The Bee Informed Partnership is a dynamic, interdisciplinary team who is passionate about saving honey bees. Our group consists of laboratory diagnostic experts, technical transfer team specialists, and IT development. Our team also includes scientists, grant writers and analysts who help further our mission. Our Board includes stakeholders who are vested in our goals and who make sure that we are leading the industry with our programs and services. We are spread out all over the US but remain inextricably linked as a family to make our services as valuable to the beekeepers and researchers as possible.
Operations & IT
Annette “Net” Meredith
Executive Director
Net Meredith joins the Bee Informed Partnership after serving many years in the non-profit and public sectors working in sustainability and ecology. As Executive Director she works with BIP staff, the Board of Directors, beekeepers and other external stakeholders to support BIP’s vital work in honey bee health. Net was first introduced to the exciting world of bees in graduate school. Years ago, fieldwork with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program and The Nature Conservancy’s Carpenter Ranch led her to doctoral research working with farmers to promote pollinators on working agricultural lands in the Mid-Atlantic. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and a M.S. in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from University of Maryland and a B.A. from University of Michigan in addition to post-bachelors coursework from Colorado State University.
Anne Marie Fauvel
Technical Transfer Team Coordinator
Anne Marie is fascinated by honey bees and the people who care for them. Even though she taught Biology, Environmental and Food Systems Studies for years, she focused her research interests on honey bees and more specifically on developing better tools to study them. Anne Marie worked on a few projects in collaboration with BIP and enjoyed it so much that she jumped at the opportunity to join the team full time. She now thoroughly enjoys living, what she likes to call a full BIP life, facilitating collaboration between commercial beekeepers, BIP’s highly specialized Tech Team Experts in the field, the various research institutions, and industry. She has not known a dull moment since!
Nathalie Steinhauer
Science Coordinator
As the Bee Informed Partnership's Science Coordinator, Nathalie is based out of the University of Maryland’s Entomology Department where she completed her PhD working under Dennis vanEngelsdorp in 2017. She previously obtained a Master in Biology from Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and a Master Research in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation from Imperial College London (UK). Skilled in experimental design, data analysis, and modelling, her research interests range from fundamental population dynamics and animal behavior to applied work in epidemiology. Self-described R-enthusiast, and beekeeper since 2009.
Eric Malcolm
Customer Relations Coordinator
Eric was born and raised in Silver Spring, MD. After a short period studying Adventure Sports with a focus on white water kayaking, he turned to a life of sales and marketing in the fitness industry and began fitness coaching. He later moved into wine sales for a local winery. After some time, he decided to leave the work-force to stay at home with his newborn daughter and shortly after he finally evolved into a beekeeper. His passion for honey bees and edible landscaping got him headed down the road to starting his own small apiary management business, and that's when his friend Dan introduced him to BIP! Besides beekeeping, Eric enjoys being in the woods, traveling with his family, making friends, and trying new things. He will eat just about anything considered slightly edible; bugs, plants, and even the most adventurous home cooking... except for Royal Jelly (he found out he is allergic to this after eating it). He also loves a good hug!
Rachel Kuipers
Communications
Rachel first started working with honey bees in 2016 as a student in the University of Maryland Bee Lab. After graduating with a degree in journalism in 2017, she continued working with the UMD Bee Lab and eventually joined BIP in 2018. As a part of the communications team, Rachel helps with the blog, social media accounts, and other communications. As part of the Sentinel team, she helps with Sentinel Program design, communications, and outreach.
Mikayla E. Wilson
Sr Information Technology & Database Engineer
Mikayla is a Faculty Specialist at the University of Maryland, vanEngelsdorp Bee Lab. She designs and maintains database, web application, and general IT needs of primary honey bee projects including the Bee Informed Partnership and APHIS National Honey Bee Survey since 2011. Mikayla has a Master’s degree in Entomology from the University of Tennessee and has worked in University computing roles since 1994. She has been a beekeeper since the late 1990s as well, with a keen interest in applying information technology to agricultural sciences and education. She has worked on numerous USDA projects since 2008 in response to the decline in bee health, first at Tennessee then joining the UMD lab in 2021.
John Anderson
Software Engineer & Social Media Assistant
John Anderson grew up on a corn, soybean, cattle, and hog farm in Eastern Nebraska. He currently lives in Sioux City Iowa where he has worked as a computer programmer since 1998. He has been a hobby beekeeper since 2009 and began raising queens in 2018. In 2020 he returned to college at Morningside University and will complete his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with a Marketing minor in May of 2022. He enjoys organizing and participating in local bee club meetings. John is excited to have the opportunity to combine his love of honeybees and his experience as a computer programmer to benefit the beekeeping community through the Bee Informed Partnership.
Esteban Eliza
Information Technology & Database
Born in Brooklyn, NY, Esteban migrated upstate to study Game Design and Development at Rochester Institute of Technology in 2012. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he worked for nearly a decade as a software engineer on AAA video games, focusing primarily on User Interface/User Experience and audio. Esteban recently moved to a hamlet in the Catskills where a prominent honeybee culture inspired him to learn more about beekeeping and eventually to pursue a role at Bee Informed. He brings with him a passion for making technology more accessible and intuitive and is looking forward to starting his very first backyard hive soon.
Technical Transfer Team
Matt Hoepfinger
California Honey Bee Health Field Specialist
After receiving a Master’s degree in computer science from Michigan State, Matt moved to Golden, Colorado where he worked in the telecom industry as a software engineer for 25 years. He started keeping bees at the hobby level in 2011, which quickly became his passion (some have called it his obsession). He serves as director of Mountain High Beekeepers Cooperative and after playing an essential role in founding the Colorado Professional Beekeepers Association, he continues to provide support for the group. Matt joined the Tech Transfer Team in California in 2019 where he works closely with commercial beekeepers in the region to assist with colony assessments, disease monitoring, hygienic testing and sampling for Varroa, Nosema, pesticides, and viruses. He then uses the information collected to work alongside beekeepers by acting as an interpreter of colony data to improve survivorship. He is excited to expand his knowledge in evidence-based beekeeping practices and grow his understanding of honey bee health.
Cade Houston
Texas Honey Bee Health Field Specialist
Originally from the Flatwoods of South Georgia, this Baxley, Ga. native now lives in College Station, Texas where he aids beekeepers in colony health monitoring and surveillance. Cade received his B.S. in Agriculture from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 2020. While at ABAC, he founded the Abraham Baldwin Beekeeper’s Association to teach other college students, faculty, and the community about the importance of bees and beekeeping in the state and nationwide. He began keeping honeybees at the age of 14 and has been “addicted” ever since. Before coming to BIP, Cade worked for two commercial operations in Georgia: Gardner Apiaries and Georgia Bee Supply. He also worked for University of Georgia Tifton Campus Entomology Department assisting in bioassays and management of Diamondback Moth and Silverleaf Whitefly colonies. He looks forward to expanding his expertise in honey bee genetics, queen trials, and helping to produce a more resistant honey bee.
Ben Sallmann
North Central Honey Bee Health Field Specialist
As the Honey Bee Health Field Specialist for the Pacific Northwest, Ben works with migratory beekeepers from around the region and helps monitor diseases, pest loads, and colony health. Most of his experience with commercial beekeeping comes from his time working with BIP in Northern California (2013-2017), where he helped queen breeders select stock and test for hygienic behavior. It has been fascinating to observe and compare the different management strategies used by commercial beekeepers in the western US, and he has learned there are many different ways to run a successful commercial operation. Ben is especially interested in Varroa control, and brood disease identification and treatment. His interest in bees began much earlier working on his family’s apiary/organic vegetable farm in Wisconsin, and became further immersed while caretaking the farm for a couple years and managing the hives. Ben received a B.A. in Anthropology and Global Studies from Ripon College in 2004, and in previous lives worked as a Logistics Manager for the Naval Underwater Construction Team and an international English teacher. When not in the bees, Ben spends his time playing the tuba and trombone in a variety of musical genres, and propagating rare plants.
Robert Snyder
California Honey Bee Health Field Specialist
Rob currently works out of UC-Davis and previously worked out of the Butte County Cooperative Extension in Oroville, CA as a Crop Protection Agent. He received his B.S. in biology from Delaware Valley College, PA. There he attained a majority of his entomological knowledge from Dr. Chris Tipping and Dr. Robert Berthold. After graduation, Rob was an apiary inspector for 2 years at the Department of Agriculture in Pennsylvania. In his third year there, he still inspected some colonies but mainly focused on The Pennsylvania Native Bee Survey (PANBS) where he pinned, labeled, entered data and identified native bees to genus and species. Leo Donavall assisted him in learning the basics on positive identifications of the native bees. Around the same time Rob began working on coordinating kit construction and distribution for the APHIS National Honey Bee Survey. He was also fortunate to conduct many of these surveys with fellow co-worker Mike Andree and Nathan Rice of USDA/ARS throughout California. All of these experiences have led Rob to where he is today, working to assist beekeepers in maintaining genetic diverse colonies resistant to parasites while reducing the use of chemical treatments in colonies. The BIP Diagnostic Lab at the University of MD is in an integral part of this process by generating reports in which BIP can track change and report to beekeepers vital information in a timely manner which may influence their treatment decisions.
Dan Wyns
Great Lakes Honey Bee Health Field Specialist
Dan was introduced to honey bees in 2005 while in New Zealand on a working holiday, and he has been consumed with caring for and learning about them ever since. Prior to joining BIP, Dan was a commercial beekeeper in New Zealand and western Canada where he was fortunate to gain a diversity of beekeeping experience across a variety of climates and agricultural landscapes. He joined BIP in 2014 as a Field Specialist in the Pacific Northwest and spent 3 years working with beekeepers across Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The BIP Tech Transfer Team expansion to the Great Lakes region began in 2017 to provide service to beekeepers based in Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York as well as wintering locations in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Moving to this new region has allowed Dan to carry on working with bees and beekeepers while returning to his home state of Michigan. Dan was born in Grand Rapids, raised in Grand Haven, and studied in Ann Arbor, so the opportunity to serve the beekeeping community in Michigan is especially satisfying. His family roots run deep in Michigan horticulture, and he looks forward to continuing that tradition by working to promote colony health and support local agriculture.
