Posted: February 23, 2018

We are pleased to announce that Heather Manzo has joined the Northeast Center as its Associate Director for Extension, effective January 2018. In this role, Heather will work with Extension Educators across the region to identify opportunities for cross-state collaborations and sharing of programs, and will help document the impact of Community and Economic Development Extension programs across the region.

Heather has spent the past decade as an Extension Educator with Penn State Extension's Entrepreneurship and Community Development Team, and will continue to contribute to that team while with the Center. She is a regional food system and community economic development professional specializing in the business, marketing and policy needs related to agriculture and land use. She is also co-founder and a steering committee member of the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council.

Heather's experience prior to joining Penn State includes leading and implementing organizational-level sustainability plans, LEED certification project management, and managing an international grant program for ethnobotanical research. Her formal education includes a master's degree in Sustainable Systems and a bachelor's degree in Business and Marketing. In her free time she practices Permaculture, tends to grow pumpkin patches in her front yard, and explores Penn's woods on bike, foot, and skis.