Team

Dr. Thomas Green, president, IPM Institute of North America, Inc. was the Principal Investigator of the original NRCS CIG PRiME grant (2008-2011).

Dr. Pierre Mineau, research scientist emeritus in the Science and Technology Branch of Environment Canada and adjunct professor in the Department of Biology at Carleton University, provides expertise on pesticide impacts on birds and other non-target organisms. He has been a consultant in the area of pesticide impacts to several international agencies as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations in Canada and abroad. Almost all of the risk analyses in PRiME (2008-2012) derive from Mineau's risk analysis platform based on comprehensive and quality-assured toxicological data, species sensitivity distributions, and observational studies.

Dr. Paul Jepson, director, Integrated Plant Protection Center, Oregon State University provides expertise on pesticide impacts on beneficials and other non-target organisms and supervises the information technology experts who design and maintain the online interface. Paul's research interests in IPM include the study of pest and natural enemy population dynamics in agricultural systems and have focused particularly on pesticide management and side effects, biological pest control and the development of ecological risk assessment for beneficial invertebrates.

Dr. Michael Guzy, assistant professor senior research, Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, developed the PRiME system during this period of time. This included adminstration of IT Infrastructure supporting software lifecycle management. He designed and implemented the overall system design, including database structure, pesticide fate and transfer modeling, and user interface. Michael has 15 years experience programming in industry and academia on mission-critical, distributed, GIS, and web-based systems.  Recent work includes decision support systems targeting sensitive coastal ecosystems,  agent-based modeling and land-use policy, and regional biogeochemical modeling.

Dr. Susan Kegley, principal and CEO, Pesticide Research Institute, provides expertise on dermal and inhalation risk to workers and bystanders. Susan is an organic chemist with expertise in pesticide toxicology, pollutant fate and transport; environmental monitoring and analytical chemistry; and experience with pesticide regulation, pesticide data sources and the pesticide toxicology and epidemiology literature. After 14 years of teaching, research and curriculum development in academia, she worked as a Senior Scientist for nine years at Pesticide Action Network North America, a non-governmental, non-profit organization that works to promote sustainable alternatives to toxic pesticides. Dr. Kegley started Pesticide Research Institute in 2006.

Wade Pronschinske, technical services manager, IPM Institute of North America, provided design and implementation focusing on aesthetics and usability of user interface components, managed and provided expert quality assurance testing of the web application and databases, and provided pilot testing and user training. Wade studied environmental ethics at Florida State University and has experience developing web-based training and evaluation materials for the United States Air Force.

Dr. Charles Benbrook, research professor and program leader of “Measure to Manage: Farm and Food Diagnostics for Sustainability and Health” at the Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University, provided statistics on pesticide impacts on human dietary risk.

Mary Halbleib, Integrated Plant Protection Center, Oregon State University, has over 15 years of experience designing and evaluating educational programs in agriculture. An outcomes-based design is at the core of the programs to support learners to gain the maximum changes in abilities and skills, as well enabling program improvement over time. Mary's contribution to PRiME outreach and evaluation continue to be incorporated into the PRiME development plan.

Karen Benbrook, principal of BCS-Ecologic, Inc., contributed data entry and research for physical-chemical and toxicological properties of pesticide active ingredients; pesticide residues found in food; pesticide nomenclature; and quality assurance.

Jonathan Kaplan, senior policy specialist, Natural Resources Defense Council, assisted with outreach to users, recruitment of user testers and development of the sustainable funding plan.

Dr. Kellie Vache, assistant professor senior research, Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, assists Dr. Guzy with pesticide fate and transfer modeling. Kellie has experience with a variety of hydrologic models, ranging from three-dimensional process based models to simple lumped parameter approaches.

Leigh Presley, project assistant, IPM Institute of North America, coordinates communication with project partners and outreach to potential PRiME users.

Samson Gimui, software developer, IPM Institute of North America, assists with implementing new PRiME features and enhancements.