Local Extension agent, Patricia E. “Trish” DeHond received an award from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) at its annual meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.
DeHond, Area Agronomy Agent for Dillon, Marlboro and Darlington Counties, was selected by her fellow South Carolina agriculture agents to receive the Achievement Award. This award recognizes agents who have served Extension for fewer than ten years, for excellence in the field; just one percent of each state’s members receive the awards each year.
DeHond was recognized for her work in developing the agronomy and horticulture programs in her county through the Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service.
She works closely with clients and agents in her three-county area in the northeastern corner of the state and across the Pee Dee region, and is respected for her leadership statewide.
Since November 2007, Trish DeHond has served as Area Agronomy Agent, starting out in Darlington County, then acquiring additional responsibilities in Dillon and Marlboro Counties, as well as briefly serving Florence and Chesterfield Counties during budget cutbacks. She previously served for four years as Horticulture Agent and Coordinator of the Darlington County Horticulture Partnership in the late 1990s. During that time, she provided Master Gardener volunteer training, and tree care, landscape design and maintenance advice for the Cities of Darlington, Hartsville and the Towns of Lamar and Society Hill as well as for Darlington County government. She still appears frequently on live television as an expert panelist and chatroom host on SCETV’s award-winning gardening program, Making It Grow! Her successful educational programming in row crop production includes an annual Commodity Marketing and Risk Management Symposium. These programs on
corn, cotton, soybean, wheat, peanut and tobacco production, as well as trouble-shooting disease and insect problems in the field, help the local farming and agribusiness community to be more productive and profitable.
Trish currently serves as President of the South Carolina Association of County Agricultural Agents and also served as Spouses’ Program Chairman for the National meeting in Charleston at which the award was presented.