Iowa State’s Extension and Outreach program is searching for a new vice president after the announcement of John Lawrence’s retirement in 2023.

The search committee has narrowed the list of candidates to five finalists, who will each visit Iowa State over the next month for a public forum and a visit to one of the county offices. Each of the candidates’ visits will take place over two days, with the public forum on the first day of their visit.

The names of candidates will be announced only one business day before they visit Iowa State.

The schedule of forums is as follows, according to an Inside Iowa State newsletter:

— Candidate 1, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2 p.m.
— Candidate 2, Monday, Oct. 31, 2 p.m.
— Candidate 3, Thursday, Nov. 3, 3 p.m.
— Candidate 4, Monday, Nov. 14, 2 p.m.
— Candidate 5, Thursday, Nov. 17, 3 p.m.

Andrea Nelson, assistant vice president for county services, said that Extension and Outreach allows Iowa State to further its land grant mission and share the research and work done on campus with people across the state.

“Iowa State University Extension and Outreach works very hard to serve all Iowans,” Nelson said. ‘And one of the ways we do that is we meet people where they’re at, and so we can bring them research and connect them to Iowa State University as part of our land grant mission.”

Overall, Iowa State has 100 county extension offices (one county has two offices). Extension and Outreach is tasked with coordinating with these offices and working to present them with research that can be applied to their various issues.

“That’s part of the land grant mission, so the land grant has an obligation to not just, of course, educate students and do research, but also to extend that research to the individuals in the state,” Nelson said.

Nelson said that Extension and Outreach is a fairly large and complex organization, with over 1,000 employees between employees of the university and others spread out across Iowa.

“Each of those county offices also have a nine-member elected board,” Nelson said. “So across the state of Iowa, we are working with 900 elected extension council members that are trying to make sure that we’re not just taking any research from the university, we’re taking the research that’s most important for the needs they have locally.”

The vice president for Extension and Outreach are tasked with providing leadership to the organization and the 100 county offices, as well as coordinating with heads of the university’s colleges to be able to supply research and information to help counties meet their local needs.

“It’s a big job, you’re serving as a leader, as a listener, as a collaborator,” Nelson said. “We have someone that needs to serve in this position as helping us move through initiatives that will help all Iowans in directions that are sustainable, that they’ll be able to afford into the future.”

Nelson said that Iowa State’s Extension and Outreach is an example of a federal, state and local partnership, with dollars from each level of government coming in to support extension in bringing the research and resources of Iowa State to people across the state.