2014 Highlights: UC IPM Annual Report

New Staff

Tunyalee B. Martin (Photo by B. Martin)

Karey Windbiel-Rojas (Photo by C. Gibson)

Ria DeBiase (Photo by C. Reynolds)

Lori Berger

Andrew Barber (Photo by C. Reynolds)

Tunyalee Martin is not a new face for UC IPM, but is our new associate director for communications, succeeding the retired Joyce Strand. Martin started in January 2014.

She leads communications and works with UC experts to help them extend their IPM research and information. Martin will focus on ensuring content on the website is up-to-date and exploring new technologies for outreach such as social media, online training, and electronic publications. As UC IPM’s former content development supervisor, she managed the team of writers and editors who develop the content for print products and the website.

Martin is co-author of the study guide Field Fumigation and was involved with the publications IPM for Rice, IPM for Citrus, several crop Pest Management Guidelines including new Guidelines for pomegranate and blueberry, and UC IPM’s annual reports. She has a BS, MS, and PhD in entomology, all from UC Davis.

In October 2014, we welcomed Karey Windbiel-Rojas as our new associate director for urban and community IPM and area IPM advisor. Windbiel-Rojas, who began working at UC IPM in 2006 in the role of urban IPM Educator, succeeds the newly retired Dr. Mary Louise Flint.

As associate director, Windbiel-Rojas provides leadership on urban IPM issues and plans, conducts, and coordinates outreach and education for a variety of urban audiences throughout the state. She is actively engaged with stakeholders and partners to set program goals and priorities. She provides oversight of UC IPM urban educational materials, including the Pest Note publication series, and content in other printed and online resources.

As an advisor, Windbiel-Rojas plans to collaborate with other UC advisors to address pest issues in homes, structures, landscapes, gardens, and other public areas. She holds a MS in IPM from UC Davis where her research focused on entomology and biological control, and a BS in biology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Ria DeBiase joined UC IPM in May 2014 as the coordinator for the 47 crop Pest Management Guidelines publication series. She is responsible for writing, editing, and coordinating the revisions and working with over 100 authors to keep the Guidelines up-to-date.

DeBiase worked for several seasons with farm advisor Chuck Ingels setting up and collecting data on pest management trials for spotted wing drosophila and brown marmorated stink bug. She has also worked on field horticultural trials in tree crops, grapes, and strawberries. DeBiase worked in several labs collecting data on soil and plant nutrients to learn more about plant health.

She has a BS in animal biology from UC Davis.

Lori Berger started in April 2014 as the chlorpyrifos project coordinator. This project is working with the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to hear how commodities define the critical uses of chlorpyrifos in cotton, alfalfa, citrus, and almond.

Much of Berger’s twenty years of active engagement in California agriculture is in IPM. As the former executive director of the California Specialty Crops Council, she has worked with a wide range of crop organizations, and designed and implemented high quality outreach programs. She owns her own business, consulting in the areas of pest management, crop protection, pollinator protection, and business development.

Berger has a BS degree in crop science from the University of Wyoming; two MS degrees in entomology from Oklahoma State University and business from CSU Fresno; and a PhD in entomology from Texas A&M.

Andrew Barber will help develop interactive web applications as our new programmer. He joined UC IPM in October 2014.

The web applications he will be responsible for are a diagnostic tool to help identify pest problems in landscape plants and backyard gardens, the herbicide symptoms photo repository, and online support tools for making management decisions.

Previously Barber worked on web-based eLearning and realtime classroom tools.