Women in Ag Spotlight on Dr. Tiffany Franklin, SU Ag Center’s Vice Chancellor for Extension and Outreach

Baton Rouge, La. - Dr. Tiffany Franklin, Vice Chancellor for Extension and Outreach, has worked in every area of the Southern University Ag Center’s Cooperative Extension Program. Dr. Franklin has been employed with the SU Ag Center for 21 years.

Her career at Southern begin in 2005 when Dr. Franklin served as a program analysisfor the Family and Human Development department. Five years later, Dr. Franklin was promoted to program director for a military families grant. She has also served in positions within the Agriculture and Natural Resources area.

“I have worked across all areas in Extension,” expressed Dr. Franklin. “I’ve worked in the Family and Human Development area, I’m worked as the Youth Development Specialist, I’ve worked in Ag and Natural Resources, and had some collaborations with Community Development. So, I’ve worked in all of the areas,” she added.

Outside of the SU Ag Center, Dr. Franklin was employed for two years with the USDA as a Program Specialist in the Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement.

When asked why she selected a career in Ag, Dr. Franklin said that was an interesting story because she grew up in rural north Louisiana in Tensas Parishin a small town called Waterproof. Growing up the only aspect of agriculturethat she saw dealt with farming and animals.

“When I became employed with the SU Ag Center in 2005, I didn’t realize that I could actually work with families and people,” said Dr. Franklin. “So at that point, I became more passionate about making sure that young people knew about the opportunities in Agriculture and knew all about Agriculture. That it’s not just animals and farming. I wanted them to know the human side of Ag and how you can work with people. So that’s how I ended up in Ag, but my passion grew after Igot here and I was more intentional on educating people about Agriculture,” she stated.

Dr. Franklin has had many accomplishments throughout her career at the Southern University Ag Center. When asked about her proudest accomplishment she said it was the development of the Second Chance to Recovery Program.

“It started out as a mini grant that Dr. (Gina) Eubanks (former SU Ag Center Vice Chancellor for Extension) gave when they had internal funds to allow you to develop an idea,” she explained. “We launched the Second Chance to Recovery Program which was an initiative to work inside the prisons and educate women through a pre-release program. The women were within three to six months of their release, and the program taught them basic life skills, angry management, self-esteem building, and leadership development. We taught classes every other Tuesday in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. It was successful and it extended to Elayn Hunt Correctional Center and the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW).”

Through that program, Dr. Franklin and her staff created the Road to Freedom, which provided the participants with steps from ‘a to z’ on what to do when they were released.

“We guided them through topics such as how to obtain your license, where to go for housing and other resources. The overall goal was to prepare them to return to society to avoid them from being rearrested by helping them obtain the skills them needed. So that was probably one of my worth wild accomplishments,” she shared.

When asked what advice she had for women who wanted to pursue a career in agriculture Dr. Franklin encouraged women to get hands-on experience, such as summer internship programs where they can get exposure to it.

“BAYOU is an excellent example because it goes through each area of Ag and gives them a little more insight to at least ask more questions,” said Franklin.  

She also encourages women not to sell themselves short.

“Just because it sounds like a male dominated field, there’s a place for women in agriculture,” she explained. “If you look at leadership on a national level now, we have alot of women in high-ranking positions and that did not happen in the past. So, I would just tell them don’t limit yourself because as I stated earlier in my story, I had no idea that I could work with people while in this space. Don’t put yourself in a box, keep an open mind and be open to trying new things.”