November 16, 2022 • 20 mins
Promoting health and safety in agriculture is a long-term mission, and you can find amazing stories and impacts from the people working toward this goal, all you have to do is ask. My How, My Why, My Work is a subseries within The Essential Worker series from Science by the Slice. This episode features Whitney Pennington, outreach coordinator for the High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (HICAHS). Whitney enjoys the challenges of translating research findings into real-world applications that help people stay safe at work and at home.
Resources:
https://vetmedbiosci.colostate.edu/hicahs/
Transcripts available here: https://piecenter.com/media/podcast/#transcript
Are you an educator? The Science by the Slice podcast aims to inform diverse audiences about important issues in agriculture, natural resources and public health. Check out our learning guides that were created as an educational tool to facilitate discussions related to the topics presented in podcast episodes. Download the learning guides here: https://piecenter.com/media/podcast/learn/
Music “California Poppies” by Chad Crouch Available at https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Chad_Crouch/future-flowers/california-poppies/ Under CC BY license Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
The views, information, or opinions expressed by guest speakers on Science by the Slice are solely those of the individuals and do not necessarily represent those of the UF/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education or the University of Florida.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ricky Telg (00:04):
This is Science by the Slice, a podcast from the
University of Florida'sInstitute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences Center forPublic Issues Education. In this
podcast, experts discuss thescience of issues affecting our
daily lives, reveal themotivations behind the decisions
people make, and ultimatelyprovide insight to solutions for
our lives.
Phillip Stokes (00:31):
Hello, I'm Phillip Stokes. Thanks for
joining us in our series, TheEssential Worker. This is a
subset within that seriestitled, My How, My Why, My Work,
including conversations withindividuals working to make the
agriculture, forestry, andfishing sector safer for all of
those within it. Promotinghealth and safety in agriculture
(00:54):
is a long term mission, and Ibelieve you can find amazing
stories and impacts from thepeople working toward this goal.
All you have to do is ask.
Whitney Pennington (01:05):
Yeah, so I'll actually take you like way
back, not way back, but...
Sarah Fish (01:09):
My story is really about how a visual artist became
a science communicator.
Amanda Wickman (01:15):
My roles changed a lot over the years, but I feel
like I'm one of the products ofthe center.
Phillip Stokes (01:22):
These conversations were led by Dr.
Lisa Lundy, AgriculturalCommunication Professor at the
University of Florida. Andtoday's episode comes to you
from the High Plains.
Lisa Lundy (01:36):
Today's interview is with Whitney Pennington. Whitney
is the Outreach Coordinator forthe High Plains Intermountain
Center for Agricultural Healthand Safety located at Colorado
State University. In her role,she promotes best practices for
farm safety, particularly thoseidentified through the center's
research. Whitney enjoys thechallenges of translating
(01:59):
research findings into realworld applications that help
people stay safe at work and athome. Whitney earned her
master's in public health fromEmory University in Atlanta,
Georgia.
All right, so thank you forjoining us today. As we get
(02:19):
started, I was wondering if youcould just tell me a little bit
about your background and howyou began working with the
center?
Whitney Pennington (02:27):
Yeah, so I'll actually take you like way
back, not way back. But um, sowhen I was growing up, I wanted
to be, my dad and stepmom areveterinarians and I wanted to be
a veterinarian. As a little kid,that's all I wanted, followed my
dad around at work, all of thatstuff. Then as I sort of grew
older, and towards high school,I had more of an interest in
human medicine. And when I gotto college, I was first exposed
(02:50):
to the idea of One Health. Andreally the idea that where we
live, where we play, where wework all influences our health,
and that was really my firstexposure to that idea, but it
fit me really well. I was like,Oh, yes, this makes sense to
what I've been sort of thinkingabout wanting to do or
struggling with why, Well,medicine doesn't quite feel
right. Veterinarian doesn'tquite feel right. But public
(03:10):
health feels really right. Andat that time, I started working
in a research lab, where we werestudying West Nile virus and the
circulation of West Nile virusin Atlanta. And we were catching
birds, we were catchingmosquitoes in the community, in
people's backyards, in publicparks. And so it was this really
tangible experience of sciencecommunication, of I have to be
(03:34):
able to explain what we'redoing, why it looks like we're
handling, why we're handlingbirds in a park to a homeless
person, or to the person whoworks at the zoo, you know, and
to be able to think through, Howdo I tell the story? How do I
communicate the purpose, andwhat we're doing to all of these
different types of audiences?
And so that's really where Iwent from sort of public health
(03:56):
in general to public healthcommunication, risk
communication, in particular.
And so after I did an undergradand graduate degree together in
environmental health and did adual degree and then moved to
Seattle, where I eventually gota job in poison control. And
from there, that was my firstlike, health education
(04:16):
communications job, of like,your job is to help, yes, tell
people about poison center andthe free service that it
provides, but also help educatepeople on how to have a safe
home, how to use medicinesafely. We did a lot of harm
reduction with raves, the danceclubs scene kind of stuff,
because that was a big issue atthe time. So that I mean, all of
(04:40):
that sort of really was like,Yes, this feels like home,
helping people understand therisks about where they live and
work and play. And my spouse isin the academic sphere. So we
moved around a few times andended up in Colorado at Colorado
State University. And it just sohappened that the ag center had
this opening for their outreachcoordinator that was
(05:01):
communicating about, you know,yes, it was occupational safety.
But how do people stay safe? Howdo we communicate the science
that we're doing? And it wasjust such a good fit. That's how
I ended up at our center.
Lisa Lundy (05:14):
Okay, great. Thank you. It's always interesting to
hear how people ended up doingwhat they're doing. So tell me a
little bit about what your roleis in the center now.
Whitney Pennington (05:24):
Yeah, so I'm our outreach coordinator, which
means I am day to daycommunication and outreach. And
thinking, helping all of ourresearchers think through, now
that we sort of have theseresearch outcomes with these
evidence based findings. How dowe actually share those with
intermediaries, end users sothat people are actually safe at
(05:47):
work? So that looks likemanaging social media, that
looks like going to events,meeting other sort of
stakeholders, ag organizations,other faculty, extension,
community health workers,(inaudible). All of those folks
and helping pull them into alarger network that can help us
(06:07):
disseminate ag safety bestpractices.
Lisa Lundy (06:11):
Okay. And so as you are doing all of these different
things, what is the story thatyou tell about your center, what
makes your center unique?
Whitney Pennington (06:20):
Well, one of the things that I think makes
our center unique is actuallythe region, which is not
directly what you asked, but itdoes shape who we are and what
we do. And we're situated in theIntermountain Region, right,
between this sort of the grainsof the Midwest, and then the
sort of coastal CaliforniaPacific Northwest. And so we
(06:41):
literally do everything. Andeven the state of Colorado is a
microcosm of that anagriculture. Every product you
can imagine, with the exceptionof like cotton and Christmas
trees, can come from Colorado.
And that expands to the wholeregion. And so we really could
have our foot in a little bit ofeverything. But we have to think
broadly about what we do and andwhat different people are doing
(07:04):
in our region and the different,many different stakeholders we
serve. So then the other thingthat I think makes our center
unique is that our most currentfunding cycle, our last funding
cycle, our four researchprojects all had principal
investigators from fourdifferent universities. And so
being intentional about wherepeople are coming from and
(07:25):
taking their expertise fromdifferent parts of the region.
And that, in turn, helps us makesure we're listening better and
serving better the whole region.
Yes, we have an administrativebase at Colorado State
University. But collaborationoutside of that is really
important and is of value to us.
Lisa Lundy (07:44):
So as you try to pull all that together and
communicate on behalf of allthose different researchers and
the center, when you come towork each day, what are, who are
the key audiences that you havein your mind? And how do you
hope to impact their lives?
Whitney Pennington (08:01):
We do a lot of our work, we focus on our
intermediaries. So I work mostcommonly and want to reach, me
personally, most commonly,Extension educators, community
health workers, thecommunications and membership
people at ag servingorganizations, the industry
(08:23):
groups, those kinds of things.
Because we are, we're lean. Ourag centers don't have huge
budgets, we don't have hugepersonnel and US in particular,
we have a very large geographicregion, it's something like a
quarter of all US farmland is inour basin. And so I am never
individually going to reachfarmers, ranchers, farmworkers,
(08:44):
loggers in our region, that'sjust a huge ask. And so I really
focus on reaching thoseintermediaries, creating
resources that they want toshare within their networks or
training materials that they can(inaudible) when they go out and
they're on farms. Extensionagents have the resources that
(09:06):
they need when they meet someonewho has, you know, ATV safety is
a great example of working withExtension agents, that they have
the build trainings that theyneed that they can use in their
communities.
Lisa Lundy (09:18):
Okay.
Whitney Pennington (09:19):
So I mean, we do want to get to end users
and I do go to some farm shows,I do do social media that is
aimed at reaching individualfarmers, people who are out in
the field, but we have tobalance the two to be efficient
with our resources.
Lisa Lundy (09:34):
Yeah, that's very similar to our experiences,
really focusing on thoseintermediary audiences. So in
your experience in your region,what have you found to be some
of the most effective ways toreach those audiences?
Whitney Pennington (09:48):
One of the things that actually, well, a
couple of things. One of themthat I think we do well, we
actually have a mini grantprogram within our outreach
core. That's four organizationsto create new programming or
augment their existingprogramming, which really just
sort of gives them the resourcesdirectly. And we can co create
(10:12):
that with them and provideexpertise that they need if
there's a specific topic thatthey need help on. But what that
does is it enables moresustainable creation of messages
and products. Those folks knowtheir community better than we
do at the university. Again,thinking about how are we sort
of focusing in on the manydifferent regional needs. And so
(10:36):
that that project, excuse me,that grant program has created
training programs that extensionfolks can use. ATV safety is a
big one, some dairy safety inSouth Dakota has been done that
way. We're working on ergonomicsstuff right now with some folks
in Montana. So that's reallyenabled us to get to new places
(10:56):
to create resources that wemaybe don't even know about.
Lisa Lundy (11:00):
Have there been any that have been surprising for
you? I know, when we firststarted talking to our key
stakeholders, we were justreminded how much people rely on
email even though that seems sobasic that people really wanted
to get emails. So have therebeen any that have been
surprising for you in terms of,Wow, that's a really effective
(11:22):
way to reach my audiences.
Whitney Pennington (11:24):
I think, I mean, I'm not surprised, per se,
but one of the one, it's thesuite of digital things that we
do, among social media, isYouTube, and our YouTube videos
have been really successful. Wehave one on chainsaw safety
that's like meant for individuallandowners who want to help
clear their own land of, How doI safely fell a tree? How do I
(11:47):
do my safety inspection? Thatvideo, I mean, it has
astronomical number of views inthe last five years, like 28,000
hours.
Lisa Lundy (11:56):
Wow.
Whitney Pennington (11:57):
Which we as staff could never recreate that
time and put in that time toreach people to that extent. And
so that is a tool that just isso efficient. And we're still
trying to dig through, like, Howis it exactly that that video
got to be so popular on YouTube?
But we are benefiting from thatsort of positive feedback of
people are watching it. So it's,you know, moving up in rankings,
(12:20):
but it's a very well done video.
So that is one that hasdefinitely served us very well.
And I think of the digital sortof tools of social media, email
newsletters, that the videoshave done the best.
Lisa Lundy (12:36):
That makes sense. As you work with your PIs and
researchers in the center, howdo you help create this
appreciation for sciencecommunication and for sharing
about the research? I know, wedo a lot of outreach in terms of
actual safety campaigns, but asfar as outreach about the
(12:56):
research that's happening, howdo you help support researchers
in that?
Whitney Pennington (13:02):
I feel really grateful that among our
team, the outreach core andmyself are respected for our
communications experience. Andso we have this sort of mode of
operation where a lot of thecommunication that we do, people
(13:22):
do look to me and asked me formy opinion, and say, Okay, well,
we, I need to do, you know, weneed to create this report, or
we're going to do this sort ofpromotion, you know, let's make
sure Whitney is involved,because we need to be thinking
about, you know, thecommunication aspect of it, and
how we're using plain languageor getting to things that will
(13:42):
resonate with all of ouraudiences. So I'm not really
sure how we fostered that.
Lisa Lundy (13:50):
Do you approach it more one on one with
researchers? Or have you doneany center wide like media
relations training? Or is itmore kind of a case by case
basis?
Whitney Pennington (13:59):
We have not done any center wide training.
We have talked about it, and itwas something that was sort of
discussed when I first came tothe center about four years ago,
but I think what we'vediscovered, and this is true of
our center as well as sort ofwithin the department at
Colorado State that we work in,some people are excited about
(14:20):
doing media sort of stuff, andmore of that outreach, and some
people are less comfortable withit. And so that makes it hard to
sort of do anything generalizedand so it's just sort of, let's
do it one on one if you know,this person is excited about
this topic and they want to dosome media outreach, we work
(14:43):
together on a one on one basisand craft some of those talking
points and can put together apitch. I generally ask people
because if someone is not reallycomfortable doing media, then
they're probably not going to doas good of a job, or it's going
to come across that theiruncomfortable.
Not thatthey won't do a good job, but
Lisa Lundy (14:59):
Yeah.
they'll come across asuncomfortable. So we pretty much
make it a one on one process andan individual event or an
individual need process, andreally letting the need and the
framework and the modality ofwhatever it is we're trying to
do drive how it is wecommunicate, because all of
those, Who are you trying toreach? What avenue is it going
(15:22):
to be? Where is it going to go?
How long it's going to be? Allof these different things will
shape what the messages are, andletting that drive our approach
and our strategy, which is acore communications principle,
but it's still important.
Okay, we've talked alot about the things that you've
done, and some things thatyou've learned along the way. As
(15:42):
you look toward the future, whatare some things that you maybe
you're hoping to try or newinitiatives that you're looking
forward to?
Whitney Pennington (15:50):
To look ahead, one of the things that we
want to really try to hone in onis, I think, thinking more
regionally about our socialmedia. Because you know, social
media, we can get a lot ofimpressions, but they're
worldwide. And so if we want tobe more efficient and more
(16:10):
effective at reaching ourregion, we need to figure out
new ways to do that. We had agraduate student who just did a
social media project, where shelooked at the different
extension social media pages onFacebook. So, extension, Farm
Bureaus, and Departments ofAgriculture, and was looking at
(16:30):
how people interacted with thosepages when they posted about
safety topics. So trying tofigure out who are those
influencers, if you will, in theag world, in our region? And
what do we then need to do aboutbuilding sort of offline
partnerships, targeting folkswithin those organizations, so
(16:51):
that we can build a partnershipto create some social media
campaign materials or assetsthat then they can share that
will have a wider impact?
Because our individual socialmedias, you know, from our
account is not terriblyefficient, and doesn't have the
biggest reach. But if we canidentify those who do and get
engagement and that people doengage with, how can we do that
(17:14):
offline work to have onlinesuccess. So I think that's
something we've always beenworking on, but to have had just
completed a project where we didactually identify through some
sort of strategic research whowill be the best, and I'm
looking forward to working on onthat part. And then we're also
in more of an outreach sense,we're going to be using social
(17:35):
networking, analysis, socialnetwork analysis, to sort of
look at our network of who wework with, and try to position
ourselves more in the center ofthe network to build our
connections, so that we can sortof say, okay, yes, we are being
effective at disseminating thisinformation out to our
(17:55):
intermediaries, who are maybethe most influential within the
network, and targeting thosegroups over common projects to I
mean, to build our owninfluence, really, which sounds
really businsess-y, but.
Lisa Lundy (18:09):
Yeah, but like you, like you said, you want to be
setting the tone and influencingthe discussion. Well, what have
I not asked you that ourlisteners might be interested to
know about your work?
Whitney Pennington (18:22):
I think the only, I mean, the only thing I
would say is I've, you know,appreciated the ag center
colleagues, and working within anetwork of people and listening
to everyone's ideas. And wehave, you know, being where
we're located, we have a lot ofoverlap. There's a couple of
centers who all serve theDakotas. And I especially
appreciate that those ag centersall see us as sort of
(18:46):
synergistic in our work there,and often communicating. And
we've gone to events together,and shared that responsibility
and acknowledged that it's goingto take all of us to make a
change and move the needle andthat we're not in any sort of
competitive relationship. Sobeing able to build those
relationships with othercommunicators and learn from
(19:07):
them and then actually worktogether, like physically be
together, has been one of thethings that I've really enjoyed
about being part of an agcenter.
Lisa Lundy (19:15):
Absolutely. Well, this was a great example of that
today. Really appreciate yousharing your experience with me.
And thank you for your time.
Whitney Pennington (19:24):
Yeah, thank you.
Ricky Telg (19:28):
Science by the Slice is produced by the UF/IFAS
Center for Public IssuesEducation in Agriculture and
Natural Resources. Thanks forlistening to today's episode.
Subscribe to Science by theSlice on your favorite podcast
app and give us a rating orreview as well. Have a question
or comment? Send us an email topiecenter@ifas.ufl.edu. That's
piecenter, all one word, atifas, I-F-A-S, dot ufl dot edu.
(19:51):
We'd love to hear from you. Ifyou enjoyed today's episode,
consider sharing with a friendor colleague. Until next time,
thanks for listening to Scienceby the Slice.
This is Science by the Slice, a podcast from the
University of Florida'sInstitute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences Center forPublic Issues Education. In this
podcast, experts discuss thescience of issues affecting our
daily lives, reveal themotivations behind the decisions
people make, and ultimatelyprovide insight to solutions for
our lives.
Phillip Stokes (00:31):
Hello, I'm Phillip Stokes. Thanks for
joining us in our series, TheEssential Worker. This is a
subset within that seriestitled, My How, My Why, My Work,
including conversations withindividuals working to make the
agriculture, forestry, andfishing sector safer for all of
those within it. Promotinghealth and safety in agriculture
(00:54):
is a long term mission, and Ibelieve you can find amazing
stories and impacts from thepeople working toward this goal.
All you have to do is ask.
Whitney Pennington (01:05):
Yeah, so I'll actually take you like way
back, not way back, but...
Sarah Fish (01:09):
My story is really about how a visual artist became
a science communicator.
Amanda Wickman (01:15):
My roles changed a lot over the years, but I feel
like I'm one of the products ofthe center.
Phillip Stokes (01:22):
These conversations were led by Dr.
Lisa Lundy, AgriculturalCommunication Professor at the
University of Florida. Andtoday's episode comes to you
from the High Plains.
Lisa Lundy (01:36):
Today's interview is with Whitney Pennington. Whitney
is the Outreach Coordinator forthe High Plains Intermountain
Center for Agricultural Healthand Safety located at Colorado
State University. In her role,she promotes best practices for
farm safety, particularly thoseidentified through the center's
research. Whitney enjoys thechallenges of translating
(01:59):
research findings into realworld applications that help
people stay safe at work and athome. Whitney earned her
master's in public health fromEmory University in Atlanta,
Georgia.
All right, so thank you forjoining us today. As we get
(02:19):
started, I was wondering if youcould just tell me a little bit
about your background and howyou began working with the
center?
Whitney Pennington (02:27):
Yeah, so I'll actually take you like way
back, not way back. But um, sowhen I was growing up, I wanted
to be, my dad and stepmom areveterinarians and I wanted to be
a veterinarian. As a little kid,that's all I wanted, followed my
dad around at work, all of thatstuff. Then as I sort of grew
older, and towards high school,I had more of an interest in
human medicine. And when I gotto college, I was first exposed
(02:50):
to the idea of One Health. Andreally the idea that where we
live, where we play, where wework all influences our health,
and that was really my firstexposure to that idea, but it
fit me really well. I was like,Oh, yes, this makes sense to
what I've been sort of thinkingabout wanting to do or
struggling with why, Well,medicine doesn't quite feel
right. Veterinarian doesn'tquite feel right. But public
(03:10):
health feels really right. Andat that time, I started working
in a research lab, where we werestudying West Nile virus and the
circulation of West Nile virusin Atlanta. And we were catching
birds, we were catchingmosquitoes in the community, in
people's backyards, in publicparks. And so it was this really
tangible experience of sciencecommunication, of I have to be
(03:34):
able to explain what we'redoing, why it looks like we're
handling, why we're handlingbirds in a park to a homeless
person, or to the person whoworks at the zoo, you know, and
to be able to think through, Howdo I tell the story? How do I
communicate the purpose, andwhat we're doing to all of these
different types of audiences?
And so that's really where Iwent from sort of public health
(03:56):
in general to public healthcommunication, risk
communication, in particular.
And so after I did an undergradand graduate degree together in
environmental health and did adual degree and then moved to
Seattle, where I eventually gota job in poison control. And
from there, that was my firstlike, health education
(04:16):
communications job, of like,your job is to help, yes, tell
people about poison center andthe free service that it
provides, but also help educatepeople on how to have a safe
home, how to use medicinesafely. We did a lot of harm
reduction with raves, the danceclubs scene kind of stuff,
because that was a big issue atthe time. So that I mean, all of
(04:40):
that sort of really was like,Yes, this feels like home,
helping people understand therisks about where they live and
work and play. And my spouse isin the academic sphere. So we
moved around a few times andended up in Colorado at Colorado
State University. And it just sohappened that the ag center had
this opening for their outreachcoordinator that was
(05:01):
communicating about, you know,yes, it was occupational safety.
But how do people stay safe? Howdo we communicate the science
that we're doing? And it wasjust such a good fit. That's how
I ended up at our center.
Lisa Lundy (05:14):
Okay, great. Thank you. It's always interesting to
hear how people ended up doingwhat they're doing. So tell me a
little bit about what your roleis in the center now.
Whitney Pennington (05:24):
Yeah, so I'm our outreach coordinator, which
means I am day to daycommunication and outreach. And
thinking, helping all of ourresearchers think through, now
that we sort of have theseresearch outcomes with these
evidence based findings. How dowe actually share those with
intermediaries, end users sothat people are actually safe at
(05:47):
work? So that looks likemanaging social media, that
looks like going to events,meeting other sort of
stakeholders, ag organizations,other faculty, extension,
community health workers,(inaudible). All of those folks
and helping pull them into alarger network that can help us
(06:07):
disseminate ag safety bestpractices.
Lisa Lundy (06:11):
Okay. And so as you are doing all of these different
things, what is the story thatyou tell about your center, what
makes your center unique?
Whitney Pennington (06:20):
Well, one of the things that I think makes
our center unique is actuallythe region, which is not
directly what you asked, but itdoes shape who we are and what
we do. And we're situated in theIntermountain Region, right,
between this sort of the grainsof the Midwest, and then the
sort of coastal CaliforniaPacific Northwest. And so we
(06:41):
literally do everything. Andeven the state of Colorado is a
microcosm of that anagriculture. Every product you
can imagine, with the exceptionof like cotton and Christmas
trees, can come from Colorado.
And that expands to the wholeregion. And so we really could
have our foot in a little bit ofeverything. But we have to think
broadly about what we do and andwhat different people are doing
(07:04):
in our region and the different,many different stakeholders we
serve. So then the other thingthat I think makes our center
unique is that our most currentfunding cycle, our last funding
cycle, our four researchprojects all had principal
investigators from fourdifferent universities. And so
being intentional about wherepeople are coming from and
(07:25):
taking their expertise fromdifferent parts of the region.
And that, in turn, helps us makesure we're listening better and
serving better the whole region.
Yes, we have an administrativebase at Colorado State
University. But collaborationoutside of that is really
important and is of value to us.
Lisa Lundy (07:44):
So as you try to pull all that together and
communicate on behalf of allthose different researchers and
the center, when you come towork each day, what are, who are
the key audiences that you havein your mind? And how do you
hope to impact their lives?
Whitney Pennington (08:01):
We do a lot of our work, we focus on our
intermediaries. So I work mostcommonly and want to reach, me
personally, most commonly,Extension educators, community
health workers, thecommunications and membership
people at ag servingorganizations, the industry
(08:23):
groups, those kinds of things.
Because we are, we're lean. Ourag centers don't have huge
budgets, we don't have hugepersonnel and US in particular,
we have a very large geographicregion, it's something like a
quarter of all US farmland is inour basin. And so I am never
individually going to reachfarmers, ranchers, farmworkers,
(08:44):
loggers in our region, that'sjust a huge ask. And so I really
focus on reaching thoseintermediaries, creating
resources that they want toshare within their networks or
training materials that they can(inaudible) when they go out and
they're on farms. Extensionagents have the resources that
(09:06):
they need when they meet someonewho has, you know, ATV safety is
a great example of working withExtension agents, that they have
the build trainings that theyneed that they can use in their
communities.
Lisa Lundy (09:18):
Okay.
Whitney Pennington (09:19):
So I mean, we do want to get to end users
and I do go to some farm shows,I do do social media that is
aimed at reaching individualfarmers, people who are out in
the field, but we have tobalance the two to be efficient
with our resources.
Lisa Lundy (09:34):
Yeah, that's very similar to our experiences,
really focusing on thoseintermediary audiences. So in
your experience in your region,what have you found to be some
of the most effective ways toreach those audiences?
Whitney Pennington (09:48):
One of the things that actually, well, a
couple of things. One of themthat I think we do well, we
actually have a mini grantprogram within our outreach
core. That's four organizationsto create new programming or
augment their existingprogramming, which really just
sort of gives them the resourcesdirectly. And we can co create
(10:12):
that with them and provideexpertise that they need if
there's a specific topic thatthey need help on. But what that
does is it enables moresustainable creation of messages
and products. Those folks knowtheir community better than we
do at the university. Again,thinking about how are we sort
of focusing in on the manydifferent regional needs. And so
(10:36):
that that project, excuse me,that grant program has created
training programs that extensionfolks can use. ATV safety is a
big one, some dairy safety inSouth Dakota has been done that
way. We're working on ergonomicsstuff right now with some folks
in Montana. So that's reallyenabled us to get to new places
(10:56):
to create resources that wemaybe don't even know about.
Lisa Lundy (11:00):
Have there been any that have been surprising for
you? I know, when we firststarted talking to our key
stakeholders, we were justreminded how much people rely on
email even though that seems sobasic that people really wanted
to get emails. So have therebeen any that have been
surprising for you in terms of,Wow, that's a really effective
(11:22):
way to reach my audiences.
Whitney Pennington (11:24):
I think, I mean, I'm not surprised, per se,
but one of the one, it's thesuite of digital things that we
do, among social media, isYouTube, and our YouTube videos
have been really successful. Wehave one on chainsaw safety
that's like meant for individuallandowners who want to help
clear their own land of, How doI safely fell a tree? How do I
(11:47):
do my safety inspection? Thatvideo, I mean, it has
astronomical number of views inthe last five years, like 28,000
hours.
Lisa Lundy (11:56):
Wow.
Whitney Pennington (11:57):
Which we as staff could never recreate that
time and put in that time toreach people to that extent. And
so that is a tool that just isso efficient. And we're still
trying to dig through, like, Howis it exactly that that video
got to be so popular on YouTube?
But we are benefiting from thatsort of positive feedback of
people are watching it. So it's,you know, moving up in rankings,
(12:20):
but it's a very well done video.
So that is one that hasdefinitely served us very well.
And I think of the digital sortof tools of social media, email
newsletters, that the videoshave done the best.
Lisa Lundy (12:36):
That makes sense. As you work with your PIs and
researchers in the center, howdo you help create this
appreciation for sciencecommunication and for sharing
about the research? I know, wedo a lot of outreach in terms of
actual safety campaigns, but asfar as outreach about the
(12:56):
research that's happening, howdo you help support researchers
in that?
Whitney Pennington (13:02):
I feel really grateful that among our
team, the outreach core andmyself are respected for our
communications experience. Andso we have this sort of mode of
operation where a lot of thecommunication that we do, people
(13:22):
do look to me and asked me formy opinion, and say, Okay, well,
we, I need to do, you know, weneed to create this report, or
we're going to do this sort ofpromotion, you know, let's make
sure Whitney is involved,because we need to be thinking
about, you know, thecommunication aspect of it, and
how we're using plain languageor getting to things that will
(13:42):
resonate with all of ouraudiences. So I'm not really
sure how we fostered that.
Lisa Lundy (13:50):
Do you approach it more one on one with
researchers? Or have you doneany center wide like media
relations training? Or is itmore kind of a case by case
basis?
Whitney Pennington (13:59):
We have not done any center wide training.
We have talked about it, and itwas something that was sort of
discussed when I first came tothe center about four years ago,
but I think what we'vediscovered, and this is true of
our center as well as sort ofwithin the department at
Colorado State that we work in,some people are excited about
(14:20):
doing media sort of stuff, andmore of that outreach, and some
people are less comfortable withit. And so that makes it hard to
sort of do anything generalizedand so it's just sort of, let's
do it one on one if you know,this person is excited about
this topic and they want to dosome media outreach, we work
(14:43):
together on a one on one basisand craft some of those talking
points and can put together apitch. I generally ask people
because if someone is not reallycomfortable doing media, then
they're probably not going to doas good of a job, or it's going
to come across that theiruncomfortable.
Not thatthey won't do a good job, but
Lisa Lundy (14:59):
Yeah.
they'll come across asuncomfortable. So we pretty much
make it a one on one process andan individual event or an
individual need process, andreally letting the need and the
framework and the modality ofwhatever it is we're trying to
do drive how it is wecommunicate, because all of
those, Who are you trying toreach? What avenue is it going
(15:22):
to be? Where is it going to go?
How long it's going to be? Allof these different things will
shape what the messages are, andletting that drive our approach
and our strategy, which is acore communications principle,
but it's still important.
Okay, we've talked alot about the things that you've
done, and some things thatyou've learned along the way. As
(15:42):
you look toward the future, whatare some things that you maybe
you're hoping to try or newinitiatives that you're looking
forward to?
Whitney Pennington (15:50):
To look ahead, one of the things that we
want to really try to hone in onis, I think, thinking more
regionally about our socialmedia. Because you know, social
media, we can get a lot ofimpressions, but they're
worldwide. And so if we want tobe more efficient and more
(16:10):
effective at reaching ourregion, we need to figure out
new ways to do that. We had agraduate student who just did a
social media project, where shelooked at the different
extension social media pages onFacebook. So, extension, Farm
Bureaus, and Departments ofAgriculture, and was looking at
(16:30):
how people interacted with thosepages when they posted about
safety topics. So trying tofigure out who are those
influencers, if you will, in theag world, in our region? And
what do we then need to do aboutbuilding sort of offline
partnerships, targeting folkswithin those organizations, so
(16:51):
that we can build a partnershipto create some social media
campaign materials or assetsthat then they can share that
will have a wider impact?
Because our individual socialmedias, you know, from our
account is not terriblyefficient, and doesn't have the
biggest reach. But if we canidentify those who do and get
engagement and that people doengage with, how can we do that
(17:14):
offline work to have onlinesuccess. So I think that's
something we've always beenworking on, but to have had just
completed a project where we didactually identify through some
sort of strategic research whowill be the best, and I'm
looking forward to working on onthat part. And then we're also
in more of an outreach sense,we're going to be using social
(17:35):
networking, analysis, socialnetwork analysis, to sort of
look at our network of who wework with, and try to position
ourselves more in the center ofthe network to build our
connections, so that we can sortof say, okay, yes, we are being
effective at disseminating thisinformation out to our
(17:55):
intermediaries, who are maybethe most influential within the
network, and targeting thosegroups over common projects to I
mean, to build our owninfluence, really, which sounds
really businsess-y, but.
Lisa Lundy (18:09):
Yeah, but like you, like you said, you want to be
setting the tone and influencingthe discussion. Well, what have
I not asked you that ourlisteners might be interested to
know about your work?
Whitney Pennington (18:22):
I think the only, I mean, the only thing I
would say is I've, you know,appreciated the ag center
colleagues, and working within anetwork of people and listening
to everyone's ideas. And wehave, you know, being where
we're located, we have a lot ofoverlap. There's a couple of
centers who all serve theDakotas. And I especially
appreciate that those ag centersall see us as sort of
(18:46):
synergistic in our work there,and often communicating. And
we've gone to events together,and shared that responsibility
and acknowledged that it's goingto take all of us to make a
change and move the needle andthat we're not in any sort of
competitive relationship. Sobeing able to build those
relationships with othercommunicators and learn from
(19:07):
them and then actually worktogether, like physically be
together, has been one of thethings that I've really enjoyed
about being part of an agcenter.
Lisa Lundy (19:15):
Absolutely. Well, this was a great example of that
today. Really appreciate yousharing your experience with me.
And thank you for your time.
Whitney Pennington (19:24):
Yeah, thank you.
Ricky Telg (19:28):
Science by the Slice is produced by the UF/IFAS
Center for Public IssuesEducation in Agriculture and
Natural Resources. Thanks forlistening to today's episode.
Subscribe to Science by theSlice on your favorite podcast
app and give us a rating orreview as well. Have a question
or comment? Send us an email topiecenter@ifas.ufl.edu. That's
piecenter, all one word, atifas, I-F-A-S, dot ufl dot edu.
(19:51):
We'd love to hear from you. Ifyou enjoyed today's episode,
consider sharing with a friendor colleague. Until next time,
thanks for listening to Scienceby the Slice.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.