UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Shirley Bixby, former Penn State Cooperative Extension regional director, has been appointed as the organization's coordinator for special program initiatives, effective immediately.

As coordinator, Bixby will provide statewide leadership to help enhance the program development skills of extension educators and faculty, with the goal of ensuring high quality and consistent programming across the state. She also will provide leadership for strengthening extension program advisory committees.

"Shirley possesses excellent organizational and program planning skills that will be very helpful to our extension educators in strengthening programming and delivery," says Marilyn Corbin, associate director of cooperative extension and state program leader for children, youth and families. "She applies process skills and adult education principles in the planning of in-service trainings and programs, and she has an unwavering dedication to cooperative extension."

From 1997 until 2004, Bixby was regional director for Penn State Cooperative Extension's former Susquehanna Region, where she oversaw extension programs for a nine-county area. Bixby joined Penn State in 1990 as Columbia County extension director and family living educator. She served as acting assistant to the regional director for the Northeast Region in 1995 and was appointed interim director in 1996. Previously, she served as a caseworker for Bradford County Children and Youth Services in Towanda and worked for Cornell Cooperative Extension as a home economics and family living agent in New York's Steuben and Chenango counties.

Bixby holds a bachelor's degree in home economics education from Penn State and a master's degree in adult education and management from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the National Association of Extension Family and Consumer Scientists and the Association of Leadership Educators.

A resident of Mifflinville, Bixby will be based in the Penn State Cooperative Extension director's office in the College of Agricultural Sciences at University Park.

Penn State Cooperative Extension, with offices in each of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, transfers research-based information to individuals, families, businesses and communities through nonformal educational programs designed to meet locally identified needs.

###

Writer/Editor: Chuck Gill Office 814-863-2713 FAX 814-863-9877