Cathann Kress, Iowa State’s vice president of the extension and outreach unit, has been named to the National 4-H Council Board of Trustees.

“I’m really excited about this opportunity to serve with the National 4-H Council,” Kress said. “I’m really proud of the history and tradition of the 4-H program, and I really see my role as a steward to the program.”

Kress’ professional life has, for the most part, revolved around 4-H. She started working in Iowa, and then left Iowa to go to New York where she was the state director for 4-H. Kress then went to work with the USDA and became the national director at the national 4-H headquarters for six years.

Following her stint as the national director, she worked at the Pentagon and helped establish a program where youth in military installations could be 4-H members. In 2011, Kress returned to Iowa to work with the Iowa 4-H program at Iowa State.

“I wanted to come home,” Kress said of her job change in 2011. “I think we’re at a really interesting time in the extension, and I wanted the opportunity to work at the state level.”

Kress said that her job and her position on the National 4-H Council tends to complement each other, which makes it easy to balance both positions. On the National 4-H Council, she hopes she can help update the 4-H program and get people re-involved with 4-H.

“I would like to see us have the ability to reinvigorate some of the STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] focus,” Kress said. “When I was in the National 4-H Headquarters, I was very concerned about the quality of the curriculum that we were offering to 4-H. Some of it was getting kind of dated.”

Kress said that while STEM appears to be a new program within 4-H, it has actually been around for over 100 years when farmers began getting land grants from universities. The studies and advice the land grant universities had would revolve around each component that now makes up STEM.

Kress said that the farmers were given this new information, but they tended to stick to their own ways. That is when the land grant universities got the idea of teaching school children the new information, and they would then begin to use it and could relay it to the adults.

“Adults wouldn’t change their practices,” Kress said. “Leading by example, that’s the power of 4-H.”

Kress also said that another major change pertains to volunteer work. She said that farmers used to be able to get involved with 4-H on their off-season, and their wives would also help out. Now, many families have both parents employed, so it is more challenging to get adults to become involved, which is vital for teaching 4-H members.

“Here in our state, we have about 13,000 volunteers that work with our 4-H program, and we’re very appreciative to their time and their talent,” Kress said. “Iowa is second in the nation with both parents being employed outside the home.”

To make sure there are enough volunteers to support 4-H, Kress said that the needs of volunteers should be looked over and dealt with. This will help out current volunteers who may have full-time obligations and may be more inviting for people who want to get involved, but feel that they may not have the time.

Kress said that she will serve a three-year term on the National 4-H Council. She was appointed by administrators and peers to the position. Once the three-year term is up, Kress can serve for three more times if she is appointed.

“My first term is a three-year term, and they are renewable up to three times,” Kress said. “I don’t know if I’ll seek a renewal, but that’s what the term is.”

As Kress is taking her chair at the National 4-H Council, a colleague of hers, Thomas Coon, is leaving his. Coon is the director of Michigan State University Extension. 

“I have known [Kress] as long as I have been the director [at Michigan State Extension],” Coon said.

When Coon was working on the National 4-H Council, the projects the Council worked on were similar to the ones that Kress wants to focus on. Coon said the council was performing research on how to get alumni of 4-H involved again. Building a volunteer system was also another aspiration of the council when Coon was there.

Coon said he believes that the leadership experience Kress has will be very helpful in her role at the National 4-H Council.

“She has vast experience in 4-H,” Coon said. “She has filled about every role there is in 4-H. I think those insights will be invaluable.”