Integrating research and outreach/extension.
Brannon, Patsy M.
Why does the integration of research and outreach matter? I am
rarely asked this question, surprisingly. I am, however, asked often
what makes our outreach and extension programming different from the
myriad of other readily available information in this age of web surfing
and information overload. In fact, it is precisely the strong and
necessary linkage of research and outreach/extension that distinguishes
our outreach education. Our research informs our outreach, as it should.
We offer evidence-based, credible, and reliable knowledge for consumers
and citizens that enables them to make well-informed choices for
themselves, their families, and their communities. We offer not simply
information but education. Equally important is how the needs of
individuals, families, and communities, particularly in New York State,
help shape the research that we choose to do and the value of that newly
generated knowledge to helping people solve the problems that they face.
The importance of the integration of research and outreach led to
the development of land-grant universities throughout the late
nineteenth and all of the twentieth century. As President Jeffrey Lehman
has noted, the "revolutionary" Cornell was at the forefront of
these developments, which so changed the accessibility of universities,
knowledge, and education in this country.
In this new millennium, this need remains precisely because of the
overabundance of information. The land-grant reviews at Cornell last
year also stressed the need to ensure that the integration of our
research and outreach/extension is vibrant and effective. In the College
of Human Ecology and through our programming with Cornell Cooperative
Extension in every county in New York and borough in New York City,
research-informed and needs-based outreach helps individuals make sense
of that information deluge in order to improve their nutrition and
health, their development and life course, their economic and social and
well-being, and their environments.
Patsy M. Brannon, Ph.D., R.D.
Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean
