About Mission Extension

Hi, my name is Jim Langcuster. I go by “ExtensionGuy” on Twitter.

I am a news and public affairs specialist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System who, among other things, serves as Extension’s principal news blogger.  I also write feature stories, columns, op-eds, press releases and sundry other things, though my training, curiously enough, is in broadcast-film-communication.

I’m also fascinated with the whole concept of social networking and the role this eventually will play in the work of people like me.  Without a doubt, it will revolutionize our work as Cooperative Extension educators in ways we cannot yet imagine.

A native of north Alabama, I hold a B.A. in political science and a B.A. in Radio-Television-Film and Sociology from the University of North Alabama (UNA). As corny as it sounds, UNA, aside from my family, is the greatest thing that ever happened to me.  After graduating from UNA, I enrolled in the University of Alabama, where I completed my master’s degree in telecommunications.

I started this blog basically because I have a lot more to say than what otherwise can fit into my blogs on the Alabama Extension Web site.  As any Extension professional will agree, there really is  a back story to every one of the official stories, and I feel a strong compulsion to discuss them from time to time.

That, in a nutshell, is the purpose of this page.