Esperanza Colio Warren, center, is pictured during the dedication ceremony for the new Imperial County Niland Fire Station, which she helped make possible through her grant writing work as then Deputy Imperial County Executive Officer. Today, Colio is the new city manager for the City of Calexico, and hopes to put her grant writing skills to work to bring new resources to the city.
Photo courtesy of Imperial County

When a fire devastated the community of Niland on June 28, 2020, destroying nearly 30 structures and displacing more than 100 people, Esperanza Colio Warren joined the effort to support the people and their community in the way she knew best—securing resources to help those who had lost so much.

In a government career spanning nearly three decades, the last four years as Imperial County’s deputy county executive officer, she has always focused on finding resources to

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Dr. Michael Kanyi, agriculture professor at Imperial Valley College, shows a collection of insect specimen to students during his Principles of Entomology class at IVC.
Photo by Joselito N. Villero (courtesy of IV Alive) 

For Shelby Trimm, executive director of the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association, her path into an agricultural career began as a youth who took an interest in raising animals for show through the California Mid-Winter Fair & Fiesta, and through her involvement with 4-H, and then Future Farmers of America (FFA) in high school.

The Imperial Valley native, who also has the dual role of leading the local Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business organization, didn’t come from an agricultural background. Her mother works in insurance and her father in the geothermal industry.

On her own, Trimm found a passion for agriculture that led her to pursue a degree in agricultural education from

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Dr. Oli Bachie, director of the University of California Cooperative Extension program in the Imperial Valley, shows Rhodes grass productivity during a field day. Rhodes grass is an experimental crop introduced in the low desert by the Cooperative Extension, and it is showing itself to be a highly resilient crop for the dry desert conditions. Photo courtesy of the University of California Cooperative Extension

On a stretch of highway between El Centro and Holtville, nestled among green farm fields, is the home of the University of California Cooperative Extension, where research critical to ensuring Imperial Valley crops and livestock remain healthy is conducted daily.

For Dr. Oli Bachie, director of the Cooperative Extension, it is a non-stop challenge to apply research to such key issues as pest control, food safety and water management to address the unique needs of Imperial Valley agriculture.

There is a great deal at

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