Pioneer Leaders Award presented to AgriLife Extension agents for community efforts
HORSESHOE BAY — Two Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service county agents were honored with the Dr. Frank W. Sheppard Jr. Pioneer Leaders Award by the Texas Rural Leadership Program at its recent conference in Horseshoe Bay.
Alexis Cordova of Liberty County and Lorrie Coop of Haskell and Knox counties received the honor in recognition of having “gone the extra mile in bringing communities together,” according to Ronnie McDonald, Texas Rural Leadership Program director.
The award, which was presented for the first time, was named for Sheppard, a 1947 graduate of Texas A&M University, who used his degree in agricultural education, first as a high school teacher in Hutto and ultimately throughout the world serving with the U.S. Department of State as a rural development leader.
Cordova, a native of Corpus Christi, has been the family and consumer sciences agent in Liberty County since January 2006 and was in Calhoun County from 2004-06.
She was cited for carrying out the mission of AgriLife Extension for “improving the lives of people, businesses, and communities” through her community partners, volunteers, and coalitions such as the Liberty Leaders in Action, Liberty County Health Awareness Coalition, Liberty County Child Fatality Review Team, various school health advisory councils, and the outreach committee at her church, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.
Coop began her career with AgriLife Extension in 2004 after serving 11 years with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, a child protective services specialist. She helped organize a five-county Rolling Plains Rural Health Partnership that has brought together agencies and organizations in several unified annual projects such as such as child passenger safety and diabetes screenings combined with diabetes classes in Spanish and English. They also launched a mental health first aid program for youth in the county in cooperation with schools, churches and families.
Coop also helped coordinate a career day that helps youth from eight schools in six counties discover career options and how to prepare for careers of interest to them.
More than 80 participants at the Texas Rural Leadership Program conference engaged with each other and with diverse speakers, from educators and social workers to elected officials—all sharing the belief that inclusive servant-based leadership brings out a community’s best assets, McDonald said.
More information about the program can be found at http://trlp.tamu.edu.
