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N.C. Cooperative Extension at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University welcomed 10 new members to its Strategic Planning Council during its winter meeting on the N.C. A&T campus.

Kayla Shomaker of New London was one of those members.
Shomaker served as an advisory council member for Cooperative Extension in Stanly and Montgomery counties and spent six years with the Montgomery County Planning Services for the Aging.

She has been a member of the NC Extension and Community Association (formerly Extension Homemakers) for more than 33 years and is a recent inductee into the Jane S. McKimmon Family and Consumer Science Hall of Fame in Raleigh.

She has been a caterer and personal chef and is currently working to become an Extension Master Food volunteer.

The Strategic Planning Council provides advice and direction that helps Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T carry out its mission of serving North Carolinians with social, cultural, and economic barriers to upward mobility.

Council members represent the needs of their communities to Extension administrators, program leaders and educators who provide research-based educational programs and information on small-scale agriculture development, natural resource sustainability, food safety and security, nutrition and chronic disease prevention, and youth, family and community well-being.

“Strategic Planning Council members are the voices for people in our state who have often had little involvement in decision-making processes,” said Rosalind Dale, Ed.D., Extension administrator and associate dean in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. “Their voices need to be heard and council members help us understand their needs so we can provide programs that educate and empower.”