COLLEGE STATION – Nancy Granovsky, a Regents Fellow, professor and family economics specialist has received a 2014 Superior Service Award for distinguished career from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
Superior Service Awards recognize Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service faculty and staff members who provide outstanding performance in AgriLife Extension education or other outstanding service to the organization and to Texans. The award was presented Jan. 6 during the Texas A&M AgriLife Conference in College Station.
In her nomination, Granovsky, a 36-year-plus AgriLife Extension employee and certified financial planner, is described as a “prolific speaker (who also) produces educational curricula for diverse audiences, including young couples, home-based business owners, military families, and students.”
Granovsky has statewide responsibility for AgriLife Extension program development in family economics and financial planning and management education. Major curricula she has been instrumental in developing include: Starting Points: Financial Planning for Life, a workshop series for Texas A&M University employees; Money Matters for Adults; Money 2000 Plus and Money 2020, designed to help families increase their savings and reduce their debt by $2,000.
From 1991-2003, she was project director of Operation R.E.A.D.Y., a special project funded by the U.S. Army Family and Community Service Center, which developed a complete curriculum of training materials for active and reserve Army personnel to use in working with families when Army units are mobilized or deployed. She also has served on many national and U.S. Department of Agriculture committees and task forces, most notably the nationwide Financial Security in Later Life Initiative Team.
Most recently, Granovsky directed Wi$eUp, a project that improves the financial savvy and financial management abilities of Generation X and Y women. An early adopter of computers, she developed the Family Spending Planner software and was a “think-tank” member for the Kellogg/AgriLife Extension project “Una Vida Mejor” (A Better Life). She also served on the national Financial Security in Later Life team. With county faculty, she initiated consumer credit fairs which reached 3,000 to 5,000 consumers annually in Houston, Fort Worth, Beaumont and other Texas cities. She helped develop materials for Hispanic audiences, increasing the agency’s capacity for outreach, including leading the pilot of the Spanish version of Thrive by Five – financial literacy for 3-5 year olds and their parents.
Throughout her career, Granovsky has continued an interest in international development that began with her years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay. She has made contributions to family and consumer sciences internationally, especially financial management, by working with the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture to help women and families in other countries develop sustainable small farms and businesses.
According to her nomination, Granovsky “is recognized as a leader in the international home economics community, which resulted in her election as president of the International Federation of Home Economics” — one of only two Americans to serve in that position. She has been a member of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, or AAFCS, for 43 years, being certified in family and consumer sciences since the inception of the certification program. She has held many leadership roles within the AASFCS and the organization’s Texas affiliate. She is also a member of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, and as a member of Epsilon Sigma Phi academic fraternity has served as Alpha Zeta Chapter president.
She has received the distinguished service and leadership awards from the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences; the Home Economist of the Year award by the AAFCS Texas Affiliate; and State Distinguished Service, Mid-Career and Regional International Distinguished Service Awards from Epsilon Sigma Phi. She also has received the Dean Don Felker Award and Specialist of the Year award from the Texas Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. Additionally, she has received the Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension from the Texas A&M Association of Former Students and the Regents Fellow Award from the Texas A&M University Board of Regents.
Granovsky was elected by AgriLife Extension employees as representative to the Texas A&M System Employee Benefits Advisory Committee and has served from 1993 to the present, including three times as committee chair. She also has served as co-chair for the State Extension Faculty Conference, co-chair of the Children, Youth and Families Institute, and as a member of three 4-H curriculum enrichment teams.
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