Leonel Jimenez, who grew up in region, serves Kings, Kern and Tulare counties
Born and raised in Reedley, just south of Fresno, Leonel Jimenez watched his parents work in vineyards, stone-fruit orchards, and fields of strawberries and onions. Immigrants from Mexico, they urged Jimenez to study hard, while using a prospective future of farm labor as a threat.
“My dad said, ‘If you guys don’t want to study, then you’re going to be working in the field, breaking your back,’” Jimenez recalled. “So that’s not what I wanted to do; I thought agriculture was a way to work hard – and not make any money.”
But as he progressed through his educational and professional journey, Jimenez gained a deeper appreciation of what a job in agriculture could look like.
“I went from a narrow view at the bottom of a funnel to the top of the funnel; I was no longer at that bottleneck,” he explained. “And so I was able to see the different perspectives of what all goes into agriculture.”
That 360-degree understanding of farming – and of the productive Central Valley that positions California as the top food-producing state in the U.S. – make Jimenez a perfect fit for his latest career stop.
In February, he started as the University of California Cooperative Extension area director for Kings, Kern and Tulare counties. He supervises a team of advisors and staff who provide expertise and guidance on a host of crucial challenges – from crop diseases and pests to irrigation and fertilizer management, and from livestock predation to local water policy.
“When they’re talking, they talk from the heart – you can feel it; they truly believe in what they’re doing,” Jimenez said of his UCCE team members. “That is Cooperative Extension – we are the people that you go to church with; we go to the same restaurants that you do. We understand the main issues of our local community.”
“What I’m doing in Tulare County is completely different than what they’re doing in Fresno, and what I’m doing in Tulare is different than what they do in my other county, Kern,” he added. “It’s all unique and specific; that’s the beauty of it.”
To better grasp those nuances, Jimenez has been traveling extensively through the southern San Joaquin Valley during his first months on the job. For Jimenez, a self-described “science geek,” a lifetime of learning and research has prepared him well to absorb as much as he can from his UC Agriculture and Natural Resources colleagues.
“I’m learning from agronomists; learning from a dairy advisor; learning from a youth, families and communities advisor, a pomologist, a specialist on stone fruit, and another on viticulture – the list goes on and on,” Jimenez said. “My jaw just drops at the wealth of knowledge.”
Passion for chemistry guided Jimenez on ‘full circle’ journey
In Jimenez’s younger days, however, his quest for knowledge pointed him in a very different direction – pharmacy school. With a passion for chemistry, Jimenez took prerequisite classes at Reedley College and worked at a local pharmacy, where he realized the day-to-day routine as a pharmacist did not suit him. He wanted a career with more interaction and connection with people.
So, after Jimenez finished his undergraduate degree in chemistry at UC Santa Barbara, he landed a job with Siemens in Los Angeles. He ascended the ranks and was on a path toward a Research and Development position by studying for his master’s degree in chemistry from California State University, Northridge.
But then the company relocated its office to Germany, and Jimenez returned to Reedley. He interviewed for a job at the U.S. Department of Agriculture research facility in Parlier, down the road from his childhood home and across the street from UC ANR’s Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center.
Spencer Walse, a USDA Agricultural Research Service chemist, hired Jimenez, who soon got a crash course in entomology. After training in Florida, Jimenez spent a year in South America, studying methods of controlling the Chilean false red mite (Brevipalpus chilensis), an invasive species threatening the table grape industry.
Through his research with USDA, Jimenez became steeped in postharvest fumigation techniques – and collaborated with a host of researchers affiliated with UC ANR and Kearney REC, including Mary Lu Arpaia, Jim Adaskaveg, Elizabeth Grafton-Cardwell and Sandipa Gautam, among others.
Thus, he came to appreciate the value of UC Cooperative Extension and, after running a postharvest fumigation company for several years, he jumped at the chance to lead UCCE efforts in his region.
“I wanted to go back and serve my local community,” Jimenez said. “And when I saw this director position open up, I said, ‘Man, here is a great way to go full circle.’ It all came together.”
Jimenez excited to tout diverse UCCE programs, research
The UCCE job also incorporates Jimenez’s experience in the education sector. He taught chemistry to high schoolers through the Upward Bound program, intended for students from lower-income households, and also taught night classes at College of the Sequoias and Reedley College, his alma mater.
His chemistry professor at Reedley College, Jan Dekker, said he is not surprised at Jimenez’s ability to mentor young people. Dekker, who hails from the Netherlands, hired Jimenez as a lab assistant and remembers he was always a skilled communicator and great role model for others.
As an organizer of a major STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education conference in the Central Valley, Dekker invited Jimenez to speak to the students.
“It’s so important for young students at a community college to hear from people who have received their degree and moved on to successful careers – and Leonel was one of them,” Dekker said. “He was a very positive ambassador at the STEM conferences.”
In his new job, Jimenez is an enthusiastic ambassador for UC Cooperative Extension.
“I’ve come to the conclusion – from meetings that I’ve had with boards of supervisors and various department head meetings – no one really knows what Cooperative Extension does, and that’s a situation I want to change,” said Jimenez, adding that he now provides regular updates to governmental officials and managers.
He tailors his pitch to each audience, highlighting the diversity of UCCE offerings – as well as how the programs and research can provide specific benefits, whether it’s higher crop yields or a healthier home garden.
Jimenez said he is grateful for UCCE advisors showing him their work in the field, and he often posts photos and videos on LinkedIn about what he is seeing and doing.
“I always love learning,” Jimenez said. “I tell my kids: Just because I have a paper that says I went to school and I’m done, that doesn’t mean I know everything. It just means the more you learn, the more you know that you don’t know.”
And as he shares with his two young sons everything that he is absorbing from UC ANR academics and staff, he knows they are getting a more encompassing picture of all the possibilities in agriculture and natural resources.
“My kids know all of that stuff already,” Jimenez said. “It’s beautiful.”