![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/06\/DaltonFam-300x169.jpg\")
When working at home, Dockery strives to balance work and a full house, as his wife and kids are also home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the advancement of technology and the use of Zoom to hold meetings and interact with clientele, I am managing,\u201d Dockery says. \u201cWhen I do go into the office to manage paperwork and check on things, my wife declares it\u2019s to get away from her and the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is very quiet at the NC Cooperative Extension office in Columbus County with a skeleton crew of two Extension employees and maintenance workers. The silence is only interrupted by phone calls that Dockery routes to the agriculture, 4-H, family and consumer sciences and community and rural development agents who are working from home.<\/p>\n
Associate Dean and Director of NC State Extension Rich Bonanno praised Dockery\u2019s dedication. \u201cDalton is a talented, effective and dedicated individual who never loses sight of his desire to help the people of Columbus County and NC. Whether it is his normal duties as director or agricultural agent, or being away from home for days at a time during a hurricane, flood, or other natural disaster, Dalton never wavers. I am honored to call him both a colleague and friend,” Bonanno said.<\/p>\n\n
A top priority right now, as always, is supporting farmers, Dockery said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our major program areas is agricultural production and helping farmers to remain profitable. Many of our agricultural clientele rely on us to provide information as it relates to their agricultural practices. This information is crucial in terms of making agricultural business decisions. These decisions can be the difference between profitability and bankruptcy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, community members turned to NC Cooperative Extension on issues ranging from helping young people to develop leadership skills through 4-H to safely cooking a meal to prevent foodborne illnesses. Dockery and his team are working tirelessly to continue providing research-based information to their community throughout this time of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Keith Walters, Southeast District Extension director said Dockery\u2019s leadership makes a difference in Columbus County.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Dockery has had many notable accomplishments during his more than 25 years of service while working to address the needs of the local community with North Carolina Cooperative Extension at NC State University,\u201d Walters said. \u201cHis record of success includes expanding program outreach, securing external funding support, developing new programs, reaching new audiences and collaborating with new partners, while also increasing the vital financial support from our local government partner in Columbus County.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moving forward, Dockery challenges colleagues to continue using the technology we\u2019ve adopted in the past few months, along with implementing rigorous office safety and sanitation practices.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/06\/IMG_0919-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a team at the NC Cooperative Extension in Columbus County,\u201d Dockery said. \u201cI am thankful every day for those who I work with. We depend on each other and we will get through this pandemic together. Even though we may face challenges in this new environment, we will continue to persevere. We will be wearing face masks, doing lots of hand washing and sanitizing just about everything, including door knobs and points of contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dockery said the Covid-19 pandemic has caused the world to change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has caused us to look at what really matters,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are fighting something that we cannot physically see, but it is something that has unified us in terms of working together to achieve a common goal. The goal of finding a vaccine and the recognition that teamwork is a must. This pandemic does not discriminate based on race, creed or gender. It serves notice that it is an equal opportunist and to defeat it we must all work together for the good of mankind. The ultimate question is, when the pandemic has passed, what will we have learned from it?<\/p>\n
\u201cI am looking forward to the day when all of our staff members can return to work in a safe and healthy environment,\u201d Dockery said.<\/p>\n
Thank you for all you do for everyone at CALS.<\/p>\n
Have a coworker who is an essential employee and deserves recognition? Email cals_communications@ncsu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"Since March 16, Dr. Dalton Dockery, Columbus County Cooperative Extension director, has been splitting his time between the office and home. It\u2019s a challenge, as it is for many of us.\r\n\r\nThe Extension office in Columbus County is currently closed to the public: however, the team fields phone calls and sees clients by appointment.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_45693\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"600\"] Although many of us are working from home, a few necessary people must physically stay on campus to keep the CALS Community up and running. Check out our series Essentially CALS to learn more about our incredible community. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":63856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[277,276,367,348,4],"tags":[402],"class_list":["post-45692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admin","category-shout-out","category-covid-19","category-extension","category-faculty","tag-essentially-cals"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45692"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63857,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45692\/revisions\/63857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/intranet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} No way Dalton wants to escape this happy bunch.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen working at home, Dockery strives to balance work and a full house, as his wife and kids are also home.\r\n\r\n\u201cWith the advancement of technology and the use of Zoom to hold meetings and interact with clientele, I am managing,\u201d Dockery says. \u201cWhen I do go into the office to manage paperwork and check on things, my wife declares it\u2019s to get away from her and the kids.\u201d\r\n\r\nIt is very quiet at the NC Cooperative Extension office in Columbus County with a skeleton crew of two Extension employees and maintenance workers. The silence is only interrupted by phone calls that Dockery routes to the agriculture, 4-H, family and consumer sciences and community and rural development agents who are working from home.\r\n\r\nAssociate Dean and Director of NC State Extension Rich Bonanno praised Dockery\u2019s dedication. \u201cDalton is a talented, effective and dedicated individual who never loses sight of his desire to help the people of Columbus County and NC. Whether it is his normal duties as director or agricultural agent, or being away from home for days at a time during a hurricane, flood, or other natural disaster, Dalton never wavers. I am honored to call him both a colleague and friend,\" Bonanno said.\r\n\r\n[pullquote align=\"right\" color=\"red\"]Whether it is his normal duties as director or ag agent, ... Dalton never wavers.[\/pullquote]\r\n\r\nA top priority right now, as always, is supporting farmers, Dockery said.\r\n\r\n\u201cOne of our major program areas is agricultural production and helping farmers to remain profitable. Many of our agricultural clientele rely on us to provide information as it relates to their agricultural practices. This information is crucial in terms of making agricultural business decisions. These decisions can be the difference between profitability and bankruptcy.\u201d\r\n\r\nPrior to the COVID-19 pandemic, community members turned to NC Cooperative Extension on issues ranging from helping young people to develop leadership skills through 4-H to safely cooking a meal to prevent foodborne illnesses. Dockery and his team are working tirelessly to continue providing research-based information to their community throughout this time of uncertainty.\r\n\r\nKeith Walters, Southeast District Extension director said Dockery\u2019s leadership makes a difference in Columbus County.\r\n\r\n\u201cDr. Dockery has had many notable accomplishments during his more than 25 years of service while working to address the needs of the local community with North Carolina Cooperative Extension at NC State University,\u201d Walters said. \u201cHis record of success includes expanding program outreach, securing external funding support, developing new programs, reaching new audiences and collaborating with new partners, while also increasing the vital financial support from our local government partner in Columbus County.\u201d\r\n\r\nMoving forward, Dockery challenges colleagues to continue using the technology we\u2019ve adopted in the past few months, along with implementing rigorous office safety and sanitation practices.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201cWe are a team at the NC Cooperative Extension in Columbus County,\u201d Dockery said. \u201cI am thankful every day for those who I work with. We depend on each other and we will get through this pandemic together. Even though we may face challenges in this new environment, we will continue to persevere. We will be wearing face masks, doing lots of hand washing and sanitizing just about everything, including door knobs and points of contact.\u201d\r\n\r\nDockery said the Covid-19 pandemic has caused the world to change.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt has caused us to look at what really matters,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are fighting something that we cannot physically see, but it is something that has unified us in terms of working together to achieve a common goal. The goal of finding a vaccine and the recognition that teamwork is a must. This pandemic does not discriminate based on race, creed or gender. It serves notice that it is an equal opportunist and to defeat it we must all work together for the good of mankind. The ultimate question is, when the pandemic has passed, what will we have learned from it?\r\n\r\n\u201cI am looking forward to the day when all of our staff members can return to work in a safe and healthy environment,\u201d Dockery said.\r\n\r\nThank you for all you do for everyone at CALS.\r\n\r\nHave a coworker who is an essential employee and deserves recognition? Email cals_communications@ncsu.edu<\/a>."},"excerpt":{"rendered":"