Janet Ayres
Department of Agricultural Economics
Purdue University
403 W. State St.
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2056
(765) 494-4215, (765) 494-9176

Steven Daniels
Utah State University
Dept. of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology
0730 Old Main Hill
Logan UT 84322-7030
(435) 797-1255, (435) 797-1240

Kay Haaland
Washington State University Extension
306 S. First St.
Mount Vernon, WA 98273-3805
(360) 428-4270, (360) 428-4263 fax

Loretta Singletary
University of Nevada Cooperative Extension
Lyon County Office
P.O. Box 811
504 S. Main St.
Yerington, NV 89447
(775) 463-6541 ext. 13, (775) 463-6545 fax

Steve Smutko
North Carolina State University
Dept. of Agriculture and Resource Economics
Natural Resources Leadership Institute
Box 8109
Raleigh, NC 27695-8109
(919) 515-4683, (919) 515-1824 fax

Increasingly citizens are asking Extension professionals to provide education on contentious public issues involving multiple stakeholders. Extension has been effective in helping people make informed choices on issues such as environmental quality, jobs and economic development, food safety, and housing. However, conducting effective programs around such issues requires that Extension professionals possess knowledge and skills that differ from those needed for traditional extension programming. A national team of Extension educators has been working to enhance the capacity of their colleagues to plan and deliver Extension programs on controversial public issues. The team members will discuss the current realm of public issues education including how extension roles and the context in which we work are changing; the growing importance of discourse-based approaches when working with controversial issues; the competencies needed by educators to work effectively with controversial issues; the resources currently available to support this work; and ways to enlist administrative support and write effective policies to support programs dealing with controversial public issues. As a result of this interactive presentation, participants will know what resources are available to them, and understand the basic tenets of extension involvement in controversial public issues. This will enhance their ability to develop educational programs to deal with controversial public issues.