Ali Mitchell brings renewed energy to the Association of Northeast Extension Directors
The Association of Northeast Extension Directors (NEED) is pleased to welcome Ali Mitchell to the position of Executive Director. Ali will lead NEED’s Board of Members to coordinate, develop, and execute cross-cutting regional cooperative extension programs while advocating for regional priorities on the national stage and working with the remaining four regions for the success of the national Extension system.
Ali comes to NEED from Washington D.C. where she spent the last year as a NOAA Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Transportation serving a dual role as the Policy Liaison to the Executive Director of the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System and Advisor to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ Port Performance Freight Statistics Program.
Ali earned a BA from Williams College (MA) in 2012 in religion, maritime studies, and international studies and a Masters Degree in Public Affairs from Brown University (RI) in 2016 where she focused on the power of storytelling for policy goals and the integration of sophisticated data analytics with social science to create, evaluate, and implement effective public policy. Her interdisciplinary professional experiences include working as a blacksmith in Mystic Seaport Museum’s preservation shipyard, as a documentarian, as part of the executive team for the Williams Mystic Maritime Studies Program, and as an independent public policy consultant, among others.
Ali grew up in Florida and has deep ties to the Northeast. She is passionate about sustainable community centered programming and policy and is thrilled to be working with the NEED to support, innovate, and improve Extension in the region.
NEED is confident that Ali will bring drive, political savvy, and facilitation acumen to the regional organization while providing a fresh perspective bolstered by interagency and interdisciplinary expertise to the governance of the national Extension system.
The Cooperative Extension System is a non-formal educational program implemented in the United States designed to help people use research-based knowledge to improve their lives. The service is provided by the state and designated land-grant universities through Extension Programs and Extension Educators embedded within communities. Cooperative Extension at the regional level, in the Northeast, is coordinated through the Northeast Extension Directors Association (NEED). This association consists of 13 different Extension programs; the Board consists of the directors of those extension programs. NEED brings value to each program and ultimately to the national extension network.
For additional information, contact: Mark Amaral; Lighthouse Consulting Group, Inc., Warren, RI 02885; 401-247-0313
