2014 Highlights: UC IPM Annual Report

(Photo by M. Martino)

From the Director

Welcome to the 2014 issue of the UC IPM Annual Report. I hope you enjoy reading the highlights of our recent accomplishments and activities. It was very exciting to see how well our program performed in the past year. This year was an exceptional year for UC IPM where we experienced significant changes and expansion. We have hired new advisors and staff and developed several new programs, publications, interactive tools, and products. We are proud that our website is the most popular website when it comes to pests and pest management information. We continue to build strong partnerships with state and government agencies, communities and cities, agricultural commodities, and other groups.

As part of the University of California 2025 Strategic Vision we are currently working to develop a new strategic plan to guide us in the upcoming years. The new plan will set the goals and strategic direction that UC IPM will pursue to respond to the changing pest management needs by reflecting on past accomplishments and experiences, reviewing challenges and opportunities, and synthesizing new pest management information utilizing our world-class scientists at the University of California. We hope to release the new plan in the spring of 2015. The strategic planning process has engaged the entire UC IPM Program and many of our key internal and external stakeholders and partners.

I want to thank Joyce Strand and Mary Lou Flint for serving UC IPM for more than 30 years. Mary Lou has been with UC IPM since its inception. She is one of the pioneers who established the Program. In the last five years, she served as associate director for urban and community IPM where she worked diligently to establish and expand the new program. Joyce has served in many different capacities including, most recently, associate director for communications. She has contributed to the success of our outreach effort in developing and delivering IPM products and tools. We will miss Mary Lou’s and Joyce’s leadership, input, and energy.

It’s been exciting to see significant growth in our ability to conduct research and deliver IPM programs. We are happy to hire Dr. Tunyalee Martin as our new associate director for communications and Karey Windbiel-Rojas as our new associate director for urban and community IPM. Karey also will serve as an urban IPM advisor. Entomologist Dr. Emily Symmes, joined us as an IPM advisor for the North Sacramento Valley. We are also excited to have Dr. Niamh Quinn, area vertebrate pest advisor, affiliated with us as well. We hired Dr. Lori Berger as the chlorpyrifos project coordinator and Ria DeBiase as the Pest Management Guidelines coordinator. I also welcome Andrew Barber, a new programmer, who will ensure our products and programs are easily viewed on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. In addition, we are in the process of hiring two new IPM advisors that are expected to be on board by next spring. They will deliver IPM information in the north San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles.

Before signing off, I want to acknowledge the contributions and hard work of our extraordinary academics and staff. They deserve all the credit for UC IPM’s exceptional achievements in 2014.

—Kassim Al-Khatib, Director