As a senior in high school, Elizabeth Exstrom placed fourth in the nation at the National Junior Horticulture Association’s horticulture judging contest. Now, she serves as the Nebraska 4-H state horticulture judging contest superintendent, giving back to the organization that sparked her interest in a horticulture career years ago.
“For the past 15 years I've been in charge of the state horticulture contest at the state fair, and it's been fun to give back to what gave me my start,” Exstrom said.
Exstrom is a horticulture, landscape and environmental systems extension educator with a horticulture focus for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She earned her bachelor’s in horticulture with a landscape design emphasis in 2006 and her public horticulture master’s in 2008 from Nebraska. After graduation, Exstrom began working in Nebraska Extension, where she has remained for 17 years.
Exstrom enjoys what she does, but admitted her plan was never to become an extension educator. As a senior in high school, she wanted to be a landscape architect, so she studied landscape design at Nebraska for four years.
“My senior year I did the extension internship program and decided I might as well get my master’s and then work for Nebraska Extension because I realized I was not good at selling stuff to people,” Exstrom said.
Exstrom is stationed in Buffalo and Hall counties, but currently serves 31 counties, responsible for directing educational programming, answering horticulture questions and consulting as a certified arborist through the Nebraska Arborist Association and the International Society of Arboriculture.
“I usually have about 25 counties from the edge of Hall to the edge of Dawson all the way up and down from Kansas to South Dakota,” Exstrom said. “Recently one of our educators retired, so I am answering questions from an additional six counties.”
Last year, Exstrom’s direct client contacts, a metric that includes calls, texts and emails with her clients, numbered 1,500. Last quarter, she had close to 500, indicating that this year’s numbers may be even higher. But these numbers don’t even begin to measure her overall reach, because they exclude the people she serves through her programming.
“If you think about programming reach, last year I figured out that through all of my programs, clients and Backyard Farmer, it’s as if I talked to everybody west of Seward,” Exstrom said.
Her programs range from adult education programs like the Extension Master Gardener volunteer program that teaches volunteer master gardeners sustainable horticulture practices, to youth programs at the Fort Kearny Outdoor Expo and Children’s Groundwater Festival that teach kids about water conservation and stormwater infrastructure. She also answers horticulture questions on a panel for Backyard Farmer once a month.
Whether it's opening a child's eyes to the insects and flowers around them, or educating adults on the impactful things they can do in their own yards and landscapes, Exstrom says it’s gratifying to see education in action.
Beyond programming and answering client questions, Exstrom’s arborist certifications, which require proctored testing and continuing education hours, allow her to serve communities in need of arbor consulting as an impartial third party.
“In central Nebraska we are really hurting for certified arborists and so that's why I got my national and international certifications,” Exstrom said. “As a certified arborist for Nebraska Extension, I can be a consulting arborist not for hire, meaning I will come out and tell you what's wrong with your tree but I'm not going to try to sell you a service.”
Exstrom provides numerous services to central Nebraska, but an aging clientele poses challenges in helping the rising generation access the resources available to them.
“I just wish more people knew about Nebraska Extension,” Exstrom said. “I wish we could bring in a younger age demographic to come in and ask Nebraska Extension questions. Google is a great tool, but Nebraska Extension has science-backed information specific to the growing zone where we’re located.”
As a land-grant institution, Nebraska educates, conducts research and maintains a lesser-known extension arm. The goal of the nationwide Cooperative Extension System is to bring modern, applicable research and education directly from universities to agricultural producers, small businesses, consumers and young people to create positive change in rural and urban communities. Extension educators like Exstrom serve communities through youth and family programming like the 4-H program, continuing education classes like food safety training and farm financial record keeping and by addressing public needs directly.
Exstrom is an Extension Educator Affiliate in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. This is a new program to strengthen connections between extension educators and department faculty in research, teaching and extension activities. As an affiliate, Exstrom works closely with specialists and affiliates in the department, like Kim Todd and Christian Stephenson, to connect what’s happening on campus to master gardeners and the counties.
