Professional Development Program
The Western SARE Professional Development Program is based at the University of Wyoming with diverse coordination from throughout the Western Region.
The PDP coordinator and the PDP staff administer Professional Development Program grants aimed at helping Cooperative Extension Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service and other appropriate agricultural professionals with agencies and nonprofit organizations increase their understanding of and proficiency in sustainable agriculture.
Members of the PDP team are Coordinator Jim Freeburn and Associate Coordinator Al Kurki, Accounting Associate Joleen Pantier and Office Associate Kelly Greenwald. Freeburn and Greenwald are headquartered at the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center in southeast Wyoming near Lingle. Kurki is in Helena, Montana, and Joleen Pantier is on the campus of the University of Wyoming in Laramie. In addition, the PDP staff works with 17 SARE PDP Coordinators in the region's 13 states and four Pacific island protectorates.
The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center, or SAREC, emphasizing integrated and interdisciplinary research and education, is located on 3,800 acres near the North Platte River in southeast Wyoming. This field laboratory, with irrigated cropland and nonirrigated cropland, rangeland and feedlots for both cattle and sheep, is thought to be the only facility of its kind. SAREC researchers are able to address a wide array of issues and questions at a single site. Its mission: "SAREC will serve the citizens of Wyoming, the region and the nation by facilitating innovative discovery, dissemination and engagement of integrated agricultural systems that are ecologically sound, economically viable and socially acceptable."
The Western SARE Professional Development Program is committed to serving the educational needs of sustainable agriculture in the Western region. If you have questions, observations or concerns, we want to hear them. Please contact us.
