Gary Varrella, PhD

Vita (pdf)

Overview of Expertise

Dr. Gary Varrella’s assignment is within the Extension Youth and Family Unit in youth and volunteer development. As the Spokane County Director, he provides administrative leadership and support for 19 WSU and county staff and faculty in Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources staff, including SNAP-Ed and EFNEP program staff. He provides leadership for all youth development programing in Spokane County inclusive of children ages 5 to 19 ranging from traditional 4-H programs, to STEAM, Military family support, and 4-H youth shooting sports. He is active in 4-H adolescent youth leadership development related to the 4-H mission mandates. He leads the program for adult volunteer development and supervision including more than 300 trained 4-H volunteers.

Dr. Varrella has extensive experience in non-formal and formal education settings for youth of all ages in rural to urban settings, adult and teacher professional development, evaluation, research in learning theory/pedagogy, and international development (primarily in the post-Soviet era countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan). He also works with military youth and family populations, currently is a partner/CoPI in 4 externally funded youth-oriented nutrition and healthy living projects, PI of one military youth and family development projects, and one STEM-mentoring project.

Dr. Varrella’s program has been involved with the National Mentoring Programs beginning with NMP 2 and has been the PI for the Washington NMP 9, 10, & 11.

Education and Certifications

Degrees

1997     University of Iowa, Ph.D., Science Education

1987     University of California-Davis, M.Ed., Focus in curriculum, planning, evaluation, and organizational development

1976     University of California-Davis, B.S., Animal Science (focus on biology, chemistry, physiology, and nutrition)

Certificates and Licenses

1977     University of California-Davis, Lifetime Credential in Secondary (grades 7-12) Biology and Agricultural Science

Professional Experience (recent & relevant)

Washington State University (2006-Present)

Youth Development Educator (2012+)

Interim County Director (2010-12)

Interim County Director (2018-present)

Independent Consultant (2004-2006)

Internal Educational Development and HS-level STEM program evaluation (2004-2006)

George Mason University Graduate School of Education (1998-2006)

Graduate School of Education (1998-2006)

International Educational Development (2000-2006)

Ohio University School of Education (1997-1998)

Recent Sample Peer Reviewed Publications/Books (Selected)

Weybright, E., Matinez, A., Varrella, G., Deen, M., & Wright, K. (2018)  Teens as Teachers: Positive Outcomes and Recommendations for Promoting Healthy Nutrition in Adolescents. Journal of Youth Development 13 (3) Available at https://jyd.pitt.edu/ojs/jyd/article/view/18-13-03-FA-02 (2,3,4,5,6)

Varrella, G. F., Luckey, B., Baca, J., & Peters, C. (2016) Growing Our Own: A Longitudinal Evaluation of a Professional Development Program for Early Career 4-H Professionals Attending the 2012 Western Region 4-H Institute. Journal of Extension Education 54 (5)article 5FEA2. Avaialable at https://joe.org/joe/2016october/a2.php (1,2,3,4,5,6)

Weintraub-Austin, E., Armstrong-Schultz, J., Deen, M., Cohen, M., Parker, L., Calodich, S., Power, T., Brandt, B., Price, C., Russo, D., Babcock, D., Varrella, G., Barale, K., Viebrock, M., Lain, M., Brown, S., Perry, T., Johnson, B., Kistler, M., and Kallman, D. (2014). Audience-Driven Curriculum Design to Enhance Youth and Parent Media Skills and Food Behaviors: Year 2 of 5. J. of Nutritional Education and Behavior 46(4):S189 June 2014. (2,3,5) (2,3)

Weintraub-Austin, E., Armstrong-Schultz, J., Deen, M., Cohen, M., Parker, L., Calodich, S., Power, T., Brandt, B., Price, C., Russo, D., Babcock, D., Varrella, G., Barale, K., Viebrock, M., Lain, M., Brown, S., Perry, T., Johnson, B., Lei, M., and Xu, S. (2013). Family-based Media Literacy Apporach to Improving Youth and Family Nutrition. J. of Nutritional Education and Behavior 45(4):S91 July 2013. (2,3,5)

Varrella, G.F., and Hakobyan, S. (Eds.). (2006). Curriculum design & models for integrated high school social studies instruction. Yerevan, Armenia & Washington, DC: International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). (Reviewed by the Ministry of Education and Science and the [Armenian] National Institute for Education.) *Note that Varrella is also the coauthor of one chapter and three model integrated curricular units in this 375-page text.

Sample Presentations

Varrella, G. F., Weybright, E., Diaz-Martinez, A., Wright, K., & Deen, G. (2018, October). Inspiring healthy change among adolescents – The teens as teachers model for nutrition education. Paper and research presentation annual meeting of the National Association of Extension 4-H Agents, Columbus, OH. (1,2,3,4,5,6)

Weybright, E. H., Deen, M. K., Calodich, S., Martinez, A. D., Hrncirik, L., Varrella, G., & Baskett, N. (2015, October). Qualitative evaluation of the Washington State University 4-H Food Smart Families presented by Youth Advocates for Health program. Paper and presentation at the annual meeting of the National Association of Extension 4-H Agents, Portland, OR. (2,3,4,5,6)

Arnold, M., Deen, M.K., Edwards, J., & Varrella, G. F. (2014) Youth Advocates for Health -YA4-H!- Teens as Teachers Training Program. Presentation at the annual meeting of National Association of Extension 4-H Agents, Minneapolis, Minnesota (1,2,3,4,5,6)

Varrella, G. F., Baca, J., Luckey, B., & Peters, C. (2013, September). Examining Results & Providing for Continuous Improvement – Evaluation of the 4th Western Regional 4-H Institute. Research Presentation. Galaxy IV Conference, Pittsburg, PA. (1,2,3,4,5,6)

Honors Received (Selected)

2018                       National Association of Geoscience Teachers on the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Units – Baldwin, K., Dechaine, J., Hauge, R., & Varrella, G.

2015                       Western Region, Communicator Award for Promotional Package. (Varrella was a team member and coordinator of the evaluation subgroup)

2014                       Distinguished Service Award, National Association of Extension 4-H Agents (Varrella)