The view from Charissa Puryear’s new office provides her with a completely new perspective of the agency that she has been a part of for 16 years. Literally. Puryear has just logged one week as the newest N.C. Cooperative Extension Director for Granville County. She officially began the new job on Jan. 4, 2021, and she said she is excited to have the opportunity to serve the community.
“I am grateful for this opportunity and look forward to partnering with the community to dialogue on how Cooperative Extension can best serve the Granville County community,” Puryear said in a written release announcing her new position.
“It’s a challenge but something I’m really excited about,” Puryear said of the new job in an interview Tuesday. She has spent much of her first week on the job in becoming oriented about what it truly means to lead the Granville County cooperative extension office. She has learned a lot about what other staff members do on a day-to-day basis, a luxury that she and her co-workers didn’t necessarily have in her previous role with the cooperative extension service.
“We tend to operate in our individual silos,” Puryear said of herself and the other agents that work in the building. An “aha” moment for her has been gaining a better understanding of what the other agents are working on. “And they’re doing some great things!” she added. Puryear said almost every one of the agents has between 15 and 20 years of experience in their respective fields and really enjoy what they are doing. “Just talking to them and hearing the passion for what they do,” she said, is something that she wants to make sure she shares with the community. That passion, she said, “is what I want everyone else to see.”
Puryear joined the cooperative extension staff in 2004 as a community service coordinator. Over the years, her role has evolved. She established the successful Teen Court program and is proud of how the program has grown over the years. Puryear succeeds Paul Westfall, as CED. Westfall recently retired after serving the county as CED and livestock agent since 2008.
One of her priorities is to create a community assessment, with an eye on increasing community engagement and volunteer recruitment. “I want to work with staff to determine what our needs are,” she added “Our main goal is to serve. I want us to understand where we are, especially in this time of COVID (restrictions).”
Service to the community entails understanding just what it is that the community wants and needs, Puryear said. Expanding services and increasing visibility within the community are on her radar as well. People may know the extension service because it’s where they bring their soil samples to be sent for analysis, she said. Or they may have taken a nutrition class that they enjoyed. But Puryear would like the community to have a clearer understanding of the comprehensive services that cooperative extension can provide. “I am passionate about locating resources, motivating change and empowering people. Community outreach and engagement are important in both my professional and personal life,” she stated.
“I want to create a vision with the community,” she said. But “we want it to be purposeful…and we have to change with the times.” What worked 10 years ago, or for that matter, 10 months ago, Puryear said, with a nod to pre-pandemic times, may not be what works now.
Next steps for Puryear include sending out letters of introduction to key stakeholders and to begin meeting to create a vision for cooperative extension, as well as a strategic plan. Gathering input from the community will help the agency make sure that Granville County residents are getting what they need from the agents, she said.
Except for the position that she vacated when she took over as CED, Puryear said the agency is fully staffed. Four agents split their time between Granville and Person counties, but the 4-H agent, the Teen Court coordinator and an administrative assistant are full-time at the Granville office. Puryear expects the Teen Court position to be filled in February 2021.
Kim Woods is the livestock agent, Gary Cross is the crops agent, Johnny Coley is the horticulture agent and Jennifer Brown is the Family and Consumer Sciences agent. Puryear said although the pandemic restrictions have greatly affected how the agents function, one benefit of providing services remotely is that residents from both counties can join in on one Zoom meeting without having to travel. She commended the agents on working through the challenges brought ab out by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I feel like I’ve been put in the most interesting class ever,” she said, reflecting on her new position. She has spent some time just sorting through paperwork and documents that pertain to the extension service. So far, she has four categories to sort by: “Priority, Urgent, Interesting and ‘I don’t even know what to do with this,’” she said with a chuckle.
Puryear is a graduate of Shaw University with a degree in Social Work and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Public Administration.
The N.C. Cooperative Extension Office for Granville County is located at 125 Oxford Loop Road in Oxford. Puryear can be reached by phone or by email at (919) 603-1350 or charissa_puryear@ncsu.edu.