Dr. Rose Hayden-Smith has been appointed as eXtension’s Educational Technology Fellow. This fellowship is made possible by the New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE) Cooperative Agreement with USDA-NIFA. The purpose of this Fellowship is to catalyze adoption and awareness of new educational technologies and practices among professionals in the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service. 
She will lead the offering of online professional development opportunities and serve as editor of Version 1 of the Technology in Extension Education and Organization eFieldbook to be published with eXtension in 2020. The eXtension eFieldbook is a digital platform for aggregating content, tools and engagement available to all professionals in Cooperative Extension. The professional development will be delivered through eXtension’s upcoming FlexLearn social intranet platform, available to the entire Land-Grant university system beginning in 2020.
Dr. Hayden-Smith will work in alignment with a new Futuring Panel for Technology in Extension Education and Organizations. This panel will be preparing a separate trend report of technology use in the practices of Extension professionals and in Extension organizations.
Dr. Hayden-Smith has most recently served as a Cooperative Extension advisor in Digital Communications in Food Systems & Extension for the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources. She’s the editor of the UC Food Observer, a communications platform in support of UC’s Global Food Initiative.
She previously led the 4-H and Master Gardener programs in Ventura County, where she also served as the first female director of Extension. Hayden-Smith was also the leader for UC ANR’s statewide initiative in sustainable food systems. She is a practicing historian and has published extensively about gardens as a civic enterprise in America. She was a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow, advocating for a new Victory Garden movement.
Her book, “Sowing the Seeds of Victory: American Gardening Programs of World War 1”, published by McFarland, was released in spring 2014.
About the eXtension Foundation
The eXtension Foundation is a membership-based non-profit designed to be the engine fueling U.S. Cooperative Extension’s advancement in making a more visible and measurable impact in support of education outreach from land-grant universities/colleges located in every state and territory. eXtension provides an array of opportunities for Extension professionals that foster innovation creation, the adoption of innovations at member institutions, and increased impact of Extension programs.
This work is supported by New Technologies for Agriculture Extension grant no. 2015-41595-24254 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.