UK Land-grant Engagement Bus Tour highlights partnerships, opportunities across Western Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 1, 2026) — Listening to communities and building meaningful partnerships were central themes of the University of Kentucky Land-grant Engagement Bus Tour, which brought faculty, staff and university leaders to Western Kentucky for a firsthand look at the opportunities and challenges shaping communities across the Commonwealth.

The inaugural tour highlighted the breadth of engagement happening across Western Kentucky, including community health partnerships in Grayson County; agricultural research and producer engagement at the UK Research and Education Center at Princeton; workforce development initiatives at the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering Paducah Campus; arts and culture programs in Paducah; regional partnerships and healthcare workforce initiatives in Fulton and Christian counties; and community and educational programs in Muhlenberg County.

For Laura Stephenson, Ph.D., vice president for land-grant engagement and dean of the UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the experience reinforced the university’s responsibility as Kentucky’s land-grant institution.

“Land-grant engagement begins by listening,” Stephenson said. “Across every stop on this tour, we saw communities with unique strengths, challenges and opportunities. Our role as a university is not to arrive with all the answers — it is to work alongside communities, co-create solutions and connect the university’s teaching, research and extension missions to the priorities that matter most to Kentuckians.”

Throughout the experience, participants gained a broader perspective of the many ways the university can partner with communities across the state.

Mark Shanda, dean of the UK College of Fine Arts, said one of the strongest themes throughout the experience was seeing how communities work together to create opportunities across Western Kentucky.

“What’s been a consistent message has been communities’ resilience and their partnerships,” Shanda said.

Shanda said the experience also highlighted opportunities to strengthen connections between university resources and communities across Kentucky. 

“This trip gave me a whole new appreciation for Western Kentucky and for the role Extension can play in connecting our faculty and programs with communities across the Commonwealth,” Shanda said. “Part of this listening experience has been hearing directly from communities about their needs and identifying opportunities for future partnerships.”

The experience also underscored the deep sense of pride and investment communities have in shaping their future.

“What stood out most was the pride people have in their communities and the emotional investment they bring to this work,” said Alison Davis, Ph.D., assistant vice president for land-grant engagement and executive director of Blueprint Kentucky. “You can read reports and data, but seeing these communities firsthand and hearing directly from residents creates a level of understanding that simply cannot be replicated.”

Those themes also reflected the broader goals of Advancing Kentucky Together and the importance of building relationships that create long-term impact.

“The Advancing Kentucky Together (AKT) Network is built on the idea that meaningful progress begins with partnerships,” said Dave Melanson, executive director for external relations. “Throughout Western Kentucky, we saw communities investing in local talent, building on their strengths and creating solutions together. And we saw first-hand how the university — through our Cooperative Extension Service — is an engaged, active collaborator across the Commonwealth. I look forward to building on relationships made throughout the tour as we develop new, community-based partnerships to advance Kentucky.”

Organizers hope the tour serves as a model for future engagement efforts and strengthens the university’s ability to connect faculty, staff and stakeholders with communities across Kentucky.

“We chose Western Kentucky because we wanted to demonstrate what’s possible,” Stephenson said. “The goal is to continue creating opportunities that connect university expertise with community priorities across the Commonwealth.”

The tour reflected a broader vision for land-grant engagement at UK, one that builds upon the university’s teaching, research and Extension missions while creating deeper partnerships across every region of Kentucky.