Regional director Jayne Hager Dee retires
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 01/26/2012 9:19 AM
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NORTHFIELD, Minn. — It was the second day of Jayne Hager Dee's retirement
and she was back at work.
"I want to make sure these transitions are good," Hager Dee said. "I've invested a lot of myself into the organization."
She retired from her post as the regional Extension director for Dakota, Freeborn, Goodhue, Mower, Rice and Steele counties on Jan. 9 after 13 years with University of Minnesota Extension.
Her duties will be split among Kim Boyce and Sarah Chur, the new Extension regional directors in the central region, and LuAnn Hiniker and Nathan Crane, the regional Extension directors in the southeast region.
She was able to meet with the regional directors in the southeast region twice to share information about her counties before her retirement, but with a new employee in the central region, she didn't have that opportunity.
"We haven't had the luxury of time," Hager Dee said.
It's a bittersweet moment for her. She has faith in the folks doing the work and in the new regional directors, but she is going to miss the people she's worked with — coworkers, county board members, 4-H volunteers, county Extension committee members and other volunteers.
"We've got some great people who care very deeply about this organization," Hager Dee said.
Each county has its own personality and it was fun for her to get to know those counties.
"Our strongest partners are the county boards," she said. "We've got really good support."
But that support will erode if Extension doesn't keep moving forward and hiring good people. Extension's greatest asset is its people, Hager Dee said.
A lot of good people are leaving with the university's early retirement option, she said. It will be up to the new hires and those who stay to continue to build the organization.
Hager Dee is an Illinois native who spent 16 years in the food industry before joining Iowa State University Extension in 1989 as the coordinator of the Iowa Public Policy Education Project. She moved into university administration as assistant director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, then at Iowa State University.
She met her husband, Eric Dee, while working in the food industry. Dee was a seedstock producer near State Center, Iowa. He also raised crops. They sold the hog business after her husband became ill and handicapped.
Hager Dee began looking for another job in the Midwest to move her income forward. She was hired as one of four county Extension directors in Minnesota. County Extension directors were located in Ramsey, Hennepin, St. Louis and Dakota counties when she joined U of M Extension in 1998.
"We knew no one," Hager Dee said.
It seemed like a really good job, so they packed their belongings and headed north.
"We did it on blind faith," she said.
They built a home in Northfield that would be easy for Dee to get around in and for them to age in. Yet the house is also in Dakota County. Hager Dee thought it important to live in the county she was going to serve.
"We've really found a home here," she said.
Both her sons are University of Minnesota graduates and they live in Northfield.
Hager Dee has been involved in public service and plans to continue that in retirement. She is chairwoman of the Northfield Charter Commission and secretary of the Minnesota Public Radio Twin Cities Community Advisory Council. She's a past vice chair of the Minnesota Board on Aging and the SELCO Regional Library Board.
As she sits in her living room reflecting and looking ahead, Hager Dee is excited, yet undecided. She's kind of like a high school graduate with her whole life ahead of her.
Hager Dee has decided to take three months off for her. There's boxes left unopened from their move to Minnesota. She plans to sort and downsize.
There's books she wants to read and things from the office to sort through.
After that, she's committed to judging five fairs this summer — so far — but the rest is still to be determined.
"It's a whole new life," Hager Dee said.