f it's Tuesday, it could be Waynesboro, Smarr or Tifton on Dr. Tom Rodgers’ schedule.

Since joining the College of Family and Consumer Sciences as Associate Dean for Outreach and Extension in July 2000, Rodgers has put several thousands of miles on his truck traveling throughout Georgia and, on occasion, neighboring states.

“A lot of success in outreach and economic development is being at the table,” Rodgers says. “Frequently, you don’t come away with anything. But the next time you may secure a contract to conduct a study. If we’re going to have a role, we have got to be at the table.”

Rodgers brings more than 30 years of university-related experience to his role as associate dean. But, the big influences in his life date back much further.

“Attending the University of Georgia; learning to run our farm in Evans when I was 14 after my father died; and my experiences in 4-H all had a tremendous influence on me,” he says.

“I grew up in 4-H,” he says. “It taught me how to stand on my feet and speak, how to relate to adults, decision-making skills, the importance of a work ethic, and I formed a lot of friendships through 4-H. My first trip to UGA was with a 4-H volunteer leader for a cattle show.”

For 14 years Rodgers had the opportunity to ensure that other children throughout Georgia had the same 4-H opportunities that he enjoyed.

Beginning in 1977, after having spent five years as a community development specialist with the UGA Cooperative Extension Service, Rodgers took on the role of State 4-H Leader.

During that time, he oversaw 100 full-time employees, 100 part-time employees, and four campuses, including Rock Eagle.

Rodgers’ work with 4-H was followed with stints as the Extension Service Assistant Director for County Operations and as UGA Assistant Vice President for Outreach and Public Service, both of which came with a variety of challenges.

“When I started as assistant director for county operations, we were still trying to recover from the tremendous state budget cuts that occurred in the early 1990s,” he says. “My focus was to help Extension reorganize and restructure.”

During his time as Assistant VP for Outreach and Public Service, Rodgers oversaw a far more positive event — bringing the state’s county agents onto the Public Service faculty.

Rodgers views his current position as another opportunity to make a difference in the lives of Georgians.

“When Dean Nickols called me about this position, I saw it as an opportunity to get back with Extension and work with county agents and to help them make their jobs more effective and to help find resources to expand their programs,” he says.

Rodgers is continuously advocating for local level positions to deliver FACS education to Georgia’s eight million citizens. He says at least 30 additional positions are needed. He also has identified a variety of state agencies that can benefit from the expertise of FACS researchers and educators.

“I had kept my economic development ties,” he says. “But when I started talking to economic developers about Family and Consumer Sciences many of them had no idea about the capabilities we have.”

Those capabilities have already born fruit in the form of the Workforce Housing Study, the first of its kind ever conducted in Georgia, which was conducted by the College’s Housing and Demographics Research Center and funded by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

Based on the HDRC’s findings — particularly the realization that workforce housing information was not being kept — the state DCA has expressed interest in the center conducting additional work and maintaining a database of information.

Other projects that Rodgers has helped initiate include work with the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs for a financial literacy program in several of Georgia’s most rural counties and ongoing collaborations with Family Connections, the Rural Council, the Georgia Municipal Association and the Association County Commissioners.

Currently, Rodgers is focusing on increasing the visibility of the College’s work in child-care research and training.

“I don’t think legislators or those with the state Department of Human Resources are aware of our impact on the state’s child-care industry,” he says. “We provide the research base and the required mandatory training for child-care agencies. If we had more resources, we could really help the child-care industry in Georgia and improve the development of young children.”

Whether it’s housing or child-care or food safety, Rodgers says his goal is to ensure that decision-makers in Georgia know how FACS professionals can help them.

“It’s like education programs from the beginning of time,” he says. “You determine their needs from talking with them. You ask, ‘What do you need?’ and then you answer that need. When you do that with enough different groups, they begin to come back to you and look to you as a resource.”

When he’s not working for FACS, Rodgers stays busy with several other activities:

He serves on the board of the 4-H Foundation and is chair of the Athens Area Habitat for Humanity fund-raising committee. He also teaches Sunday school to high school students at Milledge Avenue Baptist Church. He’s traveled to a number of foreign countries, including Brazil, Estonia, Japan, Nicaragua, Honduras and, most recently, the Ukraine, lending his expertise on economic development to countries that in many cases are 30 to 40 years behind the United States in that and other areas. And, he has found time to enjoy fly fishing and restoring a 63-year-old school house that sits on land he owns in Oglethorpe County.

“The school house was established in 1939 as a field school for the children of tenant farmers who worked on the former Barrow plantation,” he says.

“It took about a year to restore,” he says. “I called Judge (James) Barrow and he knew everything about it. I thought it had some potential as a camp house. Besides, I couldn’t stand the thought of it falling in.”

Rodgers’ fly-fishing interest began three years ago when he was given a fly rod by a nephew.

“I took a lesson and went on a guided trip and from there I just started fishing,” he says. “I grew up fishing and fly fishing isn’t that much more difficult, there are just different techniques. I love the peacefulness and concentration that comes with fly fishing. I’ve always loved the water and around every bend in a river you see something new.”

As he completes his 30th year at UGA, Rodgers shows few signs of slowing down.

“I’m working because I enjoy it and it’s a challenge,” he says. “It’s a challenge to bring something back that’s been cut to smithereens. The reason so many FACS county agents positions have been cut is because people don’t understand what it is those folks do. Once we explain it and tell people the things we can do to help their community or their state agency, they get really interested. But most of the time you have to tell that story to people in one-on-one meetings.”

And that means more trips to Camilla, Ellijay and Gordon.