Hansen Retires From Local Extension Program

Debra Hansen, a longtime Stevens County director and professor for WSU (Washington State University) Extension, is retiring after 26 years.

“My personal philosophy is ‘Everyone does better when everyone does better,’” Hansen said. “All of us have to help each other do good things, and that's how I approach my work. It's not one person doing it and getting all the credit; it’s all of us doing it and all of us doing it better.”

Her last day will be June 25, and she will be celebrated with a farewell open house from 12–4 p.m. at the Stevens County WSU Extension office, 986 South Main Ste D, in Colville.

Hansen said she began working at WSU Extension in March 2000. “I am a county director; I am also a professor at the university in Community and Economic Development.” She elaborated, “I work with people and organizations, cities and towns in this county to help solve problems, and spend a lot of time just trying to figure out what those problems are that they want to fix, and if there’s a way that I can help them find a solution.”

Before her time at WSU, Hansen said she was a graphic designer. “I was working on a brochure with the person that hired me (at WSU Extension) and decided that I could try this job based on his description of the kind of work that it involved. In my early career, I worked as a learning center coordinator, helping adults transition into college through the distance degree program. Then I went back and got my Master’s Degree in Adult Education and then became the county director and faculty after that. I have no prior experience doing this kind of work before I started at WSU.”

Hansen discussed how community problem-solving originally drew her to working at WSU. “It's very community-based education. In our office we have several different programs. We look to solve problems that this community really needs solved and in ways they want to solve them. Instead of coming in as an expert and saying, ‘We know exactly how to fix you,’ you find ways to partner with them or do programs together, or write grants together. There’s lots of different ways to solve problems without one person saying that they have all the answers.”

Hansen said she has enjoyed many aspects of her job. “It's the people I work with in my office; it's the people that I work with across the state, and the people I work with in this community. I mean everybody cares about their communities, and we are all trying to solve the problems. It’s a very engaging career because you are always looking for creative and interesting solutions and ways to get that done.”

Speaking to challenging moments, Hansen said, “All my career, I worked on trying to solve broadband [internet] access for people in our community. It was really challenging because we’re so rural, so sparsely populated, and the internet companies at the time couldn’t make a business case to bring internet out to these small communities.” Hansen said she spent years working with legislators, the governor's office, and federal partners to bring broadband internet to the area. “It's been 26 years working on it. The most challenging thing was trying to get people to understand the disparities of being in a rural community versus living in an urban community where you have a lot more assets and capacity and money to do things.”

She also spoke to the many projects she’s contributed to. “I worked on this project called ‘a distributive conference’ where you have a speaker give a presentation to multiple locations and the locations themselves become mini conferences,” Hansen said. The benefit of these conferences is that people do not have to travel as far. “It allows us to learn new things, then talk locally about how to do it. We have talked about topics like women in agriculture or rural entrepreneurship, or the opioid crisis, and it became this method of us being able to own our own story yet still learn from experts at other locations.”

Hansen said another proud accomplishment was creating an evaluation tool called “Ripple Effects Mapping.” According to Hansen, Ripple Effects Mapping can help policymakers evaluate the impact of their efforts; by engaging community stakeholders, the participation of the group creates an atmosphere of cooperation, data sharing, and creativity, increasing the odds of success and preventing setbacks.

“I partnered with some other colleagues, and we wrote a field book. Now, that field guide has been downloaded about 37,000 times in 100 different countries,” Hansen said. “People all over the world have been doing Ripple Mapping.”

When talking about her decision to retire, Hansen said, “You need to have fresh ideas, approaches, and energy to do things in a new and different way. Technology changes, ways of thinking change, as you get older you start to not have the energy to pick up new things as easily.” She added, “I heard a great quote from somebody who recently retired, ‘I am going to retire and rewire.’ I am going to take a break to figure out what it is that I want to do and how I want to do it. I know I’ll do some more Ripple Mapping because I enjoy it.”

As she reflected on her past experiences, Hansen advised future generations to “be curious. Listen to groups and communities that you work with because oftentimes the answer is there. Sometimes the solution isn't there, or how to get to the solution, but people know themselves, and they know their communities.”

“The other thing that I like about Ripple Effects Mapping is you talk about what’s working in your community and in your organization,” she added. “You build on that; you do not talk about the negative things, you positively frame what you're working on, then you can build on and do more. My advice would be, stick to what strengths you have, talk about what's positive, and be curious about what the answer could be.”