 | Ali Panasiuk, Lead Inspector, Government of Alberta. Ali has been working on the Bee Health Assurance Team with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation since 2007 and has been the Lead Apiculture Inspector since 2016. She is currently acting as Provincial Apiculturist. Her main role is to manage all inspections carried out by the province and ensuring beekeepers are educated and implementing correct management practices pertaining to honey bee pests and diseases. Before becoming the Lead Inspector she helped manage several hundred colonies, and assisted in numerous experiments and surveillance programs. She is very passionate about animal husbandry which originated from growing up on a farm that had many different types of livestock. Beekeeping fell naturally into her skillset so she ended up running her own colonies for many years. |
 | Blake Shook, CEO, Desert Creek Honey Blake started his beekeeping journey 20 years ago at 12 years old as a small scale hobby beekeeper. Over the past 2 decades, the business has grown significantly with the help of an incredible team. It is now a migratory commercial beekeeping operation with 10,000 hives, a bulk bee supply company (Desert Creek Bulk Bees) , a honey packing company (Desert Creek Honey), a chain of hobby beekeeping stores (The Bee Supply) and a commercial bee supply store (Commercial Bee Supply). Blake married his high school sweetheart in 2011, and has two beautiful daughters. He also serves on the National Honey Board and on the board of the American Beekeeping Federation. |
 | Curt Hadley, Business Development Director, FieldWatch Curt Hadley joined FieldWatch as Business Development Manager in January 2021 and became Business Development Director in early 2023. Curt maintains FieldWatch’s registries and implements marketing and development strategies to enhance support from our diverse agricultural stakeholders. He also maintains relationships with current users and prospective members of FieldWatch’s registries and works to strengthen relationships with the Certified Organic certifying agencies through outreach and education. As of July of this year, he began to hit the road and continue sharing our online ag mapping tools with growers, groups and new areas hoping to enhance ag stewardship throughout their communities. Curt has been involved in agriculture since childhood and is excited to return to his roots in the industry. Growing up on his family’s farm, in Allen County, Indiana, he was actively involved on the farm, in FFA and 4H organizations. He has more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing, operations, sales and nonprofit work, including corporate relations with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Purdue Research Foundation. |
 | Carlos Perea, CEO and Co-Founder, Terra Vera Carlos Perea is an experienced impact entrepreneur focused on levering business to help solve important social and environmental issues. He founded agriculture technology company Terra Vera with the goal of making agriculture more environmentally and economically sustainable. The company specializes in crop management solutions that replace conventional chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers linked to environmental damage and can threaten the health of bees and other pollinators vital to global food supplies. Previously, Carlos started, scaled, and sold MIOX Corp, a company focused on making any water safe for consumption. He began his career at Intel, where he ran their largest factory at the time. Carlos is active in YPO and is an advisor to several impact organizations, including Skoden Ventures. He earned his BSME from UNM and MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. |
 | Heather Broccard-Bell, Honey Bee Health Researcher, NOD Apiary Products Ltd. Heather grew up in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, but spent much of her early adult life in Alberta, attending Olds College to study Equine Science, and then working on ranches near Granum and Nanton. She went on to complete an undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Regina before returning to Alberta once more, where she studied Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour at the University of Lethbridge (M.Sc. in 2008 and Ph.D. in 2014). Heather began conducting honey bee research as a postdoctoral fellow under James Nieh at the University of California San Diego in 2014, focusing on vibrational communication (e.g., waggle dancing) and the effects of pesticides and pathogens on learning and behaviour. Heather transitioned into industry in 2021, accepting the position of Honey Bee Health Researcher at NOD Apiary Products Ltd in Trenton, Ontario. Her current role is a combination of field and laboratory research, education, product development and testing – and a LOT of beekeeping. |
 | Dr. Judy Wu-Smart, Associate Professor & Extension Specialist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Dr. Judy Wu-Smart (Associate Professor & Extension Specialist) has been the director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bee Lab since 2015. At UNL, she and her team have been investigating persistent losses of honey bee colonies across multiple University of Nebraska-Lincoln research apiaries in Mead, NE. Investigations into bee losses uncovered a novel practice of disposing surplus outdated and pesticide-treated crop seeds through ethanol production, a disposal practice that was being utilized by seed companies across North America. The improper practice caused unprecedented pesticide exposure problems and contamination in the surrounding air, water, soil, and plants. As a result, UNL Bee Lab has been working with beekeepers, policy makers, and legislators to address systemic pesticide pollution and impacts on pollinators. Community engagement and promoting science literacy around these complicated farm-to-table issues are also key components of their research and extension education programs. To find out more visit: https://entomology.unl.edu/bee-lab and https://gpmb.unl.edu/ or follow us on Facebook. |
 | Dr. Michael Chae, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) Applied Research Dr. Michael Chae is the Business Development Lead for the Circular and Clean Technologies portfolio with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) Applied Research. In this role, Dr. Chae interfaces with companies, industry associations, collaborating academic institutions, and government representatives to develop interdisciplinary applied research projects in circular and clean technologies. Dr. Chae holds a PhD in Molecular Genetics and has over 10 years of experience working in the bioindustrial sector, with a strong aptitude for developing and managing applied research programs facilitated through liaising with collaborators, devising research strategies, negotiating contracts, and crafting research proposals. In addition, through his previous role as the Operations Director of the Biomass Energy Network, Dr. Chae has facilitated knowledge transfer and collaborative research amongst academic, industry, and government stakeholders engaged in the bioindustrial sector within Alberta and abroad. |
 | Dr. Rassol Bahreini, Senior Researcher, University of Alberta. Rassol Bahreini (Senior researcher): I have been a honey bee researcher for over 30 years . I have received my MSc and PhD in Entomology from the University of Ahvaz (Iran, 1993) and the University of Manitoba (Canada, 2015), respectively. In my previous positions, as Apiculture Research Scientist in the Animal Science Research Institute-Iran, and Alberta Agricultural and Forestry-Canada, I carried out many studies of honey bee biology, control of parasites and pathogens, integrated pest management, and studies of Varroacides. In addition to teaching graduate and undergraduate students, my extension activities encouraged beekeepers to adopt new and improved methods of honey bee IPM to manage pests and diseases, using a variety of methods. My recent projects were focused on new miticides and antibiotics to assist producers in solving challenges related to honey bee parasites and diseases. At the University of Alberta, I will continue my research on the development of new miticides and antibiotics for control Varroa mites and Nosema disease. |
 | Dr. Renata Labuschagne, ABC Tech Transfer Program Lead, ABC. Dr. Renata Labuschagne joined the Alberta Beekeepers Commission (ABC) in 2019 as the Alberta Tech Transfer Program lead. Before joining the ABC team, Renata was a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Steve Pernal’s apiculture research lab at Beaverlodge Research Farm, Agriculture Agri-food Canada, studying the inter-correlation of several important pathogens and phenotypes, so as to better understand drivers of colony health and productivity. Renata received her Ph.D. in Entomology in 2015 from the University of Minnesota studying under Dr. Mara Spivak. Previously, she received her B.Sc. in Animal Science from the Universidade Federal of Ceara, Brazil. Renata’s doctoral research focused on evaluating: 1) the seasonal benefits of propolis (a bee-produced resinous material) on the health and immunity of honey bees; 2) the role that types of resins play as a defense against two highly infectious brood pathogens, Ascosphaera apis (a fungus causing chalkbrood disease) and Paenibacillus larvae (a bacterium causing American foulbrood disease); and 3) the effects of the propolis “envelope” within the hive as a natural defense against disease. |
 | Dr. Shelley Hoover, University of Lethbridge. Dr. Shelley Hoover is an Apiculture and Pollination Scientist in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Lethbridge. Her research focuses on honey bee health and management, queen production and breeding, and nutrition, as well as canola pollination. Previously, Shelley was the head of the Apiculture Program for the Province of Alberta and has held Research Associate positions at the Universities of Canterbury (Christchurch, NZ) and British Columbia (Vancouver and Beaverlodge, Canada). She completed her PhD on honey bee worker ovary development, nutrition, and behaviour at Simon Fraser University. Shelley is also the current President of the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists. |
 | Dr. Stephen Pernal, Officer-in-Charge, Beaverlodge Research Farm, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Dr. Pernal received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of Manitoba and was a postdoctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University. Since 2001, he has been employed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as a Research Scientist in Beaverlodge, Alberta where he leads Canada’s federal apiculture research program and also serves as Officer-in-Charge. His work has been diverse, and has included the detection, control and management strategies for AFB, chalkbrood, Nosema ceranae, as well as emerging parasites of honey bees. Steve has also been an integral member of three successive Genome Canada projects evaluating markers for resistance to bee diseases and Varroa destructor. He formerly served as President of the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists and is a contributing member to international bodies related to honey bee health. In 2017, he was awarded AAFC’s Gold Harvest award for Innovation, Collaboration and Service Excellence. In 2019, he served as the Scientific Program Chair for Apimondia 2019 in Montreal, Canada. |
 | Stephanie Constable, CAIP, Opinion Research Lead, Earnscliffe Strategies Stephanie brings nearly 25 years of experience providing opinion and market research informed strategic advice to Earnscliffe clients. She is a seasoned researcher on public affairs and public policy issues and has conducted studies on most major policy issues. Over the years, Stephanie has provided expert insight into the design and analysis of hundreds of qualitative and quantitative research studies. Her expertise lies in the development and implementation of research supporting communications, branding, digital and advertising strategies. An accomplished moderator and fluently bilingual, Stephanie regularly facilitates discussion groups, online communities, consultations and elite interviews in both official languages. In 2015, Stephanie returned to Earnscliffe, where she began her career in the late 1990s, to co-lead the Opinion Research practice. Prior to her return, she was a Senior Consultant with Decima Research (later renamed Harris/Decima and Nielsen) and rose to the role of Senior Vice President in 2007. From 2007 to 2014, she co-led the company’s Canadian Public Affairs practice. Over the course of her career, Stephanie has worked on a wide array of issues including agriculture, defence, education, energy, environment, finance, health, natural resources, security, telecommunications, transportation, and travel and tourism. Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology from Carleton University. She is an active member of the Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC) and the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). She is a Certified Analytics and Insights Professional (CAIP), a designation that recognizes a high level of knowledge and capability in marketing research theory and practice and adherence to rigorous ethical standards. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Earnscliffe Board of Directors. |