Speakers – Indiana Horticulture Conference and Expo

Mary Winstead

Excerpt: Mary Winstead is a farmer and owner at Local Source. Serving Southwestern Indiana, Local Source strengthens the local food system by providing a year-round, online marketplace connecting producers of locally grown, raised and produced products with retail, wholesale and institutional customers. What is a Producer? A Local Source “Producer” is a vendor in the marketplace >>> Read More.

Aaron Kreider

Excerpt: Aaron Kreider has been a pesticide investigator for OISC for the past 7 years. I previously was the assistant manager of the W.H. Daniel Turfgrass Research Center. >>> Read More.

Jeff Nagel

Excerpt: Jeff Nagel, based in West Lafayette, IN, and is currently an Agronomist at Keystone Cooperative. He earned his Master of Science (MS) in Agronomy and Crop Science degree at Purdue University. >>> Read More.

Caleb Smith

Excerpt: Caleb Smith with Keystone Cooperative, Inc. Caleb Smith is the Sustainability Business Development Lead for Keystone Cooperative headquartered out of Indianapolis. In his role, Caleb works with Keystone’s 100+ agronomy branches in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio to enroll farmers into a variety of ecosystem service programs and provide education on emerging markets for low carbon >>> Read More.

Denise Bode

Excerpt: Managing Partner & President DBode@ConstitutionPartners.com | (405) 818-1775 Denise Bode focuses her practice on food and agriculture, energy, environment, tax and trade policy advice and counsel, particularly coalition management and development and implementation of public policy strategies, at the state and federal level. Denise brings over four decades of experience crafting, implementing, and advocating for >>> Read More.

David Dungan

Excerpt: Executive Director, Center for Security Studies & Cyber Defense David Dungan comes to AU with more than 25 years of experience in law enforcement and most recently served as a public and private sector liaison at the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center. Dungan also spent seven years as a captain in the Indiana Department of Natural Resources >>> Read More.

Eileen Kladivko

Excerpt: Dr. Eileen Kladivko is Professor of Agronomy at Purdue University, where she teaches and does research and Extension work in soil physics, soil biology, and soil health management. Her overall research focus has been to identify soil management systems that improve environmental quality and promote agricultural sustainability. Specific research areas have included the impacts of >>> Read More.

Yaohua Betty Feng

Excerpt: Dr. Yaohua Betty Feng is an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist at Purdue University, dedicated to reducing foodborne illness and enhancing food safety through effective risk assessment, messaging, and communication. Her research program employs a socioecological approach to explore cultural, social, and environmental factors that influence food safety behaviors. By identifying barriers to understanding food >>> Read More.

Allison Zablah

Excerpt: Allison Zablah is an international student from Honduras. She received her B.S. from Zamorano University, where she majored in Agronomy. Allison joined the lab in summer 2022 as a research scholar; she is currently working on her M.S.. Allison studies beneficial insects such as syrphid flies, which, in addition to being predators in their larval >>> Read More.

Robert Grosdidier

Excerpt: Robert is a PhD student interested in insect ecology. He is originally from Kansas and received his Bachelors of Science from Kansas State University. He earned his Master’s degree in Entomology from the University of Florida. There, he studied insect functional traits and explored the role of these traits in governing community assembly processes. Robert’s >>> Read More.

Matt Kleinhenz

Excerpt: Dr. Kleinhenz is a Professor and Extension Specialist in the Dept. of Horticulture and Crop Science at The Ohio State University (OSU) operating from the OSU CFAES Wooster Campus. Matt also served as a Crops Specialist with Univ of Maine Cooperative Extension before joining The OSU in 1998. Matt collaborates with many to develop research-based >>> Read More.

Joe McGuire

Excerpt: CEO Pure Green Farms, South Bend >>> Read More.

Madison Mehringer

Excerpt: “Madison Mehringer earned her bachelor’s degree in Food Science from Purdue University, with minors in Fermentation Science and Horticulture. She has worked with multiple companies in the food and agricultural fields including creating a sanitation verification system in tomato manufacturing facilities, flavor analysis and sensory testing, and dairy manufacturing pH developmental analysis in cheese products. >>> Read More.

Tim Woods

Excerpt: Tim Woods is an Extension Professor in the University of Kentucky Department of Agricultural Economics. Dr. Woods manages studies of Kentucky Consumer households and carries out a variety of Farmer’s market, small producer as well as industry wide studies. He established the MarketReady Producer Training Program to assist producers and manufacturers in preparing to enter or expand into >>> Read More.

Miranda Purcell

Excerpt: Miranda Purcell is a Viticulture Extension Specialist at Purdue University. She works with Indiana grape growers to improve the quality of grapes and wine produced in the state. She is a Co-Chair of Indiana Horticulture Conference, and she also serves as the editor of the Purdue Extension Publication Facts for Fancy Fruit Newsletter. Contact: mrpurcel@purdue.edu >>> Read More.

Jean Pierre Zavala

Excerpt: Jean Pierre Zavala, a graduate student at Purdue’s Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Department, focuses on the economic feasibility of pest management strategies for specialty crops in high tunnels within urban and peri-urban areas. Holding a BS in Agribusiness Management and an MBA, he brings six years of experience serving the Government of Ecuador in agricultural >>> Read More.

Lian Durón

Excerpt: Lian Durón is a MS student in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Purdue University. Her research focuses on developing strategies to maintain quality during long-term storage of strawberry rooted and unrooted runner tips. She also conducts research evaluating light intensities for indoor propagation of strawberry liners. Lian was born in Honduras and >>> Read More.

Don Lamb

Excerpt: Don Lamb is the Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, appointed by Governor Eric Holcomb on March 1, 2023. He also serves as the Director of Agribusiness Development for the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, reports directly to Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch, who serves as Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development and serves >>> Read More.

Perry Kirkham

Excerpt: Perry Kirkham received his BS from Purdue in Biology/Chemistry Education. After 5 years as a teacher he returned to school to get his Ph.D. in immunology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. After research positions at various places around the world, he returned to Lafayette in 2007 to work at Purdue. With his wife >>> Read More.

Dennis R. Buckmaster

Excerpt: Dr. Dennis R. Buckmaster is a Professor in Agricultural and Biological Engineering and Dean’s Fellow for Digital Agriculture at Purdue University. He was an Assistant Dean in Academic Programs prior to the Digital Agriculture post. Dennis’ early career work at Penn State and Purdue involved research emphasis in forage systems and horticultural mechanization and teaching >>> Read More.

Scott Monroe

Excerpt: Scott Monroe, an Indiana native, is the sixth generation in his family to be involved in vegetable production and spent most of his youth working in his family’s watermelon fields. He attended both Vincennes and Purdue Universities, earning degrees in Agriculture, Horticultural Science, and Plant Pathology. Scott has worked in various capacities in the produce >>> Read More.

Renee Wiatt

Excerpt: Renee Wiatt serves as the Family Business Management Specialist for the Purdue Institute for Family Business housed in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. She works on Extension and applied research in family-business interface and balance, succession, and family business management. She is a member of the Purdue Extension Succession Planning Team, working >>> Read More.

Dr. Ariana Torres

Excerpt: Dr. Torres’ research focuses on the decision-making processes of specialty crop farmers along with customers’ perceptions and preferences. Her expertise includes the economic modeling of adoption of new technologies, the development of decision-making tools for specialty crop growers, and the economic impact of growers decision-making processes. Her research provides relevant research-based information to her extension >>> Read More.

Dr. Stephen Meyers

Excerpt: Dr. Meyers joined the faculty in the Purdue University Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture as an Assistant Professor in August 2019. He conducts research in weed biology, weed-crop interactions, herbicide tolerance, and integrated weed management strategies and provides the state’s specialty crop producers with timely, research-based weed management recommendations. Before returning to Purdue he >>> Read More.

Dr. Laura Ingwell

Excerpt: Dr. Laura L. Ingwell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at Purdue University. Her primary role is an Extension Specialist of Pest Management in Horticultural Crops. Dr. Ingwell’s research focuses on watermelon, sweet corn, and pest management on specialty crops grown in protected environments. >>> Read More.