PORT HADLOCK — Four candidates for the Jefferson County Washington State University Extension executive director are being questioned in an eight-hour interview session that is open to the public today.
The process began at 8:45 a.m. in the Spruce Room of the Extension office at 201 W. Patison St., Port Hadlock.
The new director will take over for Katherine Baril, who retired in January after 20 years in the position.
The candidates are Pamela Roberts, a Quilcene resident who has served as interim director since Baril’s retirement; Sue Wolf of Clallam Bay; Jerry D. Gibson of Abingdon, Va.; and Laura R. Lewis of Oella, Md.
At 8:45 a.m., WSU Kitsap County Extension Director Arne Bergstrom introduced the candidates, who then presented their views about the role of WSU Extension in the development of a sustainable and economically viable future as well as the methods they would use to accomplish this.
From 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., the candidates will be questioned by three panels: the search committee, WSU staff and a panel of community leaders.
Baril ran the Extension office since its inception, beginning with one employee in the historic Customs House in Port Townsend and finishing her career in the facility in Port Hadlock that now employs a staff of 24.
Salary negotiations are private. Baril earned about $65,000 annually.
Roberts, who ran the WSU 4-H program prior to becoming interim director, is a former professional musician and has owned and operated a tree farm for 30 years.
Roberts is the only applicant from Jefferson County.
Wolf, who has a doctorate, is the community planning and economic development director for the Makah tribe in Neah Bay.
Her background includes community planning for land grant programs and a conservation district; teaching and developing curriculum in environmental planning, environmental science and botany; research experience in the laboratory; and field work.
The other two candidates, both of whom have doctorates, are from the East Coast.
Gibson is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va., and has work experience in agricultural education at the high school level and university levels.
He also has had experience in a university extension service, serving as an agricultural extension agent, 4-H extension agent, livestock extension agent, area swine agent, county extension director and extension specialist.
Lewis is an assistant professor of biogeography for the University of Maryland of College Park, Md.
She earned her undergraduate degree in agriculture from Washington State University in 1996.
She has experience conducting research for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington state and California and has worked with farmers in Central and Eastern Washington who manage fruit trees and cereal crops.
Lewis also served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps.
