From Outreach to Impact: Extension’s Role with Military-Connected Communities. With Rachel Brauner and Karrie Calloway

This episode of Practicing Connection explores the incredible bridge-building work happening in Texas with guest Karrie Calloway - military liaison, educator, chef, and advocate - who doesn’t just connect resources, but transforms lives.

Join host Jessica Beckendorf and guest co-host Rachel Brauner for a compelling conversation today with Karrie Calloway, Texas 4-H Military Liaison and a passionate advocate for military-connected families. 

Karrie shares her unique journey from farm-to-table learning and culinary arts to leading statewide initiatives that support youth, families, and thriving communities.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The daily work of connecting Extension agents, volunteers, and installations to create meaningful support networks.
• Practical, high-impact ways anyone can do to include and empower military-connected families in their programs.
• The crucial role of volunteers in building bridges for military youth and families.
• Sustaining yourself in service-oriented work—and why ongoing connection matters.

Whether you’re an Extension professional, service provider, volunteer, or simply interested in community-building, you’ll walk away inspired by fresh ideas and the power of purposeful connection.

Links and resources from this episode:

• Military Culture: A Guide for Extension Professionals
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: practicingconnection@oneop.org 

OneOp Academy is a free online series designed for anyone interested in positive change, whether you're an educator, community leader, student, or just passionate about supporting families.

This year's Academy spotlights the unique challenges facing military connected youth, from mental health to resilience education to community support.

 Explore the 2025 OneOp Academy and register today at oneop.org/series/2025academy

Transcript

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:00:00] Hi, welcome to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Jessica Beckendorf, and I'm so excited today to welcome not only our guest, but also a guest co-host, Rachel Bronner from OneOp. Rachel works with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, specializing in military and community health. She brings a ton of expertise supporting service members and families. Rachel, welcome. Would you mind introducing yourself a bit?

RACHEL BRAUNER: Hi. Thanks for having me. As you mentioned Jessica, I support OneOp’s efforts, especially within the lifespan caregiving area, but I also serve as an extension program specialist for military and community health with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, as you mentioned. And in this role I really develop and deliver educational programs that supports providers, service members, military families, and those department defense civilians. 

[00:01:00] And a lot of my work really focuses on topics like Alzheimer's disease and dementia, caring for older adults and individuals with disabilities, especially those when we think about maybe children with special healthcare needs. I also have done work surrounding mental health and alcohol and substance use. Then I also work closely with military professionals across the country to really help better understand caregiver needs and provide services that help reduce those challenges of caring maybe for either a wounded service member or, as I mentioned, those individuals with special needs. 

And then I've had the opportunity to really support prevention and education programs throughout the state of Texas, really in those family support programs on Texas military installations. So a lot of the work that we've done here, is work in partnerships with Joint Base San Antonio, Fort Bliss and Fort Hood.

So I'm just excited to be here today and help support this podcast.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: One thing I didn't mention is that this is your [00:02:00] first time on this podcast. I've been going through the different collaboration teams, on all of our colleagues and collaborating on episodes like this. So I'm so happy to have you here and you do fantastic work, Rachel. And I'm also looking forward to our conversation today. 

I'm also delighted to welcome our guest, Karrie Callaway. Karrie is a true bridge builder with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Harris County, where she connects agriculture, education, health and community engagement to make a real difference. As the Texas 4-H military liaison, Karrie leads programs for military connected youth and families supporting resilience, leadership and life skills across Texas, from military bases to local communities as well. Your experience, Karrie, I was just blown away.

So she's also a certified chef and educator who creates innovative farm-to-table learning experiences for all ages. And she partners with schools and [00:03:00] organizations to bring nutrition and garden-based education into communities beyond her professional work. Oh, and that's only the tip of the iceberg, by the way. With Karrie, she's got a lot of really cool experiences. Beyond her professional work though, Karrie is also a military spouse and a parent, roles that further inspire her passion for serving military families and building stronger, healthier communities. Karrie , welcome to Practicing Connection.

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Thank you for having me. Thank you. Great introduction.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Thank you. I mean, it was a really difficult one because you have so many cool background experiences. So, you have mentioned in a previous conversation we had that serving people has always been heavy on your heart. So when you think about your journey into extension and this focus on military families, would you say the work found you or you found the work?

KARRIE CALLOWAY: The work definitely found me. I think it actually started a little bit from [00:04:00] childhood, now that I think about it. Just again, feeding the homeless and feeding kids, or giving out toys during Christmas time. And then Extension finding me, it just was a heartfelt thing to kind of serve my community, because I grew up doing it.

RACHEL BRAUNER: And Karrie, your early experience is from growing up around farming, your journey into the Extension program itself and the work that you're doing, and as Jessica mentioned, those farm to table practices, do you see some of the trends carrying throughout your work with the families today?

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Yes, I definitely do. I grew up in a family catering company. So I grew up cooking my whole life. Again, serving in hospitality and just that idea, which I didn't really know of, again, farm to table. I grew up, you know, during summertime, coming to Texas and running around large landmarks.

And so just that connectivity between [00:05:00] food and agriculture really was instilled in me as a very young child. But then to find Extension, that has both these pivotal things that we do to serve our community, we teach people how to cook and be healthy. alongside of this agriculture production of farming and livestock and 4-H and the idea of STEM education for youth.

I think it's like a streamline of all of the things that, again, was instilled in me as a child. And so to be able to translate that and actually teach that to the community, it's very heartfelt and it's very fulfilling.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah. I would say Extension work definitely found me also. So that resonates with me a lot. Like it was just sort of a, it's almost like every, all of my experiences leading up to that was preparing me exactly for Extension work.

So, it sounds like you had a similar kind of [00:06:00] experience.

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Yes, the journey of getting to extension is a very long one, and people say I'm so young to have such a heavy journey. But, I went and studied at a culinary school in New York called the Culinary Institute of America. And then once doing that, I decided to move and go to Australia, and I noticed just the agriculture production and when it relates to restaurant or restaurateur, how that correlates. And I wanted to bring that experience back with me to America. So I went and studied plant and soil science, and in that journey, again, Extension found me. 

While I was going to school, I lived in Houston, a lot of hospitality work while studying my undergrad, and again Extension found me and I found building out different community gardens and just again, while studying, I wanted to be hands-on. It was very important for me. [00:07:00] So started building out these community gardens and Extension got word of me building out these community gardens in Houston, and they came and sat and I fed them barbecue and I cooked for them and I went on this long-winded journey and they were like, “You're gonna be a student aide, we're gonna build you up.” 

So all four years of my undergrad, I was a student aide with Extension. And as soon as I graduated, David Wright, my director here in Harris County, he picked me up and said, “Hey, we need you, we need you as community engagement. You've been doing this work for four years in research, on the community, and it really has taken like wildfire.” 

I think the first two weeks of working for Extension, Fox News called me and I was like, wait, what? What's going on here? And they wanted more information and to talk about again, agriculture production.

So it's literally something that found me and then something that's stuck. I love it.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I didn't realize that the answer to that question was going to be so literal, that like literally they found you. [00:08:00] Incredible.

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Incredible. Yes, actually. So, definitely, I was interviewing and looking for work right after college and I got an email in the middle of an interview and it was from David Wright and he said, “We want to interview for this community engagement job.” And I was like, “Community engagement? I'm a chef and a farmer. How does that correlate?” 

I mean, I do serve the community, and then I realized what that entailed. And during my interview process, I mentioned that I was a military spouse and he was like, “Oh, I have something else, something great for you.” And I was like, “What is it?” And he's like, “We work with these military families and these kids.”

And he got really excited and fired up. And then I got really excited and fired up. And so it literally, again, the work found me and just the right time, right moment.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Awesome.

So Karrie, from your personal journey, let's zoom out a little, [00:09:00] to the kind of work you do now. A really big part of your role is connecting people: extension agents, installations, community partners, which we know isn't always easy. Your role as a liaison is about building bridges, between installations, extension agents, volunteers, families. What does that look like day to day and what challenges do you face, keeping those relationships strong given how often people rotate in and out.

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Yes. So what I really try to do at least every quarter is connect with not only the agents, but also the installations, and connecting the installations with the agent. So I do something called a virtual working call, that allows the agents, and again, the installations to express themselves, simply to have a platform to speak, maybe round table, if you will, of some of the struggles that they're personally having.

Maybe possibly connecting with another agent in their area and/or [00:10:00] maybe some different needs, equipment that they need to start a garden project and or some resources or funding resources or, is there sub-award, grant funding available, to allow them to achieve their next goal or step.

Sometimes it's as easy as shipping out STEM kits to the installation and providing a trainer to the folks that are working at the installation. But with the in and out rotation, a lot of the installation workers are spousal support, and so maybe they're stationed somewhere else in the next couple of months.

So with that being said, sometimes that transition between agent communication and installation communication kind of gets lost in translation. And so I just try to continue to build that relationship with directors there, which is typically a stable person that is on the installation base alongside with the agent.

And then just making sure that communication is streamlined and clear.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Do other states have liaisons like [00:11:00] you? I mean, I know Wisconsin does, I know that some are maybe more active and less active, are you, do you all talk and, share tips?

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Yes, we have conferences, we have academies. Actually one of my colleagues actually just graduated from the academy, which again is almost a three month training where you go to different states and you get to know each other. And you get to connect with the other liaisons and/or other agents that are working with military families.

And so I do feel that the 4-H military partnership makes a pretty important impact, connecting us and setting the stage for us to stay connected with each other. Because again, when you have a family that might get stationed in another state, us having that line of communication is pretty important. Because maybe someone is moving to Texas and they need to connect with us to a local agent, and Texas is so big, so I have to connect them to an agent in that specific county.

But again, vice versa, if someone [00:12:00] moves to Washington DC or for instance, hosts a summer camp where multiple kids came from multiple different states, and they may not necessarily know about 4-H, but they wanna know after the camp happened, I now am connecting them to their state liaison that then connects them to their county agent, and different clubs in that area.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, I'm curious. Because for those of you who may not know Extension very well, for one thing, when Karrie mentions agents, there are some states that refer to their Extension educators as “agents.” Some of them refer to them just as “Extension educators.” So when you hear ‘agent,’ she's really speaking about someone who works for an Extension service who has a certain role that works in communities and counties. For example, my role is in community development and local government. And, Karrie’s role is in youth. She's a youth liaison. Is that your whole role, Karrie? We talked a little bit about your role already, I know [00:13:00] that, but is your whole role with youth, your entire role in Harris County Extension?

KARRIE CALLOWAY: No. So, I'm actually the community engagement coordinator for Harris County specifically. Actually we only have one in the state of Texas, but I work within an urban community, so, you know, we're dealing with over 4.5 million people at any given time in an urban area. And so that community engagement position is really for me not only to engage with possibly our, our local commissioners or mayor's office and or news channels or news stations, but also dealing with media relations, along with communicating with our local, different people that are, again, commissioner, mayor's office, their team and trickles down to the bottom line team.

And then again, you know, Harris Health, who are our local partners. So my boss always says, “My job covers the three Ps: People, Partnership, [00:14:00] and Programs. So all the way from the partnerships and possibly, obtaining some grant funding, to build out these different community gardens, for instance, or working with the local school districts.

We have plenty of those. I'm connecting all of the three Ps, the partnerships, the programs, and the people.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, thank you so much for making that distinction. I know that Extensions operate differently in different states. We are everywhere and we do a lot of similar things like you just described, with the community engagement coordinator. I think you just described so much of what I did when I was working in a county. But we were called community development educators, so it was just very different across the state. So, yeah, Thank you so much for making that distinction.

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Yes. I get the luxury of managing, I have a lot of hats and I enjoy my hats that I wear. So managing a lot of different projects within the community of Houston, but beyond that, in the state of Texas. Being the 4-H military [00:15:00] liaison, again, working with all of the installations within Texas, and just seeing again, how to connect our programs to the people.

RACHEL BRAUNER: Karrie and Jessica, y'all just talked so much about how Extension agents kind of have their plates full a lot of time. You're constantly juggling different roles, different jobs. You're that educator, Karrie, but then you're also a 4-H military liaison, so we're wearing a lot of different hats, really making sure that we're connecting with our communities and our installations. And then with our, what we call here in the state of Texas, with AgriLife is our county extension agents. And so in Texas we have 250 offices that encompass the 254 counties that make up the state of Texas. So there's so many counties and so many county offices that there's such a big Extension footprint here in the state. And a lot of our, what we call Extension agents out in those counties have [00:16:00] multiple roles, whether they're focusing on 4-H, they're focusing on health and wellness and nutrition, maybe animal agriculture and natural resources. And they have so much going on on their plate. And so when we as Extension educators that are focusing on military connected populations, from your perspective, Karrie, what are some high impact, low effort ways that extension staff can keep families in mind in their programming out in their counties?

KARRIE CALLOWAY: I think getting involved. You know, I always speak about the three Ps, but also just our volunteer base is pretty pivotal for what we do. And all of the hats that we wear within Extension and leaning on our volunteers, like our master gardener volunteers, as we call it, and or our master wellness volunteers.

And we have other categories of, again, a large volunteer, 4-H volunteers, which could [00:17:00] be a parent and or an older sibling, that have you know, been through the 4-H program, starting at a young age. I think leaning on just our community, again, our partnerships is key, as well as our volunteers.

Partnerships is very, very, very important to me, within Extension because we can't do it alone and we don't want to do it alone. So, you know, maybe a partner might fulfill something that we don't necessarily do, within Extension, but it's still a need. So I have a community of people that come to me for all different various topics.

You kind of name it, they come to me about it, financial literacy, STEM education, and you know, something of that nature. So being able to pull on a partner or a community partner and or a volunteer, that might be someone that's an expert at that particular topic. And then our experts are specialists.

We have a very large group of specialists within Extension as well. And I also lean on [00:18:00] them and their expertise, because they're very knowledgeable and that's kind of that extension of the university, right? We're extending information from the university, so from professors to specialists all the way.

Again, we talked about agents in Texas and then our volunteer base. That's kind of like the streamline of what the community can really lean on and depend on. And there's a lot of us that are willing to serve the community. But I think that that's kind of what, again, my job and my role is, is to figure out that streamline, to support what we're trying to do with an Extension.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: So I really want to tease out a little bit of this idea of the value of volunteers, that you were talking about. So like 4-H has a set of volunteers, master gardeners, I think we have master naturalists here. I don't know if you guys have that. And I just heard about one too, a new one that like this model has been replicated over and over again because it's such a powerful model. [00:19:00] So the value of volunteers in creating touchpoints for military families, how have you seen volunteers play that connector role in meaningful ways and how can we maybe take better advantage of that, or boost that?

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Rachel might have to help me with this one, from her perspective as well, but I think, asking - number one, you know, a lot of people are afraid to ask for help, and the worst answer you can get is no. That's what I've always heard. So I think asking is very key. But there's another side to this because there's volunteers and there's also resources, right?

So asking the community that simply just want to serve and give their time, and possibly even resources. So we have our volunteers, but then we also have people that want to just simply give in kind donations. So really just again, leaning on partnerships in the community, volunteers, to pour back into the community is, key, right? 

And that [00:20:00] doesn't mean necessarily someone is giving their time. That could also mean in-kind donations to achieve the larger goal of whatever a community garden, for instance, or maybe you're trying to put on a six week series cooking course. So your local grocery stores might want to give funding or resources or even just simply groceries to achieve that program or that project that that 4-H student or that group or that club is trying to achieve.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I would imagine then that the volunteers in that way, because they're having so many touchpoints with the families, can also help the people who are putting the programs together understand what they're hearing, so that maybe program adjustments can be made, or maybe programs times, or, you know, making things more convenient or making changes to it.

So, yeah. It seems like that it's a pivotal role, for two reasons, the touch points with the families, and then also gaining [00:21:00] information for program improvements.

RACHEL BRAUNER: Well, the volunteers are just so important in making that connection with Extension, and then our communities, because even though Extension has a large presence, at least here in the state of Texas as just a reference, we can't do everything and be everywhere. And so those volunteers are so important to our programs and supports for example, in Bexar County where Joint Base San Antonio is located, we have a great master garden's program where the agent, the county extension agent in Bexar County, where Bexar County is located in Military City USA in San Antonio, Texas. And so that county Extension agent and their program, the Master Gardeners Program, all of their volunteers are predominantly, a large population or percentage of that volunteer group is military connected.

So they're predominantly [00:22:00] veterans that have transitioned out, that live in that community and they want to give back. And so we have found, or what we've seen in Bexar County, as a lot of our volunteers, those veteran volunteers, are providing a lot of peer support in those communities. So they are working closely with the installations. They're working closely outside the gates to provide support. And then because they have that military experience, they're providing a lot of peer support to the audiences that they're serving and supporting. And so this is just a great way to see an example of how our extension volunteers are supporting our military connected populations.

And so we may not always ask our volunteers of who their backgrounds are. Or, you know, if they have a military experience, because we're just so excited to be able to have the support of volunteers. But then it's really important, especially those [00:23:00] programs that we have located near an installation, that those volunteers have a little bit of that experience that they're bringing to support the active duty population.

So that's always fun and exciting to see, and it just shows that value that those volunteers and their experiences bring to supporting us.

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Also, during the process of becoming a master gardener volunteer, for instance, they actually go through training. It's almost like going back to college. And it is, it could be lengthy at times, but it's important because we're not just asking them to come and volunteer their time, but we're also giving them the specific information to make sure that it's, you know, research based information straight from the university, to actually provide the community with, again, things within nutrition and/or agriculture, horticulture topics. So volunteering their time, but also training them to provide the community with the right information.

RACHEL BRAUNER: Karrie, your [00:24:00] explanation on volunteers and Extension was just really a helpful reminder of how we can extend our reach in so many powerful ways, and it connects something else to your work, because mentioned you're based in Harris County, which is for those that are listening is Houston, Texas, or in the area of Houston, Texas.

And it's one of the largest veteran populations here in the state. And so of course, military service doesn't end when someone transitions out from an active duty status. And so families are still raising children, they're still facing similar challenges to their civilian counterparts. And still looking for that support, even when getting out of active duty. So how should Extension be thinking about how we support that transition, both during and after service?

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Yeah, that's a great question. Starting with really going back to just doing it, I think is very key, but also acknowledging [00:25:00] that it's important for us to serve our families that are within active duty and transitioning into becoming a civilian, or becoming a veteran. I think it's even more important for us to support our families that are transitioning into becoming a veteran because there's a lot of that right now.

And there will be in the next three years, we think of the ones who started being in the military at 18, they're now 32. I know my spouse's first sergeant and he'll be retired in two years, and he's already starting to think of different ways. He's a humanitarian already on his own.

And so he's already in the community serving, but, we have to think the military have a servant heart. So they're looking for ways to serve their communities, to still feel connected to the service, right? And so that's a big thing, and it's very pivotal and important for someone that's serving in the military because they're like a comradery.

They're a huge family. And so them transitioning out into being [00:26:00] civilians, they're still looking for that comradery. Extension, it's important for us to support that and think of ways that we can better support our military families, throughout. Again, being an active duty member and or veteran, and even if that's asking them simply to volunteer their time, is a great way to make an impact to, again, a military family and also supporting them with 4-H programs, right?

Their kiddos are looking for things to do. They're looking for their kiddos to do something. I had the luxury of planning a summer camp with about 60 kids this summer. And the way that it reached the masses, right? Over 120 kids signed up. It was really spousal support, right? So a mom told another mom, told another mom, told another mom.

And it was a very emotional moment to even connect with the kids, right? And communicate with kids because they were looking, they were teens, right? They were looking for something to do that was different. They're used to this parent that [00:27:00] serves in this high risk management role. And so for them to do something active and with their hands and just adventurous, I think was very key and pivotal and they really, really took well to it.

So it's our job with an Extension to really figure out different ways to target this audience. 

RACHEL BRAUNER: Thank you, and thanks so much for letting me join you and Jessica today on this podcast. I'm excited, especially, Karrie, as a fellow colleague and peer working together across Texas A&M Aggro Life Extension. It's always fun to hear what our Extension folks are doing throughout the state, and so the work that you're doing is exciting, it's great and it makes me want to work more with people like you and the importance of how to connect all of our different programs to better support military connected populations. And so I'm so excited about the work that you're doing in your area. Thanks, Jessica.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:28:00] You are so welcome. And Karrie, before we go, first, this has been such a rich conversation about your journey, your work, and the role Extension can play for military connected families. But before we wrap up, I think I warned you about this question. I'd love to turn to you personally for a moment. What is one thing you do or one thing you practice that sustains or supports you in your work? Like cooking could be one of them, but I'll leave that up to - is that what you were gonna say?

KARRIE CALLOWAY: It is, yes.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Oh I stole your thunder!

KARRIE CALLOWAY: Gardening and cooking and actually cooking with my daughter. And even my spouse, her dad has taken it on, full on. He's stationed in California while I'm in Texas. And so even when she goes and visits him, he cooks with her because he knows it's our thing and it's something that really connects and bonds them.

I mean, he sends me pictures of them baking cookies and all kinds of stuff, stuff I don't even do with her. And so I think cooking will always [00:29:00] be my number one go-to. Again, growing up my dad was a chef. The kitchen is home and it will always be my grounding space and gardening just kind of adds to it.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, one thing I'll say is in the show notes, OneOp actually has a little mini course. It's called, “Military Culture, A Guide For Extension Professionals.” If you are an extension professional and you are looking to learn a little bit more about how you might support military families in your area, this is just a super short, I think it takes like 45 minutes to an hour to get through a short guide on how to understand military culture, so that you can serve the families with a little bit more understanding. 

So that's it for this episode. Special thanks to our guest, Karrie Callaway and the guest co-host Rachel Brauner for the first time, hopefully not the last. 

If you enjoyed this episode, click the share button in your podcast app to share it with a friend. We'd love to hear what you've been thinking about and [00:30:00] what's inspiring you. You can share that with us by clicking the Send us a text message at the top of the description of this episode. If you're listening on a computer, you can email us at practicingconnection@oneop.org. We can't wait to hear from you.

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection Podcast is a production of OneOp and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, US Department of Defense under award number 2 0 2 3 4 8 7 74 3 3.