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Browsing by Author "Nunoo, Nicole"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Best Practices to Managing Farm Financial Health and Wellbeing
    Niewolny, Kimberly L.; Morgan, Kim O.; Mason, Garland; Nunoo, Nicole (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2020-09-02)
    Most farmers and ranchers—and, particularly beginning farmers and ranchers—do not have the financial capacity to hire financial managers to manage their finances for them. The onus is therefore placed on the farmer to assume the multiple roles of accountant, business manager, and farmer at the same time. The tried-and-true approaches to addressing financial risk begin with the development of a whole-farm risk-management plan. We provide best management practices to manage and mitigate the whole-farm, and whole-family risks associated with finances, production, marketing, legal issues, and human interaction (Nickel, 2020).
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    CAIA Lightning Talk: North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Recap
    Coartney, Jama S.; Ellis, Lisa; Johnson, Kellie; Nunoo, Nicole; Smilnak, David; Kaufman, Eric K. (2022-08-11)
    Are you curious about teaching in agriculture and what can be done to improve learning? That is the focus of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA). At the 2022 NACTA conference, Virginia Tech personnel were involved with 11 different presentations. This lightning talk will highlight insights and ideas from the conference.
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    Farmer Financial Health and Wellbeing Assessment: A Tool for Fostering Supportive Financial Conversations
    Morgan, Kimberly L.; Nunoo, Nicole; Mason, Garland; Niewolny, Kimberly L. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2020-09-28)
    Extension agents are closely involved in advising farmers and farm families on identification and mitigation of financial risks unique to the agricultural industry. Financial decisions are often time-sensitive and complicated, and the source of many sleepless nights to farmers and advisors alike. This tool is intended for use as a communication aid to foster safe, productive conversations between farmers and service providers. It is designed to complement related resources aimed at supporting the mental health of our farmers who make tough decisions under conditions of uncertainty on a daily basis.
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    Managing Farm Financial Stress for a Healthy Farm and a Healthy Farm Family
    Nunoo, Nicole; Mason, Garland N.; Niewolny, Kimberly L.; Morgan, Kim O. (2020-08-31)
    Farm financial situations cause stress, depression, and with limited mental health professionals, farmers are likely to take drastic measures in addressing their mental health and wellbeing. Not only do these measures determine the health of the farm, business, or operation – they affect the health of the farmer and his/her/their family. For these reasons, we present this document to assist farmer and farm families in detecting early signs of farmer stress and to aid in managing farm finances. Personal and farm finance resources tools are provided at the end.
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    Transformative learning to promote transformative evaluation of food system praxis
    Otieno, Dickson; Niewolny, Kimberly L.; Archibald, Thomas G.; Schenk, Todd; Nunoo, Nicole (Frontiers, 2023-01-09)
    Evaluation ideally plays an important role in determining the value and impact of community food system initiatives and movements, providing recommendations for informed decision-making, learning, and programmatic adjustments. Given that community food system work is characterized by critical praxis rooted in deconstructing dominant epistemologies and addressing social and systemic injustices—including discourses and practices from agroecology, food justice, and food sovereignty movements—simple, technical-rationalist approaches to evaluation are inadequate and inappropriate. In parallel with recent developments in critical food system work, the field of evaluation has evolved toward more critical and transformative approaches—including Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation, indigenous evaluation, feminist evaluation, all generally regrouped within the framework of the transformative evaluation paradigm. At the nexus of these trends, to meet the rising demand for critical evaluative thinkers ready to grapple with the complex, dynamic, and contested questions of community food system praxis evaluation, there is a need to equip emerging evaluators with the requisite knowledge of evaluation approaches. To be ready to be critically reflective evaluators, in food system praxis and beyond, the next generation of emerging evaluators must engage fruitfully and in practically wise ways with the complex and contested aspects of critical food system work. Reflecting on the burgeoning literature on evaluator education and evaluation capacity building (ECB), and given the centrality of critical praxis and transformation in both food system work and evaluation alike, we posit that transformative learning theory has a potential role to play in preparing evaluators to meet these challenges. As such, the purpose of this conceptual paper is to highlight the intersections between critical evaluation approaches and critical food system praxis, and propose transformative learning theory as one way to help emerging evaluators prepare to meaningfully grasp and engage with the complexities manifest at this nexus of critical food evaluation praxis.