Karen Watts DiCicco – Ph.D. and Promotion
Assistant Director of Information Technology, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service
Karen Watts DiCicco recently graduated from UA Little with a Ph.D. in computer and information science and, as a result, was promoted to the assistant director of information technology at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. Karen finished up an educational journey that started 13 years ago and she continues to advance in her career with Extension. She began her career at Extension in 2017 as a part-time employee. In 2019 she was hired as Extension’s first digital and IT innovation manager, where she explored new and emerging technologies and how they can be implemented with Division of Agriculture applications. Karen has received several awards in the past few years. These include: • Arkansas Association of Cooperative Extension Specialist – Brett Barham Extension Innovation Award (March 2020) • National Extension Technology Community (NETC) – Award for Innovation (June 2020) • Extension Excellence Award for Early Career-Project/Program Administrator (December 2020) Congratulations to Karen, we are proud of your hard work and dedication to yourself, your family, and your department.