Nina works at Rent Mason Bees as logistics manager, shipping region appropriate mason bees to home gardeners across the country and hand cleaning mason bee cocoons returned from farms and hosts, up to three million cocoons every year. With a BS in environmental science from the University of Washington, Nina works on educating hosts about sustainable practices as well as sustainable gardening by traveling to local nurseries and hosting mason bee events. 

Lexie is an entomology PhD candidate at the University of California, Davis in Dr. Rachel Vannette's Lab. She received a BS in Biology (focus evolution, ecology, and behavior) and a BSA in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 2021, during which she investigated the spatial orientation of bacteria in bumblebee guts. Lexie is currently researching pathogen spillover between mason bees and honeybees, but is broadly interested in the impact of microbes on bee health.

Victoria is a research/project assistant with the UW Madison Office of Sustainability working on the Bee Campus Initiative. She is a Ph.D. student in the Environment and Resource program working with Dr. James Crall and Dr. Russ Groves. She is interested in urban biodiversity conservation, community science, and global change.

Abigail is a PhD candidate in Entomology at UC Davis. She first began working with native bees in 2017 in upstate New York. She completed her Bachelor’s in Biology at Union College in 2018, where she studied bee communities in native and restored habitats at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve. She then completed her Master’s in Biology at Utah State University in 2022, where she examined how bee diversity changed over time at Pinnacles National Park. She began focusing on orchard bees during her PhD. Her dissertation investigates the impact of the newly introduced parasite, the Houdini fly, on blue orchard bees.

Bri works at the Washington State University Bee Program and does extension and outreach about honey bees and other pollinators through seminars, workshops, bee program blogging, attending bee association meetings, and writing factsheets. She is also a part-time Ph.D. student working on various projects examining how extension efforts can lead to adoption of pollinator best management practices.

Glen has worked with blue orchard bees for the past 41 years. 1980-2011 he worked at the Logan Bee Lab to develop the blue orchard bee into an accepted orchard pollinator. From 2011-2015 he worked on a large farm in the Central Valley of California to develop a program of alternative pollinators to supplement honey bees in almonds and blueberries. Since retiring, he runs his own company (Pollination Systems) providing consulting services, and he is the OBA Certification Manager, ensuring sustainable production of orchard bees.