Since she arrived on the East Coast, Chahine feels a palpable passion for Cooperative Extension’s work not only from UD Extension staff, but also from external stakeholders and partners.

“In other places, you may lose the connection between the university and the community,” said Chahine. “But in land-grant universities like UD, I view the entire state as our campus. You can feel the excitement that people have for the institution and the desire that people have to work with us.”

Chahine applauds Delaware’s connectivity and a willingness for people to work together and find outside-the-box solutions. She arrived in the First State by way of Idaho, where she served for 23 years as a professor and extension dairy specialist. Having worked directly with agricultural producers, veterinarians, and the dairy industry, Chahine knows the importance of building relationships across an entire state. So, she spent her first few months in Delaware on a crisscross tour of the three counties to visit farms and businesses and attend key events in person.

“With UD Extension, people feel a trust and that is an important, hard-earned relationship from our communities and partners,” said Chahine. “I go back to our mission: research to generate knowledge, teaching to educate people, and Cooperative Extension to transfer knowledge and bring ideas back to the University. I really look at it as a two-way street.”

Acknowledging she is new to Delaware, Chahine is ready to engage with stakeholders to understand the issues they face. She views her initial duty as to listen and be present.

“I believe that the person in my [associate dean and director] position should not have all the answers for all issues. But what I should do is bring people to sit together — Extension staff, faculty, industry professionals, legislators and so on — to generate applicable solutions,” said Chahine. “That is what Extension is great at doing.”

Chahine spent much of her career in the thick of agricultural research. She focused on addressing applied dairy management, nutrition and environmental issues.

“My research was to apply systems to make cows healthier and more productive while simultaneously taking care of our environment,” explained Chahine.

Chahine emphasizes that Extension is part of a larger university. Thus, we have a chance to also impact student’s lives — the type of impact she felt as a University of Minnesota graduate student.

“One of my professors noticed that I was fluent in Spanish and offered me an internship focused on farm workers’ training,” explained Chahine.

Working with Cooperative Extension specialists, she found herself living out Extension’s mission to use her education and research to make a real impact in people’s everyday lives.

“It allowed me to translate my skills, work with an underserved community, and do something meaningful,” recalled Chahine. “I absolutely fell in love with the work.”

What started as a short project turned into a full curriculum and on-farm training. When she graduated, Chahine sought out extension jobs and never looked back.

“When you intersect teaching with research and our mission,” Chahine said, “you motivate people to explore Cooperative Extension and witness the impact that we have on communities.”