The Grower Outreach & Extension Specialist will serve as the key liaison to provide support to strawberry growing operations along the Central California coast. The Specialist will serve as a conduit for education opportunities, including best practices in production, safety and regulatory compliance. The Specialist will foster and maintain relationships with stakeholders to assess ongoing needs, facilitate CSC-sponsored production research and corresponding extension efforts. The Specialist will work with a team, as well as across multiple departments to advance the strategic initiatives of the organization.
The Specialist will collaborate and facilitate communication for the execution of field-based projects. The Specialist must have excellent communication skills that will be used to educate growers, shippers and farm-level employees. The Specialist must be fluent in Spanish, live (or be willing to relocate) to the Watsonville/Salinas strawberry production region and have demonstrated knowledge of agricultural production. This position will be an integral member of the research and grower education teams.
Duties / Responsibilities:
District Outreach:
- Survey and maintain professional interactions with district growers and industry stakeholders.
- Assess growers’ needs and identify resources to address those needs.
- Assist with coordination of meetings on priority topics, often on an ad-hoc basis.
- Connect CSC staff to growers and industry members to promote cross-departmental initiatives.
- Work with CSC staff to monitor relevant issues that affect growers, in particular issues around production practices, regulatory affairs and labor management.
Extension:
- Facilitate interactive training modules in English and Spanish to industry members in topics such as food safety, supervisor development, production practices and regulatory compliance relevant to strawberry growers, their employees and other industry stakeholders.
- Develop new education programs in technical areas that improve strawberry production practices for growers and their employees.
- Develop didactic materials, resources and guidelines for growers and field level employees.
Qualifications
Required:
- Professional fluency in oral and written Spanish and English.
- MS required in a field relevant to agricultural education, production, research or other relevant field or BS with 2+ years of extension experience in agricultural production/research.
- Competency with basic Microsoft programs such as Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- Live within or be willing to relocate to Watsonville/Salinas, Santa Maria or Oxnard strawberry production area.
- Frequent overnight travel within California.
- Ability to lift equipment and supplies in various training settings including field demonstrations or conference spaces.
- Valid driver’s license and clean driving record.
Desired:
- Strong commitment to working with growers and farm employees.
- Peace Corps or other international agricultural service experience
- Experience developing and delivering bilingual, agricultural education programs in agriculture.
- Technical knowledge of agricultural production, agribusiness, human resources, labor management, labor policy, regulatory affairs or farm-level management are highly desirable.
CSC is an equal opportunity employer and complies with U.S. federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation or marital, family or parental status.
Job Type: Full-time
Salary: $65,000.00 /year
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