Dates: June 15-17, 2009

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Session Materials: 
    Cold Process Soap Making
       Soap Websites
    Cool Things About DNA
    21st Century Agriculture
    BECON
    Ad Management Service Learning
    Technology and Swine Industry
    Landscape Plant Problems
    The Future of Ag and Technology
    Cup Lab
    Other Useful Websites and Notes
    Diesel and Biodiesel
    Web Sites for National Ag Science Conference

Presenters: Learn a little about the following presenters below:

Jill Kerber Aldous
LaRoy Brandt
Mari Miller Burns
Shane Conley
Keith Fricks
Hoon Ge
Nels H. Granholm
Michael Grapes
Jeff Iles
Renee Jedlicka
Rodger Main
Jeanette Mowery, Ph.D.
Martha Olson
Norm Olson
Dr. Emilio Oyarzabal
BJ Schany
Jim & Freda Sojka
Marvin J Walter
Mike Zeller

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Jill Kerber Aldous
Vice President and Director fo Managed Swine Operations, Kerber Milling Co. 

Jill Kerber Aldous co-owns and operates Kerber Milling Co. with her father, John Kerber, and brother, Jeff Kerber. Located in Emmetsburg, Iowa, Kerber Milling Co. is a livestock feed manufacturing company that was founded by the Kerber family in 1922. Jill joined Kerber Milling in 1994 and serves as vice president and director of sow operations where she is responsible for all aspects of administration and production. She is also involved in the administration, planning and nutrition consultation for the livestock feed division. 

Jill majored in animal science and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. in 1991. She earned a Masters of Science degree in swine nutrition from the University of Minnesota-St. Paul in 1995. Jill, her husband, Steve, and their two children, Levi and Kiersten live on a 100-head cow/calf farm north of Emmetsburg.

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LaRoy Brandt
Dr. Professor at State Fair Community College 

LaRoy is currently the Chair for the Department of Math, Science, Agriculture, CIS, Web, and Networking at State Fair Community College.  Dr Brandt earned a PhD in Entomology at the University of Kansas, a MS in Biology at the University of Central Missouri, and a BS in Biology through Missouri State University.  Teaching at SFCC for 7 years, Dr Brandt is currently responsible for all biology courses, including Introduction to Biotechnology I & II, at SFCC.  As a grant participant, Dr Brandt has supervised numerous research projects both as independent research and part of the regular course work.

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Mari Miller Burns
Associate Professor, Speech Communications, Iowa Lakes Community College

Mari recently completed her tenth year teaching speech communication courses at Iowa Lakes Community College.  She has also taught English and speech at the public and private high school level.   She has presented at state, regional, and national conferences on topics relating to communication, in general, and communication and technology, in specific.  Mari has served as executive secretary and currently serves on the executive board for the Iowa Communication Association.  She has a bachelor's degree in commuication, secondary education licensures in Speech Communication/Theatre/English/Language Arts, and a master's degree in Communication Studies.

Her husband, Doug, is a truck driver and former professional angler.  He has taught Mari how interpersonal communication is vital to sustain their 17-year marriage.  Together they have two highly communicative teenage daughters, Mackenzie and Madison.

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Shane Conley
Motorcycle and Small Engine Instructor, Iowa Lakes Community College

Shane joined the Iowa Lakes staff in January 2007 in the Motorcycle and Small Engine Technolgy Program. His carreer includes over 16 years in the field of motorcycle mechanics. In 2000 he opened a motorcycle shop, from which he started the first ever known "Chopper Building School" ever offered in the US. His racing career ended in 2002 by winning the CRA Roadracing Championshipon a 180 mph Superbike.

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Keith Fricks
Ag Management Consultant for C & B Operations 

C&B Operations is a John Deere dealership in southern Minnesota that has six stores. Keith’s responsibilities include sales, inventory control, and technical support for Ag Management Systems. The main products are GPS guidance, Boom section control, Planter control, Yield mapping, and Map-based prescriptions. I have been doing this for 10 years. He was raised on a family farm operation in Beresford, SD and graduated from South Dakota State University with a degree in Animal Science.

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Hoon Ge

Fuel Consultant

 

Hoon started MEG Corp in 2005 to provide consulting for a variety of diesel and biodiesel related organizations and companies.  Before starting his own company, he worked at Koch Refining where he was responsible for blending diesel and gasoline and developed the Premium Diesel Program.  At Schaeffer Manufacturing, he managed the fuel additives division for 9 years.

MEG Corp has provided technical support for many organizations and companies including the National Biodiesel Board, several state soybean associations and many large fuel distributors around the country.  By operating the National Biodiesel Hotline for the NBB, Hoon Ge has provided technical support to all segments of the biodiesel diesel and biodiesel users by troubleshooting and solving filter plugging issues, assessing fuel quality, improve cold weather operability and perform proper tank maintenance.  Hoon has conducted over 150 educational seminars around the U.S. on various topics regarding diesel and biodiesel.  He has helped advance the efforts to establish and increase the biodiesel mandate in Minnesota by testifying before the MN state legislature regarding the technical benefits of biodiesel.  He continues to educate and promote the successful use of biodiesel by serving on the MN Biodiesel Task Force.     

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Nels H. Granholm
Ph.D., Professor of Biology/Coordinator, SDSU’s Global Studies Program, South Dakota State University

Dr. Granholm was born and raised in Weston, Massachusetts.  He graduated from the University of Massachusetts (B.A., Zoology, 1964) and Iowa State University (Ph.D., Developmental Biology, 1968). Working at South Dakota State University since 1971, Dr. Granholm has conducted bench research on the molecular genetics of pigment cell gene expression (melanogenesis)  in mice and livestock.  He has been teaching Bioethics at SDSU for over 30 years.  In the summer of 2004, Dr. Granholm was asked to direct the Global Studies Program at SDSU, an activity he finds most exciting, challenging, and rewarding.  Dr. Granholm is married to Dee Reyelts Granholm of Britton, S.D. and has three sons living with their families in London, England, Southwest Harbor, Maine, and Minneapolis, MN.

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Jeff Iles
Professor and Chair of the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. 

Jeff teaches, conducts applied research, and provides Extension programming in the areas of garden center management, plant material usage, and landscape plant establishment.  He received his B.S. degree from Michigan State University, M.S. from Penn State University, and Ph.D. from Iowa State University.  All degrees are in horticulture.  Jeff has managed retail garden centers in suburban Detroit, Michigan and Denver, Colorado, and in his "spare time" is an ice hockey referee.

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Renee Jedlicka
Communications Professor, Iowa Lakes Community College

Renee Jedlicka teaches both online communication classes and on the ground communication classes for Iowa Lakes Community College, Emmetsburg campus.  She is motivated to find ways to better enhance student learning through student interaction, reflection, field experiences, and technology.  Renee began her teaching career at Iowa Lakes twenty years ago after working in the Iowa tourism industry.  She earned her bachelor’s degree from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa and a master’s of arts degree in speech communication from Minnesota State University- Mankato, Minnesota.

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Martha Olson
Assistant professor of nursing at Iowa Lakes Community College

Martha is a graduate of Iowa Methodist School of Nuring in Des Moines.  She has a BSN from the University of Iowa and a Masters in Education from Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota.  She currenlty teaches nursing and nutrition classes for Iowa Lakes, as well as online classes in medical terminology and nutrition.  Her first job at Iowa Lakes was as a continuing education programmer for health sciences.  She has taught Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Pediatric Advanced Life Support classes in the past, as well as other health education topics for continuing education.

Before coming to Iowa Lakes, Martha worked at Avera Holy Family Hospital in Estherville Iowa as a nurse in many areas of patient care.  She continues to work part time at both Avera Holy Family and Palo Alto County Hospital as a registered nurse.

Currently, she has been working with textbook publishers, helping to revise and write nursing and nutrition texts.

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Norm Olson
Program Manager at the Iowa Energy Center’s Biomass Energy CONversion (BECON) Facility

BECON is at the forefront of developing the biorefinery concept where, as a corollary to an oil refinery in which hundreds of products are made from a barrel of petroleum, instead hundreds of products are made from a ton of agricultural plant material.   Olson has nearly 30 years of experience in energy efficiency and renewable fuels projects and has been a registered professional engineer since 1982. Past experience includes work as: a Product Design Engineer for Lenox and Dunham-Bush, a Project Engineer for the Iowa Energy Policy Council, Energy Manager for the University of Iowa, and Project Manager for the Iowa Energy Center’s Energy Resource Station (ERS).

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Dr. Emilio Oyarzabal
Technology Development Manger, Monsanto

Dr Oyarzabal is a Plant Scientist that joined Monsanto Argentina in 1984 after working for the National Institute of Agricultural Technology. He began his career in Monsanto in the Product Development Department. In 1986 he moved to the Unites States with his family and began his graduate studies at Iowa State University.  He graduated with a M.S. in Crop Production and Physiology in 1989 and a Ph. D. in Plant Physiology in 1991.  He joined Monsanto in Iowa in 1991 as a member of the Technical Department.  Since then Emilio has been involved in multiple projects and teams responsible for the field development of herbicides, traits, germplasm and advanced agronomic systems.  Emilio was part of the teams that developed corn and soybeans crops resistant to Roundup, and corn hybrids resistant to key insect pests.  Currently Emilio is responsible for University Relations.  In his current role, his main concerns are related to talent development in agricultural sciences, plant sciences, and biology.  He is also very interested in the impact of technology for improving food, feed and fuel production in sustainable systems. 

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BJ Schany
Commodity/ Biomass Manger, POET

BJ was born and raised in Emmetsburg.  He attended Iowa Lakes for two years and finished at Northwest Missouri State Unviersity.  He worked at ADM for 7 years and then moved back to Emmetsburg to work for POET.

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Jim & Freda Sojka
Simply Soother Cold Process Soap Creator

Freda is retired from Monsanto, a chemical company, after 23 years.  She had started Simply Soothing shortly before retiring, and began working full time for the company.

Jim Soka retired from bridge building a couple of years ago, (he has since went back to bridge building during the season), and joined Simply Soothing, making it a unique Mom and Pop business.  At a conference a couple of years ago, cold process soap making was demonstrated.  Jim and Freda both felt that this was something they wanted to get in to.  Since then we have made hundreds of bars of soap, which have become a popular line for our business.

Simply Soothing is a company that specializes in hand made, high quality products.  We are constantly adding new products, and improving old ones.  We both enjoy creating.  

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Marvin J Walter
Chairman and CEO, The National CUP Lab & Technology Center

Marvin J Walter has often been called “an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur”.  He has been the “lead horse” in developing 18 entrepreneurial businesses from “dead scratch”.  In other words, he has fostered the idea- and along with several partners- developed the concept and builds the ideas into a new operating business.

Mr. Walter currently serves on many different Boards for all different types of areas. He has also been recognized numerous of times for all of his hard work and leadership throughout the communities. Mr. Walter and his wife live on a 200 acre livestock farm in Watkins, Iowa.

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Mike Zeller
Biotechnology Outreach Education Center Coordinator, Iowa State University 

Since January 2000 Mike Zeller has led in the development of the university's biotechnology outreach education program, which has become a national model. Since joining the office part-time in 1997 and full time in 2000, he has trained more than 1,600 Iowa educators, providing them with equipment, supplies and curriculum packages to take back to their schools. These teachers have, in turn, provided high-quality biotechnology instruction to more than 190,000 students in Iowa schools. He has 20 professional publications dealing with science and biotechnology education and has made more than two dozen state and national conference presentations. Most recently Zeller has received the Regents Award for Faculty Excellence and the Distinguished Service Award by the Iowa Science Teacher Section of the Iowa Academy of Science.

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