Peters' richest memory is working together to solve problems
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 03/04/2010 9:19 AM
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HAMPTON, Iowa —People working together to solve problems and accomplish goals is the richest memory Bev Peters has of her 38 years working with Iowa State University Extension.
"We're a small county and there are only so many agencies that serve people, but we found that we work together really well," Peters said. "If we get together and coordinate, we all have things that we can do."
Peters, 61, remembers this inter-agency collaboration started during the 1980s farm crisis and it worked following the floods in 1993. The county used the model to improve diversity training and develop programming for Spanish speaking families in the 1980s and to improve health and wellness in the 1990s and 2000s.
Peters accepted an early retirement package when her job as Franklin County Extension education director was eliminated. Her last day was Jan. 31.
"Sometimes people think Extension is all agriculture and just because I didn't have an agriculture degree I didn't know anything about agriculture," Peters said. "I grew up on a farm. My husband farmed. Back when the corn trains traveled across Iowa bringing the first Extension programs, it wasn't just ag. There were programs on food preservation, home life and 4-H. It's never been just agriculture."
The key is knowing where to go to find the answer to everyone's questions, Peters said.
She grew up on a farm near Springville. She was very active in 4-H showing beef cattle and taking on leadership roles.
She attended Iowa State University and got a degree in home economics education. A summer internship at Linn County Extension convinced her to work for Extension. She got her first job in Franklin County and spent the next 38 1/2 years there.
"Franklin County had a reputation for fantastic 4-H program and great leadership, that's what brought me here," Peters said.
She worked with 4-H for seven years. When her children were young, she became a part-time Extension home economist. In 1987 she became part-time county director and in 1992 full-time county Extension education director.
Peters was the first woman county Extension director in Iowa who did not have an agriculture background.
"I had to work to get that," she said. "Up until that time, directors always had agriculture backgrounds. After that it got to be more of a mix."
Technology is one of the things that changed the way Extension offices function.
"We started with typewriters and carbon paper and metal mimeo sheets," she said. "We got our first computer in the 1980s, I was working on my master's and my secretary encouraged me to write it on the computer. She dragged me into the computer age. Now we have laptops and wireless Internet and we're all linked."
Slide projects, overheads and movie projectors have given way to PowerPoints, and cell phones make it possible to get in touch with people anywhere.