Christy Bartley

Christy Bartley joined Penn State Extension in 1989 and retired in 2017 as Assistant Director of Youth Development, 4-H State Program Leader. Christy raised significant funds for local and statewide programming through grants from the Drug & Alcohol Commission, 4-H Military Kids, and Children, Youth and Families At Risk. She focused on increasing diverse 4-H membership. On the state level, she revamped the liability insurance process to save hundreds of hours for county educators and state level staff. As tax exemption for state programs changed, Christy worked with Penn State University to ensure continuing tax exemption. As a county educator, she worked on the design committee to establish a policy on volunteer screening. As state program leader, she worked with Penn State to apply new child safety policies, including volunteer screening, for over 6,000 4-H volunteers. She served on the Penn State Youth Safety Council. A standardized statewide program was created through the formation of eight program teams. The teams included Common Measures evaluations resulting in more grant success and strong impact statements. Training was developed for novice, practitioner, and expert 4-H educators. Christy served on the inaugural Public/Private Partners Working Group (P3WG). She served as chair and principal writer for the 4-H Guiding Principles updates and assisted writing the National Guidelines for Safe Youth Programs. She served on the inaugural ECOP 4-H Leadership Committee and worked with the team to establish initial goals and guidelines. She served as Military Liaison to USDA and on the Safety in Agriculture for Youth (SAY) Board.