Sharon Dobesh
Director of Technical Services
IFC
Sharon Dobesh began with IFC in June 2017 as the Director of Technical Services. She has over 16 years’ experience as an Extension Specialist at Kansas State University in Pesticide Safety and IPM Programming, Honey Bee Specialist, and as the Great Plains Diagnostic Network Associate Director. Prior to working in extension, Sharon worked 7 years for the Missouri Department of Agriculture as a Plant Protection Specialist inspecting nursery stock, greenhouses, turf farms, and exports.
She is currently working on a PhD in stored product insects, specifically warehouse beetle and larger cabinet beetle. In May 2018 she completed a Graduate Certificate in Food Safety and Defense; both degrees from Kansas State University. She has held an M.S. in Entomology from Kansas State University for the last 25 years and a B.S. in Crop Protection-Entomology option from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Jerry Heath
Entomologist, Technical Services
Industrial Fumigant Company, LLC
Jerry Heath, BCE, is a staff entomologist at the Industrial Fumigant Company where he is involved with technical services for the food processing and commodity industries. He was previously on the Extension Entomology staff at Cornell University for seven years where he developed the Pesticide Impact Assessment Program. He has also worked in various aspects of both agricultural and urban/industrial pest management industries since 1984. He also has had several international consulting experiences in Africa and Central America. He earned an M.Sc. in entomology from the University of Nebraska and has B.Sc. degrees from Penn State and Washington State in agriculture and entomology, respectively.
(Moderator) Barbara VanRenterghem, Ph.D.
Editorial Director
Food Safety Magazine
Barbara VanRenterghem, Ph.D., is the editorial director of Food Safety Magazine, a position she has held since 2008. From 2005–2008, she was the chief editor of Controlled Environments Magazine and the science editor of Animal Lab News and Lab Manager Magazine at Vicon Publishing. At Eaton Publishing (1999–2005), she rose from the positions of assistant scientific editor for BioTechniques and acquisitions editor for BioTechniques Press to the editor of content development and acquisitions and director of commercial product development. While at Eaton (then acquired by Informa), she served as the chief editor of Preclinica. She received a B.Sc. in biology in 1989 from Bowling Green State University and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1994 from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.