auburn Picked for Federal Sustainable Ag Post
DAVIS—Jill Shore Auburn, associate director at the UC Davis-based Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP), has been named national program leader for sustainable agriculture by the USDA. The national sustainable ag program is part of the Economic and Community Systems unit at the USDA-Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. The sustainable ag unit awards $11 million per year in grants.
"We’re extremely proud that someone as talented and committed as Jill has been selected to head the federal sustainable ag program," says Bill Liebhardt, SAREP director. "She has been instrumental in helping our California program reach national and international stature, and we will miss her contributions enormously. It will also be wonderful to have another person who has personal experience in the West in Washington, D.C."
Auburn, who has worked at SAREP since 1987, has also worked as the USDA sustainable agriculture program’s Western Region professional development coordinator since 1994. In that capacity, she directed educational efforts aimed at Cooperative Extension and other ag professionals in 13 western states and the Pacific Island region.
She also helped establish the national Sustainable Agriculture Network. Auburn initiated SAREP’s award-winning World Wide Web site for sustainable agriculture, one of the first Internet sites geared to farmers and extension agents. One of her latest projects is the book How to Find Agricultural Information on the Internet.
Auburn, who received her doctorate from UC Davis in 1985, is a board member of the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture. She will begin work in Washington, D.C. in January 1998.
