In 2024, the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service was awarded a Grand Challenge planning grant focused on improving the health of Kentuckians through synergizing cross-sector partnerships (PI: Dr. Laura Stephenson). This initiative embraces a broad definition of health that includes the well-being of people, animals, communities, and the environment. It recognizes the interconnected nature of these systems. Improving health in Kentucky means fostering resilient communities socially, economically, and ecologically by addressing complex challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, and environmental threats.   

The project brought together Cooperative Extension collaborators and university health partners, including key stakeholders from the Community Engagement Core of the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS), public health experts, community health workers, One Health specialists, and academic medical centers. Each of the working groups engaged in the intensive work of building trust, developing shared language, identifying areas of overlap, and imagining new ways to partner for the common good.

To support and enhance this planning process, Dr. Nicole Breazeale led a student engagement effort that brought valuable research capacity and fresh perspective to the table. She supervised two students: an undergraduate SPARK scholar (Students Participating as Ambassadors for Research in Kentucky) and a graduate assistant in Community and Leadership Development. Meeting weekly (and often more frequently), Dr. Breazeale helped guide their work and integrate their efforts with the broader planning process. Together, these students became an integral part of the team, gathering, synthesizing, and presenting research that is shaping the initiative’s framework and proposed action steps.

One important area of focus has been revisiting Kentucky Extension’s own health legacy, particularly the HEEL initiative, or Health Education through Extension Leadership, launched in the early 2000s. HEEL was a major statewide effort to support Extension agents, especially in Family and Consumer Sciences, in leading health-related programs across Kentucky. Although the formal initiative ended, many of its successful programs continued under different names and structures. Understanding the roots and impact of HEEL has been essential to this planning process. To support that understanding, the student team conducted interviews with former UK administrators who helped launch and sustain HEEL during its most active years.

In summer 2025, the undergraduate SPARK student (Barrie) launched an independent qualitative study to complement those interviews. Using photo-elicitation and semi-structured interviews, her research focuses on the lived experiences of 12 former Extension agents who led health programming under HEEL. Her goal is to better understand what worked, what challenges agents faced, and what lessons might inform a sustainable and broad-based health strategy moving forward. Her study is especially focused on how Extension might re-center health across all program areas, including 4-H, agriculture and natural resources, community development, arts, and family and consumer sciences. Breazeale is helping arrange and conduct these interviews.

At the same time, the students have taken the lead in transforming what began as a loosely structured literature search into a rigorous scoping review of Extension and health partnerships nationwide. Using Covidence software, they screened 1,720 scholarly articles and narrowed the pool to 72 for extraction and analysis. Along with three Extension faculty members (Breazeale, Luecking, Burgdolf-Norman), they are now beginning the process of coding and synthesizing findings, with a manuscript planned for submission in spring 2026. This research will help the team describe what kinds of Extension-health partnerships have been tried, what strategies are most promising, and what conditions are needed for success.

This student-driven research effort, guided by Dr. Breazeale, reflects the best of Cooperative Extension. It honors lived experience, builds from past success, and applies critical inquiry to shape a healthier and more connected future for Kentucky communities.