NAPPC's mission is to encourage the health of resident and migratory pollinating animals in North America. This year, NAPPC partners will gather virtually from throughout North America and beyond on 19-21 October 2021.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

1. ABRAM BICKSLER, PH.D., FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS

The intersection of sustainable food systems and pollinator health.

 Abram J. Bicksler, Ph.D., is an Agricultural Officer with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) based in Rome. He works with the Agroecology and Ecosystem Services Team within the Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP) on various initiatives related to the scaling-up of Agroecology, provision of ecosystem services, and is also the focal point for pollinators within the division. He is currently a co-leader of the development of the Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE), backstops various agroecology projects globally, and is the focal point for FAO's facilitation of the International Pollinators Initiative 2018-2030 (IPI 2).

2. CHRISTINA GROZINGER, PH.D., PENN STATE UNIVERSITY

 Predicting and managing bee health in a changing world.

 Christina Grozinger is the Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and the Director for the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State. She is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and received the 2020 NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences. Her studies on pollinator health evaluate the impacts of biotic and abiotic stressors at the molecular, physiological and behavioral level, and examine how bees’ resilience to these stressors can be bolstered by management practices and environmental contexts, particularly by improved nutrition. With the Beescape team (see beescape.org), Grozinger is developing models and decision support tools to evaluate landscape and climate conditions and predict bee health at local scales, to help beekeepers, growers, land managers and members of the public better assess and mitigate the stressors that their managed and wild bee populations experience.

3. MIKOL HOFFMAN, FOOD PRODUCER NETWORK AT WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN

 Creating resilient food systems by supporting communities and pollinators.

 Originally from San Juan, Mikol brings her expertise in operations, food tourism, project management, and business development as WCK’s Director of the Food Producer Network. A graduate of Georgetown University and Parallel 18’s entrepreneurship program, she’s passionate about global food security and justice. Mikol is deeply committed to helping her island come back stronger than ever with new levels of sustainability, stability, and growth through WCK’s Food Producer Network and beyond.

4. ERIC LONSDORF, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA AND TAYLOR RICKETTS, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

 Rewarding farmers for the collective benefits of installing pollinator habitat.

Eric Lonsdorf is a lead scientist with the Natural Capital Project— a collaborative partnership among the University of Minnesota, Stanford University, the Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund. Eric develops ecological models for decision-makers faced with making decisions in conservation biology and natural resource management under considerable uncertainty with limited resources. Specifically, he leads the development and application of a model to predict crop pollination services provided by wild bees, works with government and non-governmental organizations to develop options of compensatory mitigation for incidental take of golden eagles by wind turbine facilities, and is interested in applying principles of adaptive management to ecosystem service-based land management. Ultimately, he thinks of conservation management problems like a business problem where a species or community or ecosystem function of concern is a commodity to be produced with the greatest certainty and managed at the least cost. Eric earned his Ph.D. in ecology, evolution and behavior from the University of Minnesota. He lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his wife, daughter and son.

  5. Taylor Ricketts(Prof.)

Taylor Ricketts is Gund Professor and Director of the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont. Taylor’s research centers on the overarching question: How do we meet the needs of people and nature in an increasingly crowded, changing world? His recent work has focused on the economic and health benefits provided to people by forests, wetlands, reefs, and other natural areas. He is co-founder of the Natural Capital Project, a partnership among universities and NGOs to map and value these natural benefits. Taylor has also served as an author and editor for two UN-sponsored efforts to assess global ecosystems and their contributions to human wellbeing. Before arriving at UVM in 2011, he led World Wildlife Fund’s Conservation Science Program for nine years. These and other roles are part of a continuing effort to link rigorous research with practical conservation and policy efforts worldwide. Taylor is an elected Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Ecological Society of America. Thomson-Reuters has named him one of the world’s most cited and influential scientists.

6. OLIVIA MESSINGER-CARRIL, PH.D., AUTHOR OF THE BEES IN YOUR BACKYARD

Documenting native bee populations: past efforts, future endeavors, and a place for citizen science.