Responsibilities include acting as the primary point of contact for commercial blueberry growers throughout Florida, and as a liaison between growers and University of Florida researchers; assisting with the resolution of production, disease, and pest issues; providing feedback to UF researchers on grower issues; assisting with the evaluation of trial selections at central and south-central Florida breeding program trial sites; and authoring publications related to blueberry production issues.

Patricio Munoz is the Assistant Professor of Blueberry Breeding and Genomics in the Horticultural Science Department at the University of Florida. Dr. Muñoz research focuses on two areas. First, the improvement of cultivars for Florida and the Southern US with focus on Highbush blueberries since 2017 and Forage species from 2013-2017. And second, on the development of models, techniques, and strategies to accelerate the development of improved varieties using traditional breeding, quantitative genetics, genomic, and molecular methods.

Yang Fang - Yang is a PhD student in the blueberry breeding program. Her research is focused on southern highbush blueberry container-based evergreen production and root system architecture screening.

Mike Joyner’s experience in agricultural and environmental issues runs deep. He previously served as assistant commissioner of agriculture and chief of staff for Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, helping to lead the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for almost eight years. Before that, Joyner represented clients throughout Florida and the United States before the Florida Legislature and state regulatory agencies. He also served in public affairs and environmental affairs positions for The St. Joe Company and Progress Energy (now Duke Energy) and worked as chief of staff for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

James Meszaros is Executive Vice President at Powell Tate in Washington. For more than two decades, he has advised clients in 30+ countries worldwide, including sovereign governments, multinational corporations, industry coalitions, multilateral organizations, foundations and civil society organizations. His public affairs work has been undertaken in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions. His specialties include providing geopolitical counsel, public policy analysis, messaging and speechwriting, stakeholder relations and political and economic forecasting. He has issue expertise in geopolitics, trade, cross-border investment, intellectual property rights, global development, agriculture and food security, sustainability, climate, human rights and globalization. Prior to joining Weber Shandwick, Jim was a self-employed international consultant. He is a graduate of Marquette University and has been to more than 75 countries for business and person travel.

Dr. Peter Dittmar’s research and Extension program focuses on weed management in fruit and vegetable crops. His interests include the inclusion of herbicides into integrated weed management programs. He is also works with the IR4 Project registering pesticides in specialty crops.

Philip F. Harmon is a professor of plant pathology and extension specialist. He received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Purdue University. His research interests include diseases of warm season turfgrass species and disease management for southern highbush blueberry. In addition to providing efficient and effective disease management strategies for clientele, additional research goals include selection for turfgrass and blueberry disease resistance in collaboration with plant breeding programs.

His extension efforts have focused on providing rapid and accurate diagnostic services to the turfgrass, small fruits, and ornamental plant industries. Recommendations given as part of diagnostic services include practical, research based, disease management solutions. He has served as an assigning editor for Plant Disease Management Reports and as an associate editor of Applied Turfgrass Science.

The primary emphasis of Jeff's research is to increase efficiencies and profitability of cropping systems for early-season blueberry in sub-tropical and tropical climates. Recent areas of research interest include plant growth regulators, rootstock evaluation, fertilization/soil management, crop water requirements, pruning, and mechanical harvest for fresh fruit production. He serves as state Extension specialist for blueberry and co-editor for the Blueberry News and board member for the Florida Blueberry Growers’ Association.

The Nunez Lab at the University of Florida is a creative space where students develop research, cultivation, and communication skills while performing rigorous scientific research in horticultural plant physiology and nutrition. We employ a combination of agricultural, biochemical, and ‘omics’ approaches to answer agriculturally-relevant questions about berry crops.

Dr. Rachel Mallinger is a pollinator ecologist focusing primarily on native wild bees. She is interested in the basic biology of native wild bees, their response to anthropogenic disturbance, and their role in the pollination of both crop and wild plants. A major focus of her research program is to integrate approaches from landscape ecology and community ecology to better understand pollinator community dynamics and plant-pollinator interactions at multiple spatial scales. She conducts research in a variety of ecosystems, including natural, agricultural and urban, with the overarching goal of informing pollinator conservation and improving pollination services.

Dr. Liburd is a fruit and vegetable entomologist who has over 25 years working on blueberry pest management. He has worked in blueberries in the northeastern, midwestern and southern states and has published over 120 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 14 book chapters and a host of extension articles. Dr. Liburd has received numerous awards including the 2020 Recognition Award from the Entomological Society of America, and 2016  Bright Idea Award from the Southern Region IPM Center.  Dr. Liburd also served as president of the southeastern branch, Entomological Society of America (2018 -2019) and has been an IFAS-Term Professor for two consecutive terms (2017 – 2023).