UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Shirley Bixby, coordinator for special program initiatives for Penn State Cooperative Extension, has retired after 16 years as an extension educator and administrator, effective Jan. 31.

Bixby began her work for Penn State as county extension director and family living educator in Columbia County in 1990. She served as acting assistant to the regional director for the Northeast Region in 1995 and was appointed interim regional director in 1996. In 1997, she was named regional director for the Susquehanna Region, where she provided programmatic and administrative leadership for cooperative extension and coordination for university outreach programs in Bradford, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga and Union counties.

Bixby provided coordination for the former Susquehanna Region Outreach Council, worked closely with extension volunteers and advisory council members, and served on the Youth Program Coordinating Council for extension. In 2004, Shirley became coordinator for special program initiatives, providing statewide leadership for enhancing extension's program development and documenting extension's program accomplishments at the state and federal level.

She authored the "Linking Research to Family and Youth Programs" quarterly newsletters, the "Diversity in Review" report, and the "StrongWomen" and the "Grow Healthy Children and Families" reports. She also developed educational resources for extension educators who work with volunteer committees.

After earning a bachelor's degree in home economics education from Penn State in 1967, Bixby served as a caseworker for Bradford County Children and Youth Services in Towanda until 1983. In 1983, Bixby joined Cornell Cooperative Extension as a home economics agent in Steuben County, N.Y. She worked in New York's Chenango County from 1986-1990, serving as the home economics program leader and family living agent. She earned a master's degree in adult education and management at the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1992.

Bixby is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, Epsilon Sigma Phi, and the Association of Leadership Educators. She has won several communications and programming awards including the NEAFCS National Communications Award in 1996 and 2006, the NEAFCS Distinguished Service Award in 1997 and the NEAFCS Continued Excellence Award in 2006.

Penn State Cooperative Extension, with offices in each of the state's 67 counties, transfers research-based information to Pennsylvania's citizens through nonformal educational programs designed to meet locally identified needs.

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Writer/Editor Gary Abdullah Phone: 814-863-2708 E-mail: gxa2@psu.edu