Duration: 10/01/2010 to 09/30/2012

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

(Ken Esbenshade will serve as Academic Programs Advisor)

Writing Committtee:

Gary Lemme(Chair), South Dakota State University;
Benjy Mikel, Mississippi State University;
Dave Benfield, The Ohio State University;
Linda Martin, The Ohio State University



Globalization is driving significant changes that challenge the economic and strategic leadership of the U.S. (Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat). Food systems are no exception and the U.S. must ensure it has trained scientists and engineers who can innovate to address the critical issues of food security and safety, as well as our nation's expanding need for secure sustainable energy. However, we must also have a cadre of excellent leaders who understand our complex food systems and the threats to these systems. These leaders must have the skills to lead the multidisciplinary teams who will provide innovative solutions to these challenges. Specifically to address this leadership issue, this proposed SERA project will:

. Provide Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI) graduates and other emerging food systems leaders with ongoing development towards leadership excellence.

. Enhance the understanding of current and emerging issues and the complexity of these issues impacting food systems by FSLI graduates and other food systems leaders through experiential learning activities.

. Create a national network of current and emerging food systems leaders that will be the de facto think tank providing educational and outreach materials to enhance leadership skills and to provide innovative solutions to issues of food and bioenergy security.

. Inspire future leaders, especially those with scientific and engineering training founded in agriculture and associated fields to pursue in-depth leadership excellence, such as is provided initially through FSLI, LEAD 21, other national or international leadership symposia and activities in this multi-state committee.

The FSLI training program has been successful in providing holistic skill sets to current and future agriculture leaders in academic settings, government and industry. Many of the graduates of this program are now in influential leadership positions in academia, industry and in state and federal agencies. With their heightened understanding of the progressive nature of leadership development, graduates of the two-year FSLI program express their need for ongoing professional development and networking in order to expand and hone leadership skills towards excellence. While Lead 21 graduates may continue on through FSLI at a later time, there is a pressing need to bring leadership skills and networking around food systems issues. This project will accommodate a larger group than it can through FSLI alone and covers a different scope of development than either Lead 21 or FSLI.

There are many current foods systems issues that continue to evolve and new issues are emerging that span the concerns of academia, industry, and government. These issues are becoming too complex for individualistic approaches to solve. Whether in research, academia, government or industry the leadership must be prepared and willing to seek multidisciplinary collaborative solutions. The proposed professional leadership activity brings together leaders from diverse organizations and disciplines to develop the professional networks needed for innovative multidisciplinary collaborative solutions to our food and energy security challenges.

Why is this SERA project the best mechanism to achieve these objectives?
Currently no other USDA- National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) multi-state activity assembles both an actual and a robust virtual community of our nation's current and emerging leaders in food systems to address critical challenges in food and energy security. We believe that this program would be unique in the region, nation and world. This program builds upon the success and investments in the FSLI and LEAD 21 programs and furthers the development of leadership excellence of individuals in key positions throughout the food systems in academia, industry, and government agencies. This opportunity for food systems leaders to foster more efficient and effective inter-institutional collaborations, teams and strategic alliances provides a mechanism to identify, understand and solve the current and emerging grand challenges facing our food systems. Such challenges are central to the foundations of our Land Grant Universities, Industries and our stakeholders. The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative program and this SERA project complements the scientific and technical goals of NIFA.

This SERA project brings together academic, industry and government leaders from across the three mission areas of research, education and extension in the land grant system. SERA sponsorship not only provides an established structure and best mechanism to coordinate a functionally integrated forum to address leadership excellence in food and energy security but it also provides the most positive environment to build the trust needed to develop innovative academic-industrial-governmental leadership excellence.

Objectives

Procedures and Activities

Objective 1: Develop a regular forum/venue to bring together leaders of food systems to identify, interact on issues of common concern.

Procedure:

Year 1: The SERA leadership team will work collaboratively with partners to create a survey to query Key Stakeholders (foods systems, academic, public health leaders, etc) about major food systems leadership challenges in their respective areas of focus. Partners will include (potentially) Scott Cummings (LEAD 21 graduate), Mark Denbaly (FSLI Cohort II, USDA-ERS) and others to identify current and emerging issues. The survey will be administered via the web with the results to be analyzed by Dr. Cummings. The leadership challenge issues identified from the survey results will be prioritized as to importance and become the topic areas of the leadership development program convened annually through this SERA project. Ideally, the survey would be done prior to organizing the SERA project, but there has not been an organized group to pursue the question related to leadership needs within food systems. Hence, this project now provides an organized group and effort with an interest and desire to conduct this leadership survey within the first year of the project.

On the basis of the data obtained from the leadership survey the project leadership team will design the logistics of the forum to begin in Year 2. The SERA Leadership Team and Advisory Committee will select Current and Emerging Issues based on the survey responses that will become the topics of the leadership development experience. The leadership team will convene annual stakeholder meetings at existing regional and national meetings (Regional Advisory Meetings, APLU). The leadership development experiences may take place in conjunction with these other existing meetings or in a free-standing venue, depending on the judgment of the SERA project team.

Objective 2: Offer leadership development experience necessary for dealing with the system-wide issues (forum topics) of the meeting

Procedure:

At the annual meeting in Year 2 and beyond the actual topic of the leadership development experience of the SERA project will be selected from the survey results described above. The SERA project Leadership Team and Advisory Committee will create a curriculum to achieve specific learning objectives and identify the appropriate speakers and activities to interactively address the topic(s). There are three possible outcomes of this activity: 1) establishment of multi-state integrated teams to develop solutions to current and emerging issues; 2) formation of smaller working groups that would pursue the leadership aspects of the selected topic further by developing a whitepaper or set of recommendations addressing the specific topic using the leadership skills emphasized during the forum; and 3) develop grant proposals to acquire funding to address specific issues within food systems.

Objective 3: Create and disseminate information that is useful beyond the immediate audience of the forum

Procedure:

Two initial products are targeted for outcomes: a series of leadership primers based on the discussion of the selected Current and Emerging Issues at the annual forum and a series of brief whitepapers related to each Current and Emerging Issue as discussed in Objective 2. The leadership primers would be disseminated through the FSLI website as either summaries of the annual forum or as an online discussion on selected topics. Electronic versions of whitepapers will be posted on the website for public access. A third possible idea involves developing a leadership course that can be embedded in graduate curricula. The feasibility of creating a Community of Practice for Food Systems Leadership as part of eXtension will be investigated. This forum may allow for better video archiving of forums, electronic meetings and sustainability of a website in the event FSLI would not be able to continue as the main website venue.

Objective 4: Provide specific individual and organizational leadership development training towards excellence for dealing with critical issues in our food systems.

Procedure:

One of the components of each forum discussion will be to develop a set of leadership best practices to be utilized in addressing annual forum topics. We will use the same methods and training used by the most innovative domestic and international companies as well as high impact non-profit organizations; specifically: executive coaching, training instruments, change management and strategic planning tools. Participants will engage in experiential based training and will focus discussions on how to extend their learning back to their home organizations.

Expected Outcomes and Impacts

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Educational Plan

This SERA project will have a dedicated web page available on the FSLI home site. All planning and outcome documents would be posted there. The outputs that are appropriate for the website will be available on the SERA website hosted by the FSLI staff (or possibly eXtension). Please refer to objectives 3 and 4 listed above. The SERA Leadership will conduct an assessment of the educational materials on a 5 year cycle to evaluate the impact on stakeholders and to re-design any elements of the SERA project to ensure both quality and effectiveness. Individual project components and products will be evaluated throughout the project cycle.

Leaders from 1890 and 1994 institutions have participants in the FSLI and LEAD 21 programs each year. This program will invite and encourage all of the graduates from these programs, which by definition will extend leadership opportunities to our under-served communities. Issues in food systems that involve under-served or under-represented communities will be a priority component of the annual forum.

Organization/Governance

The group will elect a Chair, Chair-Elect, and a Secretary. Each will serve in rotating positions; in year two the Chair-Elect will assume the Chair position and Secretary will assume the Chair Elect position. A new Secretary will be elected by the project membership. The content and structural logistics of the annual meeting will be planned via a series of conference calls. The FSLI program has agreed to facilitate design of a website that will be hosted on the same server as the FSLI site. The FSLI staff will manage this SERA site.

The Chair of the SERA will be Gary Lemme (South Dakota State University). Benjy Mikel (Mississippi State University) will serve as Chair-Elect, and Dave Benfield (The Ohio State University) will serve as the secretary. The operating/advisory board will include the official membership of the program.

The SERA will seek to add participants in other sectors both inside and outside the food systems as partners to collaborate and share resources. Other groups include commodity leaders, public health leaders, financial leaders and policy makers.

Literature Cited

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

AL, AZ, CO, DE, FL, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VA, VT, WA

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

Campbell Soup Company, North Carolina State University, University of Iowa, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill