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New Board Members Announced for State Program - January 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Pennsylvania IPM Program recently named six new members to its advisory board from health, education and agriculture industries.
According to Cathy Thomas, IPM coordinator at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the PA IPM Advisory Committee was commissioned by the Secretary of Agriculture to advise the IPM program on policy and program priorities. “Members are appointed by the secretary to a three-year term and represent all areas of the community such as agriculture, forestry, urban, government, environment, education and health interested in the promotion and implementation of IPM,” Thomas explains.
“The new members on the committee round out our representation from Pennsylvania government agencies, industries, and non-governmental organizations,” says Thomas.They include Rosemary Moyer, school health consultant with the Pennsylvania Department of Health; Sandy Gardosik, entomologist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture; Tim Abbey, extension educator in horticulture with Penn State Cooperative Extension in York County; Ken Martin with Furmano Foods; Flora Eyster, Milton Main Street Program Manager; and Scott Heidel, sanitarian program specialist with the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
According to Thomas, meetings are normally held three times at a "field" site that represents an interest area of one of the members. “This allows a board member to demonstrate what that industry is doing and any special concerns or challenges facing the industry. That way all members can appreciate the IPM concerns that each brings to the table.”
The Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and urban settings. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://www.paipm.org/. To view our archived news releases, see Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/10.htm.