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Fulbright Scholar Notes Similarities in Kansas, Australia
Kansas Ag Connection - 06/28/2017

Though they are half a world apart, Ruth Wallace thinks her home in Australia isn't too much different from many communities in the state of Kansas.

"I have found a lot of similarities here on issues about what the future looks like and who will be doing the work when you've got change," said Wallace, the director of the Northern Institute at Charles Darwin University, who will complete a six-month Fulbright Scholarship in July at Kansas State University.

Wallace's stay in Manhattan has included a lot of travel around the state to study changing demographics, economic development, workforce development, social policy and how governments make decisions, and other issues.

"Ruth's career involves helping universities, non-governmental organizations and government agencies improve outreach to communities, especially as it relates to addressing such critical issues as biosecurity, food safety, public health and emergency response," said Gregg Hadley, K-State Research and Extension assistant director for agriculture, natural resources and the environment.

Hadley's office has hosted Wallace's visit since January as part of the university's partnership in the Australian-American Fulbright Commission. Each year since 2014, Kansas State University has hosted Fulbright Scholars from Australia to study and collaborate with the university's researchers.

"About seven years ago, I was asked to get involved in biosecurity for northern Australia, and an important question we had was, 'Who is going to do that work?'," Wallace said. "Clearly the best people to do that were aboriginal people in that sparsely populated region, but we wondered how to build the partnerships with government to engage communities in biosecurity responses and surveillance.

"So, the partnership with K-State Research and Extension has been really valuable because that is what your extension offices do."

Australia eliminated its version of extension several years ago, meaning a system was not in place at a local level to help citizens.

"They lost some capacity to systematically work with the public and local partner agencies and organizations to identify educational needs and provide educational programs, resources and services that help the public improve their lives, livelihoods and communities," Hadley said.

Wallace added: "It's very hard to see what you stand to lose until it's gone. Once it left us -- and we never had it in the integrated way that you have -- we were segregated. It's a completely different situation because it means you don't have that same level of knowledge in your history and you do not have the vision to help in the future."

Wallace said extension offices are a key component for economic and regional development in their communities because they can help communicate in good and bad times, share research that is relevant to local challenges, and bring people together for common goals.

"The opportunity of having K-State Research and Extension provide that link between government, community, industry and university to make sure you're getting the most value out of research is absolutely essential," she said. "And that's something that I think we could really learn from in Australia and doing it in more of a systemic way like you have here."

"One of the things I've really seen of extension offices is that they band together no matter what," she said. "They'll always help each other out. That is an incredibly strong network in hard times or when something comes out of the blue."

Wallace said her work with Kansas State University has only begun. She believes her six-month Fulbright experience will lead to more opportunities to understand what it takes to improve regional development in Kansas and back home.

"Resources are shrinking everywhere, but the pool for economic development is really important for regions," Wallace said. "I say this as part of a larger network of people who are trying to answer these questions internationally, and I hope that K-State Research and Extension can continue to grow its role in being able to speak to those issues."


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