Cooperative Extension Team Recognized with Epsilon Sigma Phi Award

Colorado State University Cooperative Extension’s agricultural risk management team and the RightRisk program was recognized Dec. 9 with the with two teamwork awards. The group received the Epsilon Sigma Phi Team Award, given annually by the Cooperative Extension professional fraternity, to recognize teamwork that makes a difference in Colorado communities. The team also was recognized with the annual team award given by Cooperative Extension in Colorado.

The RightRisk team is a coalition of risk management educators from eight land grant universities in the Western United States. Team members include Jeffrey E. Tranel, Colorado State Cooperative Extension agricultural and business management economist; Rodney L. Sharp, Colorado State Cooperative Extension specialist; Dennis A. Kaan, Colorado State Cooperative Extension director of the Golden Plains Area; and John Deering, Colorado State Cooperative Extension agent in the Golden Plains area in Northeastern Colorado; Dana Hoag, Colorado State agricultural and resource economics professor; Jay Parsons, Colorado State agricultural and resource postdoctoral fellow; John Hewlett, University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension faculty and Chris Bastian, University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension senior educator; Trent Teegerstorm, University of Arizona agricultural and resource economics research specialist; Duane Griffith, Montana State University Cooperative Extension farm management specialists; Bruce Godfrey, Utah State University Cooperative Extension economic specialists; Jay Jenkins, Washington State University Cooperative Extension county director; Wilson Gray, University of Idaho Cooperative Extension agricultural economist; and Willie Riggs, University of Nevada, Reno Cooperative Extension livestock specialist.

RightRisk is an innovative agricultural risk research and educational program focusing on understanding, exploring and evaluating risk management decisions. Specifically, RightRisk helps farmers and ranchers better understand risks and liabilities to their profits as well as how their management decisions impact those risks, positively or negatively.

The program uses creative approaches, such as a game called Farm and Ranch Survivor, that teaches risk management to simulate real hazards while educating participants. The program can be and has been used as a model to address other risks for other groups of the population, such as simulating alcohol use risks to teens or the risks of water sales to rural communities.

RightRisk has been shared as a model with educators in eight other Western states, and the program was used in more than 30 workshops or seminars in multiple states within seven months.

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Colorado State University Cooperative Extension brings the resources of the university to you. As part of a nation-wide system, we call upon the latest research to help Coloradoans learn more about gardening and commercial horticulture, healthy eating, personal finances, community resources, agricultural technology, food safety, dealing with changes in their community, family relationships and managing small acreages and natural resources. Our youth development program annually reaches more than 115,000 children in Colorado. Our 57 county offices, serving 59 Colorado counties, help people use university expertise on the job, at home and in their community.