Prior to becoming a Kansas Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development Specialist, and after a 16 year career as homemaker and mother of four, Marcia worked as an elementary teacher and elementary school counselor. She joined Kansas 4-H in 1980, writing materials and providing training focused on expanding 4-H audiences. Her curricula included affective learning skills for 4-H leaders; self-care support for children home alone after school; after-school-day-care programming; minority student retention programming; and a co-authored substance abuse prevention curriculum that was adopted by 45 states and named one of 20 Exemplary Prevention Programs in the U.S.
Marcia began conducting training in many states which led to an appointment with USDA/National 4-H Council to design a framework for staff development curricula for expanding audiences. Marcia was named Project Director of a USDA/Army School-Age and Teen Project grant, leading a design team from five land grant universities to develop and deliver a curriculum for Army Child and Youth Service staff to prepare them to deliver positive youth development opportunities in their after-school settings. She coordinated and co-conducted this training worldwide and obtained a 3-hour distance learning credit status from K-State. Marcia was responsible for a train-the-trainer version of the curriculum which she co-trained to Extension faculty from 23 states.
