Tasha Howard is an Extension Assistant Professor and completed both a bachelor’s and master’s degree with the HDFS department. She has created new and innovative programs for both Idaho and Utah, and taught thousands of community members, presented at local, state, and national conferences. Beyond teaching, she has published newspaper articles, journal articles, impact reports, and research reports. She has received approximately 3 million dollars in grant funds. Her excellence has been recognized through local, state, and national awards. She said, “My education in HDFS set me up for success by providing me opportunities to explore all aspects of my current career.” Tasha noted group projects taught her collaboration skills and she learned to apply research into her teaching.

Tasha enjoyed her coursework in the HDFS department, particularly the opportunities to collaborate with others. Furthermore, she loved the variety of topics she studied. She said, “I wanted to be able to learn about a lot of different topics while still maintaining a trajectory for a future career. HDFS helped me with that by allowing me to take courses on topics I found interesting, relatable, and useful while still helping me see the end goal.”

The most important thing she learned in her time at USU was that “I can't do it alone. I love the emphasis on working with others. . .My career is one working with people and through all the classes I learned skills to be able to help me do that.”