Dr. Norma Samuel
is an Extension Agent with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences (UF-IFAS) Extension. Dr. Samuel is the current Chair of the Caribbean Agricultural
Extension Providers’ Network (CAEPNet) and President
of the Board of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS). She received her bachelor’s (1997) and master’s (1999) degree in
Plant Protection and Pest Management from the University of Georgia. She holds
a PhD in Agricultural Education and Communication with an emphasis on
International Extension and a minor in Nonprofit Organizations from the
University of Florida (2014). Before
migrating to the U.S., she worked with the Ministry of Agriculture in Antigua
and Barbuda on a research station and with the Plant Protection and Quarantine
Unit. She has 18 years of experience as
an Extension Agent in the areas of residential and commercial horticulture,
Master Gardener Coordinator, and 4-H youth development. Dr. Samuel has expertise
in the areas of pest management, volunteer development; risk management; human
and organizational capacity building, and of the extension system in the US and
the Caribbean. She has led and or
participated in several international Extension projects in the Caribbean and
Ghana. Dr. Samuel has over 300 publications in newspapers, newsletters, and
peer-reviewed papers and curricula and is the recipient of numerous
professional awards.