Enhancing Extension Professionals’ Career Trajectory: Evaluating the Western Extension Leadership Development (WELD) Program

Authors

• Andree Walker Bravo, Utah State UniversityFollow
• Lendel K. Narine, Utah State UniversityFollow
• Jeremy Elliott-Engel, University of Hawaii at ManoaFollow
• Elizabeth Sparks, University of ArizonaFollow
• Wesley Alford, Colorado State UniversityFollow

Volume

63

Issue

2

Abstract

The Western Extension Leadership Development (WELD) program, implemented in 2001, is a longstanding professional development program targeting Western State Extension leaders, however, the impacts of the WELD program and experience on the participants had never been evaluated. A retrospective evaluation was completed in 2020 for the 243 participants in WELD between 2001 and 2018. The 2020 WELD evaluation suggests that WELD participants tended to agree that participation in WELD led to an increase in leadership abilities and partnerships. Future recommendations include aligning WELD program components to professional competencies identified.

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Recommended Citation

Walker Bravo, A., Narine, L. K., Elliott-Engel, J., Sparks, E., & Alford, W. (2025). Enhancing Extension Professionals’ Career Trajectory: Evaluating the Western Extension Leadership Development (WELD) Program. Journal of Extension, 63(2), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.34068/joe.63.02.03