2009 Winneshiek County - Brenda Ranum

Brenda started in Extension right out of high school.  She was the summer assistant at the Extension office in Keokuk County for three years.  In 1985 she went to Rock County in Wisconsin where she became a 4-H Youth Development Specialist for 1 year.  She married David and they moved to Salt Lake City in 1986.  She was the Director of the Children’s Center at the Snowbird Summer & Ski Resort in Salt Lake City.  For one year she was the Parent Educator/Early Childhood Educator with the St. Cloud Public School District in St. Cloud, Minnesota.  In 1990 she came to Decorah to become the Youth Field Specialist for Winneshiek County.  In 1992 after the restructuring she had multiple counties as a Youth Field Specialist (Allamakee, Bremer, Fayette and Winneshiek).  During her time as a Youth Field Specialist she developed, marketed, and implemented a national award-winning character education curriculum (BOOMERANG!) for youth and educators throughout Iowa and the U.S.  In 1999 she had Rylee and decided to stay at home.  She became the Internship and Service Learning Coordinator at the Luther College Career Center from August 2002 to March of 2004.  She was also a Career Counselor at Luther during that time.  In 2004 she became the Winneshiek County Extension Director and has been here since.  She just took the job as Regional Extension Education Director for Region 4, which includes Howard, Winneshiek, Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette and Chickasaw counties.  She has published and presented many programs around the United States.  She has also received several awards while she has been in Extension. 

Brenda has always been about youth development and what is best for the youth in the 4-H program.

Brenda and David have three daughters, Kelsey will be a senior at UNI, Hannah will be a freshman at Luther and Rylee a 4th grader in Decorah.