Aligning Counties and Cooperative Extension (ACCE)
National and State Association of Counties/Cooperative Extension Fellows
The National Association of Counties and Cooperative Extension have had the Ralph L. Tabor Extension
Fellowship program since 1988. This fellowship provides an opportunity for an extension professional to
learn more about the National Association of Counties (NACo), United States Department of Agriculture
National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA/NIFA), and the Association of Public and Land-grant
Universities (APLU) so that the needs and resources of all can be matched to better serve the people
living in our local communities.
Four states (Georgia, Ohio, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania) have adopted this model at the state level.
This new program is called Aligning Counties and Cooperative Extension (ACCE) and operates under the
following guiding principles:
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Sharing resources and ideas among Cooperative Extension Fellows to Associations of Counties
on the national and state level
Understanding the different infrastructures of the Associations of Counties and Cooperative
Extension between states
Promoting the partnerships as having a mutual benefit for Cooperative Extension and the
Associations of Counties
Assist State Associations of Counties and their members by providing research based
educational information related to emerging issues
Dennis Calvin, Pennsylvania State University, Director of Cooperative Extension, Associate Vice President
for Outreach and Associate Dean of Extension, College of Agricultural Sciences, reports the following
impact of this program:
“This program has been instrumental in improving our relationship with County Government.
Last month the Dean of the College and I accepted the 2010 Friends of County Government
Award for Cooperative Extension. This is the highest award that the County Commissioners give
out to a non-county partner. Finally, our county partners have did everything they can to hold
their budget contributions as close to past years as possible given the difficult budget situations
they are feeling. This liaison fellowship position is a small financial investment for the great
value it brings to improving the understanding between county commissioners and Cooperative
Extension. I recommend that every state invest in this relationship.”
Since July, 2010, three additional states have indicated a desire to explore this fellowship. If your state
is interested please let us know. We are currently developing an implementation package to share the
possible models that can be used to formalize a relationship in your state between cooperative
extension and association of counties. This should be released in the spring of 2011.
For more information please contact Trudy Rice, 2010-2011 NACo Tabor Fellow at trice@naco.org or
202.661.8805.