Southern SARE welcomes questions or inquiries related to grants, publications, this website, and when seeking general information about sustainable agriculture in the Southern region. For general inquiries on our grants, sustainable agriculture or educational publications, email ssare@uga.edu. For more specific questions regarding the SSARE program, contact our staff.
Southern SARE Staff
Southern SARE staff, located at the University of Georgia, Fort Valley State University, and the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture, oversees the day-to-day functions of the SARE program in the Southern region.
Jeff Jordan, SSARE Program Director
Jeff Jordan is the director of Southern SARE and is also a professor in the Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics at the University of Georgia’s Griffin campus. As the SSARE director, Jeff oversees the entire program, but is especially involved in coordinating the Research and Education Grants and any special grant Calls, such as the Large Systems Grants. He develops the budgets for the overall program, represents the Southern region at the national level and coordinates the activities of the Administrative Council and the SSARE staff.
Contact:
111 Stuckey Drive, Room 206, Stuckey Building
University of Georgia Griffin Campus
Griffin, GA 30223-1731
Ph: (770) 412-4787
Sandra Blackwell, Grants Coordinator
Sandra Blackwell provides a variety of administrative support functions, including but not limited to: Preparing and submitting annual Cooperative Agreements to the USDA for budgeting for approved projects; working on the SARE Professional Development Program; overseeing the on-line proposal system for five grant programs; answering inquiries from various applicants; and tracking each proposal, ensuring they follow UGA and USDA requirements from the time they are awarded until all budget requirements are met and the subcontract has been signed and received.
Contact:
111 Stuckey Drive, Room 205, Stuckey Building
University of Georgia Griffin Campus
Griffin, GA 30223-1731
Ph: (770) 229-3212
DaraMonifah Cooper, Communications Specialist
DaraMonifah Cooper serves as Southern SARE's Communications Specialist. Based out of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Dara covers sustainable agriculture across the Southern region, developing a host of media relations, public relations and communications materials on SARE grant projects; covering conferences, events, and workshops on sustainable agriculture topics; and working with SSARE staff and national SARE communications on publications and educational resources.
Contact:
111 Stuckey Drive, Room 213 Stuckey Building
University of Georgia Griffin Campus
Griffin, GA 30223-1731
Ph: (770) 229-3100
Keileah Fears, Administrative Associate
Keileah Fears provides a variety of administrative support functions, including but not limited to: Coordinating all accommodations for Administrative Council meetings and Technical Review Committee meetings; scheduling and attending monthly zoom meetings/conference calls of the AC Executive Committee; providing support for the governing body (Administrative Council) for the Southern SARE region; and maintaining grant files and storage. She supports SSARE staff as needed.
Contact:
111 Stuckey Drive, Room 211, Stuckey Building
University of Georgia Griffin Campus
Griffin, GA 30223-1731
Ph: (770) 228-7232
Kayla Martin, Administrative Associate
As Administrative Associate, Kayla Martin processes check requests and travel expense reimbursements. She also maintains equipment inventory, makes copies, files and distributes mail. She supports SSARE staff as needed.
Contact:
111 Stuckey Drive, Room 203, Stuckey Building
University of Georgia Griffin Campus
Griffin, GA 30223-1731
Ph: (770) 412-4787
Candace Pollock-Moore, Assistant Director
As Assistant Director, Candace Pollock-Moore manages the Producer, On-Farm Research and Graduate Student Grant programs. In addition, she maintains the projects database, approves annual and final reports of grant projects, tracks trends in grant funding across all the grant programs, and works with grantees on the progress of their grant project. She also assists the program director and regional staff where appropriate.
Contact:
111 Stuckey Drive, Room 207, Stuckey Building
University of Georgia Griffin Campus
Griffin, GA 30223-1731
Ph: (770) 412-4786
David Redhage, PDP Manager
David Redhage, the agricultural economist for the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Oklahoma, is the program coordinator for Southern SARE Professional Development Program. The Professional Development Program provides sustainable agriculture education and outreach strategies for Cooperative Extension System and Natural Resources Conservation Service staff and other agricultural educators who work directly with farmers and ranchers. David's responsibilities include coordinating the annual grant process, reviewing and approving final grant reports, and reporting twice a year to the Southern Region SARE Administrative Council. David also oversees the state ag coordinators and their model state programs in the implementation of sustainable agriculture efforts within each Southern SARE state.
Contact:
Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture
24456 Kerr Road, Poteau, OK 74953
Ph: (918) 647-9123
Madalyn (Maddie) Templeton, PDP Program Assistant
As the Southern SARE PDP Program Assistant Maddie works on various aspects of supporting the overall program. Some of the major activities include planning the joint AC and State SARE coordinator meeting and arranging for reviews and travel accommodations, as well as assisting in the coordination of the annual grant process.
Before coming to SARE Maddie was working on obtaining her bachelors degree in Agricultural Leadership with minors in Agricultural Communications and Event Management from the University of Arkansas, which she received in December 2023.
Contact:
Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture
24456 Kerr Rd., Poteau, OK 74953
Ph: (918) 647-9123, ext. 218
Denise Quick, Associate accountant
Denise Quick provides accounting support for the management of the program with project investigators, accountants in the various universities, and the Kerr Center. She is responsible for the daily accounting operations of the award management for the SSARE budgets. Her duties include reconciliation of project budgets, checking and reviewing the contract budgets and allowable expenditures, assisting project investigators for new grants, budgets and invoicing, budget modifications, check requests for payments, and no cost extensions. She prepares check requests for payments for active Internal Accounts and active subcontracts, including On-Farm, Producer, Research & Education, Education, Professional Development Program, and Graduate Student; State Model Plans; Model State Assistants; and Model State Enhancements.
Contact:
111 Stuckey Drive, Room 208, Stuckey Building
University of Georgia Griffin Campus
Griffin, GA 30223-1731
Ph: (770) 229-3420
Paul Vincelli, SSARE Scientist-at-large
Paul Vincelli, a plant pathologist at University of Kentucky, serves as Southern SARE's 1862 land grant liaison. Vincelli serves as lead to the Southern SARE Outreach Team to promote the SARE program among administrators, faculty, staff, and Extension in colleges of agriculture, and other community stakeholders across the region. He also increases collaboration between Southern SARE and the 1862 land grant university partners while working with the 1890 minority and limited-resource outreach specialist on efforts related to historically underserved farmers, ranchers and community stakeholders. Vincelli also collaborates with Southern SARE's Professional Development Program manager on efforts related to strengthening sustainable agriculture efforts at the state level.
Contact:
University of Kentucky
207 Plant Science Building
Lexington, KY 40546
Ph: 859-218-0722
Brennan Washington, SSARE Outreach coordinator
Brennan Washington works in close liaison with historically underserved farmers and organizations, including NGOs, community groups, and cooperatives across the Southern region, as well as 1890 land-grant institutions in promoting SSARE grants programs, providing sustainable ag educational resources, enhancing quality grant recipients, networking with regional partners, and building new relationships. Brennan travels extensively across the Southern region working with producers, NGOs, and community groups regarding sustainable agriculture.
Contact:
Fort Valley State University
P.O. Box 406 11005 State University Drive
Fort Valley, GA 31030
Ph: (478) 825-6263
Tydaisha White, Grants Assistant
Tydaisha White provides a variety of administrative support functions, including but not limited to: Reviewing the Graduate Student, On-Farm Research, Producer, and Model State Program Grants to make sure all elements are included; reviewing grant budgets and budget justifications for accuracy and to make sure they are following USDA-NIFA and UGA regulations; processing No-Cost Extension Requests, Budget Revision Requests and PI change requests; the point of contact between newly awarded SARE grants and SPA to check the status of the sub-award contracts; manage UGA internal sub-awards; and communicate with UGA CAES Contracts and Grant's office to submit grant proposals for processing.
Contact:
111 Stuckey Drive, Room 209, Stuckey Building
University of Georgia Griffin Campus
Griffin, GA 30223-1731
Ph: (770) 467-6083