The Childhood Agricultural Safety Network — associated with the National Farm Medicine Center and Marshfield Clinic — has named its first-ever leadership team. The team is beginning its first campaign centered around ATV/UTV Safety.
“I think the future of CASN is much brighter, thanks to this team,” says Marsha Salzwedel, National Children’s Center project scientist and program manager for CASN. “Their diversity of ideas, skills and networking capabilities have already made an impact.”
The six-person leadership team was drawn from more than 170 organizations and individuals who comprise the Childhood Agricultural Safety Network.
Leadership team members are:
- Cheryl Beseler, associate professor, Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center.
- Marsha Cheyney, evaluation and outreach coordinator, Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health, University of Iowa.
- Jana Davidson, program manager, Progressive Agriculture Foundation.
- Melanie Forti, Health and Safety Programs Director and Children In the Fields Campaign Director, Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs.
- Whitney Pennington, outreach program coordinator, High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety, Colorado State University.
- David Sullivan, director of programs, Ag Health & Safety Alliance.
“The team as a whole is a skillful team, representing broad areas of agriculture from indigenous to research to boots-on-the-ground people,” says Sullivan. “It’s a great nucleus to help spread the word about childhood agricultural safety and health.”
Team responsibilities include helping with the selection of topics and content for CASN campaigns, identifying potential collaborators, helping to lead strategic planning for the network, and engaging members in the CASN Online Community.
Pennington said it was energizing to see colleagues in-person after a three-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She is responsible for seeking feedback from CASN members on how to network, to meet in-person or online, and activities for regular collaboration in addition to the annual in-person meeting.
“Our aim is to have something organized, for example a Zoom meeting or a more robust workshop, where we can interact with one another each quarter,” she says.
More frequent formal interactions, in addition to utilizing the new CASN Online Community, should enhance one of CASN’s long-time strengths: sharing members’ resources for the benefit of all members and for CASN campaigns.
The first major campaign with the new team in place will feature all-terrain vehicle and utility-terrain vehicle (ATV/UTV) safety, a specialty for Sullivan. The upcoming campaign will utilize a process developed by Melanie Forti and the rest of the leadership team allowing CASN members to easily submit their own resources to be shared in the campaign.
This type of coordinated effort is required to, “change the safety attitudes and behaviors of the ag community as a whole on key topics such as ATVs and UTVs,” he says.
CASN is a coalition established in 1999 through collaboration between the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, the Progressive Agriculture Foundation and Farm Safety 4 Just Kids. The National Children’s Center is a program of the National Farm Medicine Center, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute.
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