The third candidate for vice president of Extension and Outreach said she wants to “meet millennials where they’re at” on social media on Monday.

Approximately 20 people were in attendance for the open forum today in the Memorial Union’s Sun Room where Jane Clary Loveless gave her presentation. 

Clary Loveless is currently the national program leader for nutrition and extension for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program. 

She opened up by talking about a friend she lost to breast cancer, and she had just finished her master’s and a job opened up at Purdue to work on a grant for communities of women who are focused on breast cancer. 

Clary Loveless moved on to talk a lot about the current state of extension and outreach at Iowa State, based off of information she found in the 2016 report. 

“I pulled some information from the 2016 report because I wanted to see what’s currently going on,” Clary Loveless said. 

She said she was impressed with volunteer numbers—saying “16,000 volunteers is quite a few people” — and the numbers of people being reached by Iowa State.

She then talked about challenges Iowa State faces in extension and outreach including retirement impacts on the workforce, changes in public funding and support, changes in agricultural demographics and what she envisioned as solutions.

“The vision for the 21st Century I see that in keeping extension vibrant in Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, we can continue to deliver efficient, effective programs with integrity and respect to all our clientele and focus on great customer service,” Clary Loveless said. 

Clary Loveless referred to Extension and Outreach as the face of the university, and how when students are applying to universities, Extension and Outreach is what they see.

She said the university needs to “meet millennials where they’re at” by increasing presence on social media. 

She was asked by online viewers what role extension should play on poverty in Iowa, and she responded saying, “I think you’re doing a lot of it.”

“You’re growing 62,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables for food banks providing nutrition education,” Clary Loveless said. “There’s programs that help people manage their finances, I think we just need to advertise these programs more.”

Two candidates for the position visited campus already — Brent Hales and John Lawrence, who visited in late February. The final candidate, Daniel Devlin, was announced early on Monday and will be holding an open forum at 3 p.m. on Tuesday in the Memorial Union’s Gallery Room.