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By Jean Cleveland
Helen H. Mills, director of operating services at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education,  was named the Walter Barnard Hill Distinguished Public Service and Outreach Fellow for 2000 at the annual UGA public service conference Dec. 16.
Comparable to a distinguished professorship, the fellowship is the highest award offered in public service and outreach and recognizes those faculty who have made extraordinary contributions to university service programs.
Also recognized were the recipients of the Walter Barnard Hill Awards for Distinguished Achievement in Public Service and Outreach: James M. Affolter, State Botanical Garden; Dan W. Durning, Carl Vinson Institute of Government; Henry E. Hibbs, Oconee County Cooperative Extension Service; David P. Mills Jr., Office of Economic Development Assistance; and Reid Larry Torrance, Tattnall County Cooperative Extension Service.
The Hill Awards, inaugurated in 1992, recognize distinguished achievement in public service by faculty members and service professionals. Each recipient is judged to have contributed to improving the quality of life of an order greatly exceeding the normal accomplishments of a productive faculty member.
Each awardee receives a permanent salary increase of $2,000. He or she then becomes eligible for appointment as Distinguished Public Service Fellow. The Hill Distinguished Public Service Fellow receives a further salary increase of $1,000 as well as a supplemental fund for use in the advancement of his or her program of work.
Helen H. Mills
Beginning in spring 1995, Mills chaired a seven-member committee appointed by the vice president to facilitate the appointment of UGA Cooperative Extension and Marine Extension agents and non-tenure-track specialists to public-service academic faculty ranks. She recently presented a session reviewing the public-service promotion process at a national conference on “Best Practices in Outreach and Cooperative Extension.”
In 1996, she was asked to assist the board of regents in developing a system publication about the role of public service and outreach in economic development. In 1997-98, Mills assisted the regents’ Administrative Committee on Public Service and Outreach to develop strategic initiatives for public service and outreach. She also revised the regents’ guidelines on continuing education units.
“Dr. Mills has earned the respect of the chancellor’s office and her colleagues at the 34 system institutions,” says Assistant Vice Chancellor Annie Hunt Burriss. “On an external basis, she has had far-reaching impact on perceptions of public service in the system.”
Mills co-chaired the planning committee for the 1999 Public Service and Outreach Conference, served on the planning committee for the Walter Barnard Hill Lecture. She also chaired the local arrangements committee for the national public service and outreach conference held at UGA in June 1999.
James M. Affolter
As director of research at the State Botanical Garden and associate professor of horticulture, Affolter focuses especially on the role of horticulture in the conservation of plant diversity.
He has served as chair of the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance since its establishment in 1995. This statewide alliance, the first of its kind, has drawn considerable interest at the national and international levels. Charter members of the alliance include the State Botanical Garden, Callaway Gardens, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Forest Service and the University of Georgia.
Affolter developed the initial concept for project RELATE--Realizing Environmental Literacy through Advanced Technology and Experimentation--involving faculty and student collaborators in four academic departments. The project gives large numbers of undergraduate students the chance to participate in long-term ecological research at the garden.
Affolter is the principal investigator on a $241,000 grant recently awarded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. This project, in cooperation with the Duke University Biological Sciences Library, is developing an Internet-based network for plant conservation in North and South Carolina, Georgia, and north and central Florida.
Affolter provides technical assistance to botanical gardens, government agencies and university collaborators in Argentina and is part of the International Collaborative Biodiversity Group grant for pharmaceutical prospecting and biodiversity preservation in Chiapas, Mexico. He is a member of the American Association of Museums’ Accreditation Site Visiting Committee.
Dan W. Durning
In 1994, the Eurasia Foundation funded Durning’s proposal to assist Uzhgorod State University, located in Ukraine, in establishing a public-administration outreach program. This was the first major international activity in the history of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. USU initially set up a Center for Public Administration and Reform, and Durning guided its evolution into a broader Institute for Public Administration and Regional Development. The International Research and Exchanges Board singled out Durning’s USU project as one of only two successes among 22 institutional-partners projects.
Durning is now setting up a public-administration program and establishing a training program for municipal officials in Tbilisi, Georgia. Last summer, Durning helped to develop a six-week course in public administration for Shanghai officials.
Durning has traveled some 250,000 miles in the past five years, representing UGA in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Croatia, Georgia, China, Austria and the Netherlands.
Within the state, Durning has been active in assisting local governments to make decisions about annexation and consolidation. He has written 11 major reports on such issues, assessing the fiscal impact of a possible annexation or consolidation and undertaking extensive data analysis.
Henry E. Hibbs
Henry E. Hibbs has served as the county Extension coordinator for the Oconee County Cooperative Extension Service since 1987. He is responsible for managing a balanced program and coordinating a staff of six. To ensure that outreach efforts are on target, Hibbs utilizes three different formal advisory committees that help establish program direction.
Hibbs has developed an international reputation both as a host and as a traveling educator, traveling to Costa Rica and England and hosting international groups from 65 foreign nations, coordinating agricultural tours, developing youth programs, explaining the concept of extension outreach and encouraging international farmer-to-farmer communications.
Hibbs is also involved in several projects in Oconee County aimed at reducing the high level of agricultural nitrate pollution in surface and ground water. He is a principal investigator for a research grant for monitoring the water quality of the Rose Creek and Greenbrier Watersheds.
Hibbs has been deeply involved in leadership education at local, regional and state levels and initiated community leadership programs in Greene and Oconee counties. He serves on numerous community boards and commissions.
David P. Mills Jr.
Mills currently directs the Office of Economic Development Assistance, a cooperative effort among three public service and outreach units, which provides a central point of contact for state and federal agencies and local groups.
In his 23 years in public service at UGA, Mills has also worked with the Cooperative Extension Service and Business Outreach Services/Small Business Development Center.
Mills is the first UGA public service faculty member to become a certified economic developer, and he is actively involved in the Georgia Economic Developers’ Association, the largest state economic development association in the country and a powerful voice in economic development policy in Georgia.
He was active in setting up and implementing the Information Technology Jump Start Program for Rural Economic Development and he coordinated the “Celebrating Rural Georgia” Conference.
He is one of the course directors for the Southern Institute for Rural Development, a new regional professional development program for community and economic development practitioners serving rural communities. He is also a member of the Rural Economic Development Consortium.
Reid L. Torrance
Torrance has been employed by the Extension Service since he graduated from UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 1980. He has been an integral part of the development of the Vidalia onion industry since his 1984 arrival in Tattnall County, the largest producer of Vidalia onions in Georgia--more than 7,000 acres, representing an annual income of more than $40 million in the county.
Farmers, researchers and agribusiness groups all over the world seek Torrance’s advice regarding the production, storage and marketing of onions. Last year Cornell University invited him to speak at the New York State Vegetable Conference in Liverpool, N.Y., and he has also made recent presentations at the National Onion Association annual convention, the National Peach/Vidalia Onion and Roadside Marketing convention, the Georgia Weed Science Society and the Georgia Vegetable Conference. He is often interviewed by the media about onion issues, and he publishes papers and articles regularly.
Torrance has revolutionized the way onions are fertilized; growers currently save an estimated $1.4 million each year by following his recommendations. He has also studied weed-control practices in onions, and the industry now saves about $1.1 million on weed control as a result of his efforts.
For the past few years, he has focused on bringing mechanical harvesting to the onion industry. Last year about 1,500 acres were mechanically harvested in Tattnall County, at a labor savings of $650 per acre, or nearly $1 million. Torrance also initiated a new research farm this year. Torrance is active in several university, state and local agricultural and community organizations.
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