Southern IPM Center Staff

No one person can have all of the expertise and skills needed for the diverse activities of a regional center. These activities include general management, grants management, overall IPM field and technology knowledge, pesticide regulation and use experience, and telecommunications expertise. We have chosen to partition these responsibilities among four positions, not all full-time within the Center, but all with full-time responsibilities to Center-related activities.

PI and Director: Jim VanKirk (e-mail) 919-513-8179
Jim is responsible for overall leadership of the Center and management of competitive grants programs. He is also Associate Director of the NSF Center for IPM (CIPM). Jim worked as Implementation Specialist with the New York IPM Program for many years, with experience in fruit, vegetable, field crop and livestock IPM. In 1996 he became the first Regional IPM Facilitator. He helped found the Northeastern Pest Management Center and was a Director of the Northeastern IPM Center before joining SRIPMC in 2004.

Associate Director - Regulatory Affairs: Steve Toth (e-mail) 919-513-8189
Steve Toth is an Extension Entomologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he has been a member of the Entomology Department faculty since 1988. Since 2003, Steve has served as Associate Director of the Southern Region Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Center, where he assists the director, coordinates regional responses to federal regulatory information requests, and serves a liaison with other IPM-related programs (e.g., IR-4, PSEP). In April 2008, he was appointed the State IPM Coordinator for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.

Associate Director: Henry Fadamiro (e-mail) 334-844-5098
Henry Fadamiro is a Professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Auburn University, Alabama. In 2004, he was appointed State IPM Coordinator for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. He has served the Southern IPM Center over the years in various capacities including as State Contact, grant panelist, member and Chairperson of the Advisory Council, and member of the Steering Committee. As Associate Director, Henry will continue leadership of the Small Farms Working Group (SFWG), administer the Friends of Southern IPM recognition program, act as liason with SERA-03 (Southern IPM Coordinators Working Group), and assist with overall planning and leadership of the Center.

Assistant Director: Joe LaForest (e-mail) 229-386-3298
Joseph LaForest providse day-to-day leadership of our electronic networking and issues-support initiative (FITT). Joe is the IPM Program Coordinator at the Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health, commonly referred to as “the Bugwood Network” or “Bugwood”. He has a B.S. in Urban Forestry and graduated from the Ohio State University with two Masters degrees (Entomology and Plant Pathology). For the past 6 years, Joe has managed the Bugwood Image Database and the image recruitment projects to better illustrate organisms of concern to agriculture. He provides oversight and training for the BugwoodWiki. He continues work on improvements to the functionality of all Bugwood systems to serve the needs of specific audiences and develop web services to extend the assets contained in the Bugwood systems to other programs.

Communication Director: Rosemary Hallberg (e-mail) 919-513-8182
Rosemary writes, edits, and designs the quarterly newsletters; copy-edits all reports; prepares press releases and success stories for public release; compiles Center updates and handouts for various meetings; and keeps the blog and news updated. She is also responsible for developing positive relationships with agricultural and environmental news reporters. She is certified in environmental education and has written several stories that have appeared in trade and nature magazines.

Database Programmer: Alex Belskis (e-mail) 919-513-8183
Alex maintains the SRIPMC Web site and database applications, including the SRIPMC proposal and project reporting system. He has worked with the NSF Center for IPM as a programmer for over 6 years.

Impact Evaluation Specialist: Doris Sande (e-mail) 919-515-3207
Originally from Kenya, Dr. Sande moved to the U.S. in 2001. Her masters and PhD, received from the University of Georgia, are both in Agricultural Economics. She moved to North Carolina in August 2010. She is married to Dr Peter Sande Ojiambo, plant pathologist at NC State University, who is also the lead researcher on the Cucurbit ipmPIPE. Dr. Sande is responsible for updating crop surveys; documenting economic, environmental and human health impacts from IPM in the region and assisting with success stories; conducting regional training sessions on impact evaluation; and updating the CRIS database with new project reports.