Cheryl Alberts Irwin | Pesticide Safety Education
Top honors from the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators were recently presented to two members of Nebraska’s Pesticide Safety Education Program, within the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Clyde Ogg, PSEP coordinator, received the AAPSE Fellow Award. Jan Hygnstrom, PSEP project manager, received the AAPSE Professional Recognition Award.
Ogg is a charter member of AAPSE, a professional organization started in 1993. Pesticide safety has been the focus of his entire career, beginning with the private sector. He joined the university in 1986 as an entomology research technician. In 1993 Ogg joined PSEP and was named its coordinator in 2007. He currently leads a seven-member team that develops educational materials to enable individuals to become certified and eventually state-licensed to use restricted use pesticides in more than a dozen categories.
The Fellow is AAPSE’s highest recognition, honoring superior service and achievements in pesticide safety education, certification, and public service, as well as personally. Ogg was an AAPSE North Central Regional Representative in 2007-2009, and currently chairs the Articles of Incorporation and By-laws Committee. In 2010 he was a lead host for the North Central Regional Pesticide Education and Certification Workshop. He also hosted a national manual development workshop in 2015. Earning both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in entomology at Nebraska, Ogg promotes Integrated Pest Management, and has been actively involved with the Entomological Society of America for more than 25 years.
Supporters credit Ogg for making a good PSEP program even better, to become one of the best in the nation. He is credited for being accessible, open-minded and a careful listener, responding to situations with professionalism, courtesy and insight. Earlier this year, Ogg received the Nebraska State Pest Control Association’s Distinguished Service Award.
As project manager, Hygnstrom is the lead technical writer and editor for educational materials related to restricted use pesticides. Since joining PSEP in 2010, Hygnstrom has authored, co-authored and edited scores of publications, manuals, presentations, videos and fact sheets. Her photographs illustrate much of her work, and she is a key contributor to the annual in-service training for Nebraska Extension educators, who in turn train private applicators or farmers to more safely use pesticides.
For the new Professional Recognition award, Hygnstrom was cited for her role in revising the soon-to-be-released private applicator self-study curriculum. The research, planning and development of its 100 topics has taken about two years. Working with PSEP Programmer Robert Harrison, Hygnstrom streamlined the curriculum study and testing, edited and close-captioned videos into 3-minute segments, and implemented HTML programming and instructional design -- all while ensuring the new curriculum’s test questions align with revised learning objectives and content.
The cleaner, easier-to-follow curriculum offers an alternative to the classroom setting for Nebraska’s 20,000 private applicators, of whom 5,000-7,000 need to be certified or recertified each year.
Hygnstrom’s nominators cite her diligence, hard work, and abilities to explain calibration and other technical information in a clear, systematic and logical manner. An undergraduate of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and graduate of Nebraska’s Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication, Hygnstrom also has been employed with Nebraska Extension since 1993.
Another recent honor for Hygnstrom was the Epsilon Sigma Phi Established Career Award presented in 2017.
Both Hygnstrom and Ogg were cited for their highly respected collaborations with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, and other state and federal agencies and entities, with regard to pesticide safety, laws and regulations. Both are cited for their willingness to share their extensive expertise, experience and materials with others, both within and outside Nebraska.
Awards were presented Aug. 21 during the 2018 National Pesticide Applicator Certification and Safety Education Workshop in San Antonio.
AAPSE is a nationally recognized professional organization for those concerned with pesticide safety and risk mitigation education, training and certification. Its members include those from public and private entities, government, business and academia.