Program Coordinator, Department of Extension Home Economics, New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Kari Bachman, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, has coordinated New Mexico's Ideas for Cooking and Nutrition Program (I CAN) for the past five years. I CAN employs paraprofessional educators in urban and rural counties to teach a series of hands-on nutrition classes to limited resource adults and youth. The program encourages and supports participants in their adoption of desirable behaviors in the areas of nutrition, food safety, food preparation and food resource management. In this position, Kari has trained paraprofessional and professional staff, built relationships with other state and federal programs, and evaluated I CAN's effectiveness. In addition, Kari has developed a variety of innovative educational media, including videos, CD-ROMs and curricula. These materials are used around the country with class participants as well as in training nutrition educators. The majority of these materials are available in Spanish, and many are also available in Navajo. Prior to her employment with the NMSU Cooperative Extension Service, Kari worked in a variety of non-formal education settings in the U.S., Africa and Latin America.
