Delaney Weisend hired as Tuscarawas County OSU Extension agriculture educator

The Tuscarawas County Office of Ohio State University Extension has hired Delaney Weisend as its new agriculture and natural resources educator.

Weisend succeeds Chris Zoller, who is serving as assistant director for agriculture and natural resources for Ohio State University Extension in The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences in Columbus.

Weisend earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business from Wilmington College, where she studied agricultural finance, economics, policy, communications, farm management and animal nutrition. She later earned a master’s degree in agricultural education and leadership from Oklahoma State University. Her thesis focused on implementing a pilot rural youth civic leadership curriculum for 4-H teen leaders.

Her graduate studies emphasized leadership in agriculture and Extension, the diffusion of change and innovation, and cognitive problem-solving styles. While at Oklahoma State, she also helped teach youth and adults about time management, incorporating artificial intelligence tools into daily work and using parliamentary procedure to conduct meetings.

Weisend is a certified Kirton Adaption-Innovation practitioner and has worked with teams to improve workplace efficiency by helping members understand their preferred problem-solving styles.

She grew up on her family’s farm raising Fleckvieh beef cattle and was active in 4-H and FFA. In her new role, Weisend said she looks forward to serving Tuscarawas County by providing programming focused on farm management and cognitive problem-solving.