
Sapna Thottathil, Deputy Director of Sustainable Pest Management, Department of Pesticide Regulation
Sapna E. Thottathil, PhD recently became the Deputy Director for Sustainable Pest Management in the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), leading statewide collaboration and coordination to foster sustainable pest management (SPM). Prior to joining DPR, Thottathil held multiple administrative roles in the University of California (UC), including as Associate Director of Sustainability in the UC Office of the President, where she helped lead a task force that developed an IPM policy for UC's 10 campuses and six health systems. Thottathil was also a Farm-to-Institution leader in previous roles, where she built strategic partnerships and supply chains between institutions like K-12 schools and hospitals and food producers, and worked on antibiotics use in animal agriculture. Earlier in her career, Thottathil published India’s Organic Farming Revolution: What it Means for Our Global Food System and Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers: Leveraging Purchasing Power to Drive Systems Change. She holds a PhD in Geography from UC Berkeley, where she was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University, and a BA in Environmental Studies and International Studies from the University of Chicago, where she was a Udall Scholar. She has also served on and advised many Boards and organizations, including Pesticide Action Network, My Green Lab, Women’s Environmental Network, Real Food Challenge, Plant Based Foods Association, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Thottathil lives in Oakland, California with her husband and three children.
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Dr. Hans Rudolf Herren, Entomologist, California Farmer and Development Specialist
Hans Herren is a Swiss American entomologist and California farmer. He was awarded the 1995 World Food Prize for leading a major biological pest management campaign in Africa, successful in controlling the cassava mealybug and averting a major food crisis on that continent.
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Dr. William E. Snyder, Professor of Agroecology and Systems Biology, Dept. Entomology, Univ. of Georgia
Bill Snyder’s research seeks to reduce the conflict between species conservation and feeding a growing human population, often finding that sustaining natural biodiversity is the key to managing pests while providing safe and healthy food. Much of the work is conducted on the farms of cooperating growers, and focuses on a diverse group of organisms ranging from wild birds, to predatory insects, to crop plants, to microbes that benefit plants or endanger food safety.
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Dr. Margaret Lloyd, Small Farms Advisor, UCANR
Margaret Lloyd is the UCCE Small Farms Advisor for Yolo, Sacramento & Solano Counties, specializing in organic systems management. Lloyd has conducted extensive research on non-chemical alternatives to soilborne disease management. She focuses on organic nitrogen management, beneficial insect recruitment, disease suppressive soil, rotation crops and other topics that recruit ecosystem services to help us farm.
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Gerald Davis, Retired Agronomist and PCA for Grimmway Farms
Gerald Davis worked as an agronomist and pest control advisor for Grimmway Farms in Bakersfield, California for more than 20 years, where he oversaw crop rotations and fertilization practices for 35 different types of vegetable and fruit crops. He supervised and directed the growing and harvesting of potatoes, as well as in-house seed potato operations. He was also technical advisor for on-farm compost production. Prior to his work with Grimmway Organic, and its predecessor Cal-Organic Farms, Davis was owner and operator of the Connolly Orchard in Tehachapi, California. He holds a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from Oregon State University and currently resides in Tehachapi, California. Davis is a former member of the National Organic Standards Board. He has a passion for biological farming techniques, which he puts into practice for the organic division of Grimmway Farms.
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Kim Horton, Agronomy Manager, Taylor Farms
Kim Horton began farming insects in 1998 as a part-time job in college. It was an immediate perfect fit and blossomed into her choice of pursuing a B.S. degree in Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She continued rearing insects and mites for the biological control industry for the next 15 years. In 2015, Kim decided to change gears and began working on a large organic vegetable farm in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Currently, Kim is the Agronomy Manager at Taylor Farming on the Central Coast and in the SW Desert where she continues to be fascinated by the above ground and below ground associations between plants, insects, diseases, and soil.
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Dr. Dylan Beal, Entomology Farm Advisor, UCCE
Dr. Dylan Beal is the new UC IPM Entomology Advisor serving the communities of Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito Counties. Born and raised in the Santa Clarita Valley, he is excited to return to his home state of California. With 15 years of Entomological experience, Dr. Beal have closely partnered with growers, pest control advisors, USDA scientists, cooperative extension advisors, and industry representatives on projects related to biological control, cultural control, behavioral control, vector management, and pesticide resistance screening. With those collaborators, Dr. Beal has worked to understand the biology and ecology of aphids, thrips, fungus gnats, whiteflies, mealybugs, leafhoppers, spittlebugs, and fruit flies as well as their associated natural enemies. He is excited to collaborate with you all to support the development of innovative, cost-effective, and sustainable insect pest management practices. Together, Dr. Beal hopes that we can not only address the threat that agricultural insect pests pose to our three counties but also help to support the many communities and ecosystems that interface with our agricultural livelihoods. Please feel free to reach out to Dr. Beal at 831-759-7359 or [email protected]. The Bug Doctor is in to look at any insects you may find!
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Dr. Matt Grieshop, Director, Grimm Family Organic Center at Cal Poly
Matthew J. Grieshop is the founding director of the Grimm Family Center for Organic Production and research at Cal Poly and has worked in the areas of organic and sustainable agriculture for over 20 years. An entomologist by training, he has published numerous papers and extension/trade articles in biological, cultural, behavioral, and chemical pest management. Prior to joining Cal Poly, Grieshop served Michigan State University as the Organic Pest Management Specialist where he taught courses in agroecology, pest management, sustainable agriculture, and environmental science. Matt received his doctorate from Kansas State University, MS from Montana State University, and bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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Gina Bella Colfer, Sustainability PCA/CCA, Wilbur-Ellis
Gina Bella Colfer is the Sustainable Solutions Manager for Wilbur Ellis Ag. She has been involved in agriculture her whole life, growing up on a small farm, attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo majoring in Crop Science and devoting her career to agriculture on the Central Coast of CA in production of specialty vegetables as a PCA and CCA. She is now deeply involved in the development and promotion of biological products, cover crops, insectary habitat, and nutrient efficient and sustainable fertilizers for Wilbur Ellis Ag.
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Dr. Darryl Wong, Executive Director, Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food System at UCSC
Darryl Wong serves as the executive director for the UC Santa Cruz, Center for Agroecology, a position he has held since 2022. As the executive director, Darryl works to synchronize and coordinate the center’s activities spanning research, education, and extension programs. Before holding the director role, he worked at the Center as the Research Lands Manager, co-managing 10 acres of organic production fields, instructing beginning farmer and undergraduate agroecology courses, and collaborating on faculty field research. Darryl completed his Ph.D. in Agroecology at UCSC, focusing on soil health, regenerative agriculture, and organic no-till systems in California. Darryl has farmed for over 15 years, owning and operating a diversified organic farm North of Santa Cruz for 6 of those seasons.
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Nathan Dorn, Agricultural Business Development Lead, Farm-ng
Nathan he leverages his extensive background in agriculture and technology to drive innovation. Previously, he served as CEO of Food-Origins, a data science company specializing in specialty crops, and was the Director of Knowledge and Innovation at Reiter Berry Farms. Nathan's experience also includes a role as Technical Manager for Gallo Coastal Vineyards and Wineries, where he honed his skills in operational efficiency and sustainability. Before his corporate career, he served as a Nuclear Machinist Mate on the USS Omaha (SSN 692) and worked as a wheat custom harvester, growing up on a farm in Nebraska. His diverse background uniquely positions him to bridge the gap between agricultural practices and cutting-edge technology.
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Curtis Garner, Cofounder, Verdant Robotics
Curtis Garner grew up in Central California’s agricultural community and has more than a decade of farming experience working across the Pacific Northwest, California, and Chile and with industry leaders in specialty crop processing. Prior to cofounding Verdant, Curtis was the senior business analyst for Bowles Farming, an 12,000-acre family-owned and operated fresh market and specialty processing farm growing 21 different crops in organic and conventional production. At Bowles, Curtis oversaw an operations budget of over $50M and was Bowles’ primary point of contact with customers and suppliers. While at Bowles, Curtis implemented automation to improve farming operations, specifically to address increased labor challenges.
Before Bowles, Curtis worked at The Morning Star Company Packing Company, the world’s largest tomato processing and packing company, where he managed a bimodal labor pool of more than 600 transplanting and 400 harvesting employees. Additionally, he oversaw more than 40,000-50,000 acres, identifying and managing seedlings, transplanting, harvesting and processing risks to maximize revenue for all stakeholders.
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Dr. David Headrick, Professor, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
David Headrick is a specialist in biological control, insect biology, invasive insect species and their effects on the environment and economies, biological pest. Headrick teaches courses in agricultural pest management and biological control and conducts research on biological and integrated insect pest management in vegetable, citrus and greenhouse cropping systems. His research has included searching for and establishing beneficial predators in California. Headrick earned his Ph.D. from UC Riverside, where he studied biological control of weeds and became a specialist in tephritid fruit fly ecology and behavior. He was a post-doctoral fellow at UC Riverside where he conducted insect biological control programs and studied parasitoid biology and ecology. His research on agriculturally important insects and other research has resulted in 100 publications and over 130 professional presentations.
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Jessica Vaughan, Vaughan Grower Consulting
Jessica Vaughan is a grower consultant and crop scout on the CA central coast and owns Vaughan Grower Consulting. Jessica came to ag from tech about 14 years ago when she left her job at Google to go back to school for agriculture. After getting a degree in horticulture, she worked for Jacobs Farm Del Cabo as a grower and greenhouse manager in charge of commercial-scale production of organic greenhouse and field-grown herbs and vegetables. Jessica was Director of Operations and Grower Consulting for a commercial greenhouse lighting company before starting her own consulting company and apprenticing for Doug O'Brien, Ph.D. to learn organic crop scouting. Jessica has been scouting organic vegetables, berries, and cut flowers for the last five years and is now working on a Master of Science in Agriculture at Washington State University. Jessica hopes to help more farmers capture and use their on-farm data to improve their farm's productivity and to train a new breed of crop scouts in practical and sustainable scouting methods.
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