Cran Career Spotlight: Outreach Specialist
Overview
Outreach Specialists help connect growers and researchers. Growers face new challenges each year, and the Outreach Specialist talks with farmers and learns about their challenges—then explains the challenges to researchers so that researchers focus on the most important questions. As researchers at the University of Wisconsin find answers to questions, the Outreach Specialist helps growers put those answers to use on the farm.
What is this career like?
If learning new things every day is interesting to you, and if you like to solve problems and help other people solve problems, this job would be great for you. If you are a good listener and like to understand biological processes as well as business decisions, this job will be great for you.
Some days you work in an office, other days you travel to marshes and spend time working with growers so you can share their perspective. It is a blend of indoor and outdoor work. There is a seasonal component—in the summer, you will spend more time observing, while in the winter you will spend more time hosting workshops that showcase last year’s results, and planning for the coming summer.
Some of the things an Outreach Specialist might do:
Plan a workshop that helps growers learn how to apply new research
Plan and execute a trial that discovers how quickly the Cottonball Fungus is spreading, and how growers can stop it
Visit a marsh to help a grower discover why leaves are falling off their vines
Help researchers plan to focus on growers’ biggest questions
Write an article that shares information about a phytoplasma, because the research was done a long time ago, and now the disease is reappearing
Come up with ideas for what researchers can write articles about
What skills are needed?
Good listening
Curiosity and understanding
Enjoy being outdoors, enjoy helping farmers
Knowledge of plants (physiology, nutrition, life cycles)—you can learn this!
Knowledge of insects (life cycle, nutrition, identification)—you can learn this!
Honesty
Promptness (in farming, if you are 1 week late with information, you are actually 1 year late)
What education is required?
I have a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering, and a master’s degree in Biological Systems Engineering. I chose engineering because I love solving problems, and engineering school teaches you tools to solve problems.
Before college, I was not a very good public speaker, but I have gotten better and better at it, the more practice I have. Good listening, so that I know my audience’s goals and desires, helps a lot. I know that I am giving them information that will be useful to them.