Phelps named interim director of UMaine Extension

Lisa Phelps, Maine’s statewide 4-H Program leader, will serve as interim director of University of Maine Cooperative Extension, effective Sept. 1. She succeeds longtime Extension director John Rebar, who is retiring Aug. 31.

Phelps will serve as interim director until the conclusion of UMaine’s national search for a new dean of UMaine Extension, which has been underway since June. An update on the status of the search is online.

Phelps also currently serves as the program administrator supporting the Maine Extension Homemaker Council, supporting and supervising faculty and staff in Androscoggin, Hancock, Kennebec, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Sagadahoc and Washington counties, the state 4-H Office, Maine 4-H Foundation and faculty and staff working in support of Human Development. She has offices in Orono and Lisbon.

She earned a Ph.D. in college student personnel administration/educational leadership from University of Northern Colorado in 1999 and joined the UMaine Extension staff in 2001 after working at Colorado State University from 1988–2001.

Rebar began working for UMaine Extension in 1984 and was named director in 2007.