Dallas L. Holmes
Dallas L. Holmes EdD, joined the Extension program at Utah State in 1973. During his tenure with Extension, his administrative leadership in Continuing Education led to writing a proposal for $7.2 million which funded the construction of the Kellogg Life Span Learning Complex. He directed the programs of the Conference and Institute Division and the Eccles Center for over fifteen years in which he moved the fledgling organization to financial and professional stability generating over $2 million annually in support of faculty, staff and conference facility operations.
As Dallas has served as the Extension Specialist for Institutional Research for the past ten years, he has constantly sought ways to move Extension forward. He has developed and administered customer satisfaction research for Extension in every county in the state. He established the selfhelp evaluation and reporting websites to help USU Extension faculty in evaluating program impacts. Partnering with other Extension staff, Dallas has been the brain behind the development of the USU Extension system MyFOCIS, providing impact data for the national reporting to our federal partner, CSREES. Serving as a member of the annual Utah/CSREES federal reporting writing team, has ensured the acceptance of the federal plan for the past nine years which provides the constant flow of federal resources to support USU Extension.
Providing leadership and direction to the Civil Rights Compliance program, Dallas designed a nationally utilized self-assessment tool on civil rights and diversity used annually by all USU Extension employees and which has also been adopted by 15 other states. Guidance to the USU Diversity team has led to the development of a guide for best practices in diversity in the state and a new Diversity Website.
Dallas has shared his forward thinking and expertise in his leadership of the Metro Extension Taskforce adapting and molding a Model for Extension in the Future now being reviewed by Extension Administration for statewide application. Dallas has been a voice for USU Extension in the Faculty Senate and on numerous faculty senate committees for more than fifteen years. He has mentored countless Extension agents, doctoral and masters students, specialists, public school teachers, and others across the country.
The love of 4-H and gardening motivated Dallas to promote statewide adoption of the Jr. Master Gardener program currently used in more than 18 counties. One Jr. Master Gardener program at Ellis Elementary School received national recognition for its Butterfly Garden (an outstanding learning site for youth in learning science applications in a natural environment).
He has served faithfully in leadership positions in numerous professional associations, including Epsilon Sigma Phi. With these accomplishments and many others, not mentioned, it is easy to see that Dallas is a dedicated professional who keeps us on the cutting edge. It is with honor and our distinct privilege that Epsilon Sigma Phi honors Dr. Dallas L. Holmes with the Epsilon Sigma Phi Administrative Leadership Award for 2009.