Jimenez named UCCE director for Kings, Kern and Tulare counties
Leonel Jimenez joined UC ANR on Feb. 3 as area director for UC Cooperative Extension in Kings, Kern and Tulare counties.
Prior to joining UC ANR, Jimenez was general manager for Horn Technologies and Services, a postharvest fumigation service provider. Tasked with expanding operations, he established offices of the Fresno-based company around California and in Kansas and Texas.
For five years after graduate school, he taught chemistry at College of the Sequoias, Reedley College, and through the Upward Bound Math & Science program, while working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service in Parlier with Spencer Walse on postharvest fumigation research. While working for USDA-ARS, his research took him to Santiago, Chile, for nine months.
A first-generation American of Mexican descent, Jimenez was born and raised in Reedley, southeast of Fresno.
“This is where my exposure to agriculture began, as my parents worked tirelessly at various jobs to provide for my three siblings and me, ensuring we had a roof over our heads, food and clothes,” Jimenez said. “Their main source of income came from working at local packing houses and out in the fields. Watching them work hard every day motivated me to excel in school to thank them for giving me an opportunity to thrive.”
He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from UC Santa Barbara, becoming the first college graduate in his family. While working the swing shift at Siemens as a bench-top chemist, he earned a master’s degree in inorganic chemistry at California State University, Northridge, where he developed a new catalyst molecule.
Jimenez is based at the UCCE office in Tulare County and can be reached at (559) 684-3300 and lrjimenez@ucanr.edu. On LinkedIn, he can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonel-j-5b9984296.