NERCRD faculty receive award for high-impact research

November 21, 2025

NERCRD Faculty Affiliate Claudia Schmidt and Director Stephan Goetz co-authored a paper (with Steven Deller, University of Wisconsin-Madison) that was recognized as a high-impact research publication by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences during its fourth annual Research Awards Ceremony held Oct. 28 at the Hintz Family Alumni Center on the University Park campus.

Celebrating 25 years of leadership!

March 11, 2025

Since joining the Penn State faculty in 1999 as NERCRD’s Director, Stephan Goetz has shaped its development as a high-performing organization that has made numerous contributions to the understanding and practice of rural community and economic development.

Catching up with NERCRD small-grant recipients: The UNH “Downtowns and Trails” team celebrates five years of programming!

May 29, 2024

In 2017, a multi-state team led by Shannon Rogers (University of New Hampshire) was awarded a NERCRD small grant to develop a knowledge-sharing network in New England to help communities capitalize on the potential benefits of trails for fostering vibrant downtowns. Now they’re celebrating five years of programming, and marked the occasion by publishing a new, retrospective report. Click to learn more about the impacts and outcomes of this innovative Extension program!

NERCRD researchers honored with two awards for research on nutrition and food security

November 21, 2023

Zheng Tian, Claudia Schmidt, and Stephan Goetz were honored with two distinct awards for their paper titled “The Role of Community Food Services in Reducing U.S. Food Insufficiency in the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (JARE) in 2022.

NERCRD honored with National Extension Tourism Partner Award

November 21, 2023

The award, given by the National Extension Tourism (NET) Design Team at its biennial conference in September, recognized the NERCRD for its contributions that have made a significant positive impact on the NET organization, including support of a strategic planning process and partnership on a project-accelerator grant.

NERCRD small-grant team publishes new guidebook on engaging communities through “Issues Forums”

Several members of a team funded by NERCRD’s small-grant program in 2017-2018 published a guide recently that builds on their NERCRD-funded project and explores the use of forums as a community engagement tool in Extension work. The comprehensive how-to guide is designed to help Cooperative Extension professionals develop issues forums in both onsite and online settings.

NERCRD impacts: Some recent examples

The NERCRD’s work strengthens the capacity of land-grant research institutes, the Cooperative Extension System, and policy makers, thereby effecting change in the communities served by these key stakeholders. This page provides a running list of selected examples of these impacts.

Research grant lays groundwork for formation of First State African American Farmers Association

December 19, 2019

Andy Wetherill, an Extension Educator at Delaware State University (DSU) and a member of NERCRD’s Technical Advisory Committee, knew from his participation in a USDA-funded capacity-building grant that farmers who work together can take advantage of economies of scale and can benefit from learning together. Using an output from that project—a manual that guides Extension educators through the process of conducting network analyses of farmer groups—Wetherill helped a group of minority farmers in Delaware form a new network: The First State African American Farmers Association (FSAAFA).

Two Center-related research papers recognized with awards

November 3, 2019

Stephan Goetz and his co-authors recently received awards for their published research from the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences and from Emerald Publishing.

NERCRD research cited in the 2019 Economic Report of the President

May 6, 2019

NERCRD research is being used in the highest level of Federal Government. The 2019 Economic Report of the President cited three scientific papers written by NERCRD and collaborating researchers.