2021 ISPC Speakers
Hugh McPherson
Hugh McPherson, Maize Quest’s Maze Master, has been “losing” guests and telling “corny” jokes for 24 years on his home farm. Maize Quest Corn Maze & Fun Park is home to the annual corn maze, and now features the Sunflower Festival summer event. The home farm Maple Lawn Farms welcomes guests to pick-their-own peaches, apples, pumpkins & blueberries through out the season. In 2015, Hugh launched Maple Lawn Winery to add value to the fruit crop and welcome a new market of wine-loving guests.
Hugh also serves as the choir director at Centre Presbyterian Church in New Park, PA, plays Ultimate Frisbee in a local league, but his pride and joy are his wife Janine, daughter Annie, and son Ian.
Ben Hartman
Ben Hartman is the author of The Lean Farm (Chelsea Green, 2016), winner of the prestigious Shingo Institute Research and Professional Publication Award. In 2017, Ben was named one of fifty emerging green leaders in the United States by Grist, and published a companion guide to The Lean Farm titled The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables. Ben and his wife, Rachel Hershberger, own and operate Clay Bottom Farm in Goshen, Indiana, where they make their living growing specialty crops on less than one acre. Ben has developed an online course in lean farming, which can be found at claybottomfarm.com, and is a senior consultant for USAID on agricultural projects.
Jake Kundert
Jake Kundert is the Food Systems Director at the Iowa Valley RC&D. He implements local and statewide projects focused on building capacity for farmers markets, leading community food security efforts, and supporting small farms.
Emma Johnson
Emma Johnson is a co-owner and operator of Buffalo Ridge Orchard, an 80-acre diversified farm located in Central City, Iowa. Emma farms with her parents and husband. Together they grow vegetables, pears, apples, and 45-acres of row crops.
Dr. Lina Rodriguez-Salamanca
Dr. Lina Rodriguez-Salamanca is an extension plant pathologist and diagnostician with the Iowa State University Plant and Insect Diagnostic Clinic (clinic.ipm.iastate.edu). Lina’s responsibilities in the clinic include plant problem diagnosis of diseases (plant pathogens identification) and abiotic problems, accurately and rapidly with a focus on ornamental, horticultural plants/crops and tree samples submitted to the clinic. As part of ISU Extension and Outreach, through the clinic and extension programs directed to specialty crop producers, Lina focuses her efforts on disease diagnosis and its importance on integrated pest management.
Joe Hannan
Joe Hannan is a Commercial Horticulture Field Specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. His goal is to increase the quantity, quality, and safety of fruits grown in the state through workshops, field days, media, and personal relationships. He has worked in the industry for over 15 years conducting research, providing education to fruit and vegetable farmers, and selling into local wholesale markets. His areas of focus include grapes, apples, and produce safety. Currently, he serves as director and co-lead the North Central Region Center for FSMA Training, Extension, and Technical Assistance.
Sarah Bowman
Sarah Bowman joined the Surry Community College faculty as Viticulture Instructor in January 2018. In 2013, she received her M.S. in Horticulture from Southern Illinois University where she is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Agricultural Science. Sarah was actively involved in the Illinois grape and wine industry for 10 years before relocating to North Carolina. During her time in the Midwest she co-managed a commercial vineyard, conducted educational workshops with the Illinois Grape Growers and Wine Makers Alliance, provided viticultural consulting services to regional growers and held the position of Illinois State Viticulturist.
Luke Holcombe
With over 21 years of industry experience, multiple regions, tens of millions of gallons, technical sales for wine and adjacent products, writing articles and protocols, and teaching college courses; Luke brings a unique perspective to beverage science. He believes that winemaking is often over-complicated, and that consistent, high quality products should be the standard.
Rachel Allison
Rachel Allison is a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, working with Dr. Gavin Sacks in wine flavor chemistry. Her research focuses on the development of reduced off-aromas related to copper fining and canned wine formats. She received her B.Sc. in Engineering Chemistry at Queen’s University and is the recipient of NSERC Canada Graduate and Postgraduate Scholarships and the 2020 ASEV President’s Award for Scholarship in Enology.
Dan Wiesen
Dan is the owner of Empire Hops, LLC and Empire Orchards. He started in the hop business in 2008 with 10 acres of hops in Empire, Mich and now manages and advises on more than 400 acres. Dan also is the co-author of 5, 10, and 20 acre hop enterprise budgets for usahops.com. Dan graduated from MSU in 1977 with an agriculture degree. He has been involved in fruit farming since 1975 . Dan has been invited to speak at various events including the Farm to Table Experience Conference, Northeast Hop Alliance Annual Meeting, Nebraska Hop Conference, the North American Hop Convention. In addition, his facility has served as a grower host site for several tours and field days.
Lewis Jett
Lewis is a native of West Virginia having received his B.Sci. in Agriculture Economics from West Virginia University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Horticulture from Virginia Tech University. He works with specialty crop producers and conducts research and teaching related to vegetables, small fruits and native plants. His research and extension projects focus on evaluating high tunnels for conventional and organic food crop production.
Dr. Lee Kalcsits
Dr. Lee Kalcsits is an assistant professor of tree fruit physiology in the Department of Horticulture at the Washington State University Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee, Washington, USA. His research program works towards understanding the interactions between environment, horticultural management and genetics of tree fruit.
Frank Gieringer
Frank is a first generation farmer from Edgerton, KS. His family owns and operates a 120 acre orchard and berry farm that offers direct farm sales as well as u-pick opportunities. In addition, the Gieringer’s have a fall pumpkin patch and 800 acres of conventional row crops. They grow strawberries, apples, peaches, brambles, high tunnel tomatoes and much more on their farm in Kansas.
Nathan Johanning
Nathan Johanning is a Commercial Agriculture Educator for the University of Illinois Extension in Waterloo, IL serving Madison, Monroe & St. Clair Counties. He started in Extension in 2013 as a Local Food Systems & Small Farms Educator after working at SIU in research and teaching in Plant & Soil Science. He accepted his current role in Extension in the fall of 2019. Nathan has a broad background in both row crop and specialty crop production and specializes in weed, soil, & nutrient management, cover crops, & no-till production along with being active on his family farm south of Waterloo where he raises variety of specialty crops including pumpkins.
Joanne Roepke Bode
Bode's Moonlight Gardens is owned and operated by Joanne Roepke Bode and Beany Bode. Together they grow diverse vegetables and a 14-acre pumpkin patch. Produce is marketed locally at the Kossuth County Farmers' Market and through an 85-member CSA. Pumpkins are sold wholesale and, for the first time in 2020, on the farm for u-pick customers. Joanne has been responsible for meal kit testing, graphic design assistance and marketing support.
Brittney Settlage
Brittney Settlage is a Digital Marketing Strategist at Amplimark in West Des Moines, Iowa. Brittney manages the development and execution of customized digital marketing efforts for agency clients. She helps companies leverage organic and paid digital advertising on the web to generate leads and drive online visibility. Brittney holds a BA in Computer Science from Mount Mercy University.
Fritz Westover
Fritz Westover has been working hands-on in the viticulture industry for over 20 years and is the founder of Westover Vineyard Advising and Virtual Viticulture Academy. He currently advises clients across 7 states encompassing more than 1500 acres of vines and provides virtual advising and exclusive educational content through Virtual Viticulture Academy to members across 5 countries and 29 states. Fritz holds a BS in horticulture from Penn State University as well as an MS from the Penn State Department of Plant Pathology and is active in viticulture research and education across the country.
Aude Watrelot
Dr. Aude Watrelot is an assistant professor of enology at Iowa State University. Her research area is the chemistry of polyphenols in grape and wine and her extension work focuses on education of grape chemistry and winemaking concerns to grape growers and winemakers from Iowa and the Midwest region. Aude has her B.S. degree in plant physiology and M.S degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition. She obtained her PhD at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA) and the University of Avignon, France, where her research was focused on the mechanisms of interactions between polyphenols and polysaccharides in apple.
Jan Libbey
Jan and her husband, Tim Landgraf, have operated One Step at a Time Gardens (OSTG) since 1996, selling CSA shares until 2018 and continues to sell product through North Iowa Fresh. Jan helped to found and served as Executive Director for Healthy Harvest of North Iowa, a nonprofit supporting local food system development, from 2011 - 2019. She helped to found and assists with management of North Iowa Fresh, LLC. Jan has been responsible for overall grant management on the meal kit team.
Andrea Evelsizer
Andrea is a broker/manager for North Iowa Fresh, LLC, a food hub in North Iowa that works with more than a dozen local farmers and serves more than 200 families with their Bounty Box CSA program as well as wholesale to grocers, restaurants, food bank, and schools. Andrea has been active in local food sales, marketing and food system development since 2013. Andrea is responsible for overall project management.
Alison Moon
Alison operated The Daily Bread, a commercial bakery featuring certified organic whole grain breads and a restaurant highlighting locally grown foods in a seasonal menu. Today she creates delicious dishes for a home delivery catering business called Food for Thought, LLC. Alison has been responsible for recipe development on the meal kit team.
Maria Mora
Maria Mora is VP of Digital Strategy at Big Sea, a digital marketing agency with locations in St. Petersburg, Florida and Colorado Springs, Colorado. She has over 18 years of content marketing experience and has worked with brands like Walmart, Best Buy, HSN and L'Oreal. She brings a storytelling philosophy to digital marketing, helping brands develop compelling messaging and strong relationships with their audiences. Her young adult debut novel, FRAGILE REMEDY, will be out March 9 from Flux books.
Michael Ott
Michael Ott is the founder and CEO of Rantizo, an agtech company based in Iowa City and the first company legally using drones to spray for agriculture in multiple states. Before Rantizo, Ott worked in corporate venture capital backed by Monsanto, Novozymes and Bunge and invented a patented technology that delivers tiny amounts of nitrogen on a rice seed as it grows. Ott has a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Iowa and nearly two decades of experience in finance. He is an author on five patent applications and has raised over $150 million in investment over the course of his career. He resides in Iowa City with his wife Anne, two sons Ryan and Quincy, and daughter Rosalie.
Erin Norton
Erin joined the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute as Education and Outreach Coordinator in December 2015, where she serves the Iowa wine industry through organizing and presenting workshops and seminars, teaching on-campus classes and the managing the educational arm of IWGA's Registered Apprenticeship Program. After growing up in Canada’s Niagara wine region, Erin received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from University of Waterloo in 2005 and her master’s degree in chemistry from University of Windsor in 2008. This led her back home to Brock University to complete the Certificate in Grape and Wine Technology in 2008/2009. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in food science from Iowa State University.
Kurt Rosentrater
Dr. Kurt Rosentrater is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University. He is also the Executive Director of the Distillers Grains Technology Council. Prior to his work at Iowa State, he was a Lead Scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service.
Denise Gardner
Denise Gardner is a wine consultant and founder of Denise Gardner Winemaking, which is a one-of-a-kind virtual consulting program that is crafted to provide convenience, accessibility, and practicality to wineries of all sizes. Denise has been integrated in the grape and wine industries for 20 years with a background in wine research, sensory and production improvement. Denise has her B.S. in Food Science from Penn State University and M.S. in Food Science and Technology from Virginia Tech University. Denise has earned two industry accreditations: the Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) accreditation from the Society of Wine Educators and the Level 3 certification from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET).
Annie Klodd
Annie Klodd is a statewide Extension Educator for fruit crops at University of Minnesota. She works with grape growers and other fruit growers to enhance production of cold hardy fruit, with an emphasis on grapes. Annie received her Masters degree studying viticulture at Penn State University in 2015. She is originally from Iowa, and grew up on a vineyard west of Indianola.
Maureen Moroney
Maureen is a Research Associate at the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute at Iowa State University, where she runs the service lab, including supervising two student lab techs, to provide analysis of samples sent by industry members, and also contributes to the Institute's research and extension work. She studied Biology at Iowa State University. After graduation, she worked at Chateau St Jean Winery in Kenwood, California, Delegat's Wine Estate in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, Hartford Family Winery in Forestville, California and was the Enologist at Dehlinger Winery in Sebastopol, California. She is currently enrolled in the Interdepartmental Microbiology graduate program at ISU.
Lyle Ditmars
A lifelong resident of Council Bluffs, Iowa, Lyle graduated from UNO with Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Economics in 1973. Four years later (1977) he graduated from the Creighton University Law School. In 1993 he purchased what had been 70 acres of row crop and pasture land and the following year began to plant fruit trees. Additional land purchases followed as the orchard expanded. The orchard, now consisting of 4,500 trees, almost entirely on semi-dwarf root stocks, also has expanded into strawberries, pumpkins, mums, and sunflowers. The facility includes a sweet cider operation, a retail shop, wine and hard cider sales and other activities including a playground, corn maze and a goat petting area. Lyle is a former board member of the Board and President of the IFVGA. In addition to the orchard he enjoys spending time with his significant other, Judy, their kids and grandkids and hot air ballooning.
John P. Taberna
John P. Taberna was born in Buffalo, Wyoming. He graduated from Crater High School in Central Point, Oregon. He attended California State Polytechnic University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, California (SLO). He attended grad school at the University of Idaho (U of I) in Moscow, Idaho. After graduation, John worked as a soil scientist for the NRCS and Boise Cascade. He also taught at U of I and Treasure Valley Community College (TVCC). In 2003 John was inducted into the Eastern Idaho Agriculture Hall of Fame. He’s been the owner and soil scientist of Western Laboratories, Inc. since 1973. With his vast knowledge of the agricultural world, John has helped thousands with all their agricultural needs.
Dr. Ajay Nair
Dr. Ajay Nair is an Associate Professor working in the area of Sustainable Vegetable Production in the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University. The focus of his research, extension, and education program is on cover cropping, conservation tillage, nutrient management, soil amendments and health, and season extension strategies in vegetable production. He works closely with commercial vegetable growers, extension staff, industry representatives and stakeholders to meet the rising demand of locally grown produce and enhance the profitability and sustainability of vegetable production systems.
Josh Mayich
Josh Mayich is the COO and President of the Island Hop Company (or IHC), a 30 acre hop Operation on Prince Edward Island, Canada. IHC specializes in the production of noble hops, their progeny, as well as a compliment of other New World varieties. Josh is a certified beer Judge, and a certified cicerone – allowing him to form a formalized pilot brewing, hop blending and hop and beer quality assurance program. The IHC also has an invovled research and development program, with major research programs including: (1) Partnering commercialization and variety development work with the USDA and Agriculture Canada; (2) Research on attitudes and Preferences around hop-derived flavour in beer in North America; (3) Beer drinker attitudes towards proprietary versus public hops; (4) Nutrient requirements and fertility optimization; and (5) Pest management and sustainability. These programs aim to improve the sustainability and profitability of hops, while aiding growers in understanding current and future trends in public preferences around beer and hop-derived flavour. This research work has lead to partnership with local breweries and international academic Partners, peer-reviewed publications, Webinar and speaking Engagements. Josh is humbled to be a very small part of a great community and an exciting era of something as culturally important as beer.
John Wesselius
John Wesselius, who farms with Janna, and two full time employees operates The Cornucopia, a small farm dedicated to organic practices, providing 100 families with a CSA share, participates at 4 farmers markets and has nurtured relationships with several chefs who appreciate freshness, flavor and cleanliness of locally grown vegetables. The farm uses about 6 acres each year in crops, has 2 heated greenhouses, 4 high tunnels and grows a wide variety of vegetables. John and Janna have been growing for 15 years.
Laura Krouse
Laura Krouse has farmed near Mt. Vernon for over thirty years. Abbe Hills Farm was one of the first CSAs in Iowa and now serves about 150 families in the Cedar Rapids area for twenty weeks each summer season. The farm also produces eggs, hay, soybeans, and an heirloom open pollinated field corn, Abbe Hills OP, for sale as seed all over the upper Midwest. Laura is a long time commissioner of the Linn Soil and Water Conservation District.
Brad Bergefurd
Brad Bergefurd has been with OSU CFAES for 30 years working for the Ohio Agricutural Research & Development Center as a Horticulture Research Assistant and the past 27 years with the Department of Extension as an Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Educator and Specialty Crops Specialist. His teaching and field research centers on crop diagnostics and management, season extension techniques (high tunnel, plasticulture, row covers), integrated pest management (IPM), micro-irrigation management and direct marketing and his applied research focuses on plasticulture production, hops production, strawberry harvest extension, aquaponics and hemp. His current research is funded by the Ohio Vegetable and Small Fruit Research & Development Program, USDA, North Central IPM and North Central Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education (SARE). Bergefurd lectures at Ohio State, throughout the country and throughout Senegal West Africa.
T.D. Holub
Garden Oasis Farm is a 10 acre diversified vegetable farm operated by T.D. and Sarah Holub. Located just outside of Coggon, IA our farm has been growing a wide range of vegetables since 2013. Our produce is marketed primarily through our CSA, on-farm sales, as well as local restaurants and co-op. Our farm's goal is to bring fresh, high quality produce to our local community and its members.