The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service Distinguished Educator title is the most prestigious title attainable by a county educator, district program specialist or area specialist. Kristy Spalding, Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences/4-H Youth Development, and CED, was honored with this award at the Biennial Extension Conference Awards Luncheon on January 8. Kristy serves the people of Beckham and Washita counties. Her primary areas of emphasis are parenting and child development, gerontology and nutrition. She has served as Washita County Extension director since October of 2009.
Kristy is quick to say it did not take her long to find she truly loved working for Extension back in 1993, when she joined the Washita County Extension office. She credits teamwork as the key to her success as an educator. One of her most significant accomplishments was the Quick and Easy Cooking Schools program she developed and implemented with Radonna Sawatzky, who together garnered a $60,000 fouryear grant from the Oklahoma Pork Council and took the program statewide. Sixty-one counties conducted an adult and/or youth cooking school. Moreover, 137 Extension staff from all program areas helped with the youth cooking schools.
Some of Kristy’s successful programs include the Washita County OSU Health and Safety Day for county 4th Grade Students, Healthy Kids Healthy Futures; Spread the NEWS (nutrition, exercise, water and sleep), and many partnerships with USDA, State Department of Education and other agencies. A highlight of her career was being awarded through application an educational opportunity for a cultural exchange program in Mexico.
Although Kristy has only a 10 percent 4-H assignment, she has always incorporated youth and 4-H programming into her overall FCS responsibility and has been one of OSU Extension’s foremost spokespersons about learning being a lifelong process.