dc-isu-extension-2025-awards

Photos belong to the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in Dallas County

Pictured above from left to right is Nikki Keller, Matt Weiser, and Abigail Coder

The Dallas County ISU Extension Office was recently recognized with a couple of awards.

At the annual ISU Extension Awards event, the Distinguished Service Award went to the Dallas County Extension Council for their outstanding commitment and delivery of research-based or evidence-based programming. Regional Director Ann Torbert tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the council is made up of elected officials, whose job it is to levy funds for the programming within Dallas County.

She says the council puts a heavy emphasis on youth programming because Dallas County is amongst the highest in the state when it comes to the number of youth under the age of 17. Torbert describes that the council also focuses on helping communities find resiliency, and that there was a lot of work done in Perry after a tough 2024. Council Member Abigail Coder, who has been serving for five years, expresses that she’s grateful to receive the award for Dallas County.

“I thought it was really an honor to be able to represent ISU Extension in that way. The efforts that we’ve been really intentionally putting in our communities to make sure that everyone has the resources the Extension has to help them out, and really looking at how we can help people be resilient and just everything that’s happened here in Dallas County, especially in Perry. It’s great to see all of that acknowledged at the state level.”

Torbert adds that Health and Human Sciences Educator Rosa Gonzalez (pictured below) won both the Research Based Programming and Reaching All Iowans Awards for the impact she’s had with assisting families in Dallas County.