General Session Speakers
 General
Session 1 -- CSI: The Case of the Chrysanthemum Night
Stalker, and Other Crimes Most Foul
F. William "Bill" Zettler,
University of Florida
Dr.
Francis William (Bill) Zettler retired in 2003 after 37
years’ service in the Department of Plant Pathology at the
University of Florida at Gainesville his area of research,
that of viruses of legumes, tropical fruit plants, and
ornamental plants, including aroids (dieffenbachia,
caladium, etc.), gladiolus, and orchids. His area of
research and consulting activities on plant viruses have
taken him to Bolivia, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea,
Solomon Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Egypt,
Japan, Taiwan, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. He
has chaired or co-chaired 3 M.Ag., 14 M.S., 8 Ph.D., and 1
Doctor of Plant Medicine (DPM) students, and has been a
member of 1 M.Ag., 16 M.S., 44 Ph.D., and 3 DPM supervisory
committees.
For many years, Dr. Zettler taught Plant Virology, a
requirement for Plant Pathology majors. Because of his
teaching interests, he was asked in 1994 to teach our
Fundamentals of Plant Pathology course. In addition, he
created the department’s first lower division course
"Plants, Plagues, and People” (PPP), which currently has an
annual enrollment of over 800, and is one of the most
popular general education courses in the UF College of
Agriculture. The course takes a chronological look at
biology and integrates this subject with human history. In
doing so, it covers the time span ranging from the Big Bang,
through our own civilization and its future. Plant
pathology, while not the main subject in PPP is nevertheless
carefully integrated throughout the course, so that the
students can see the relevance of Plant Pathology to the
earth’s history and human survival. For more than a decade,
Dr. Zettler mentored students in our department in his role
as the Graduate and Undergraduate Advisor. Our plant
pathology undergraduate program is now one of the largest in
the United States.
Dr. Zettler has received several honors and awards in
recognition of his exceptional talent and accomplishments as
a teacher. He received the “Teacher of the Year” award by
the UF in 1999-2000. The same year he was awarded “Teacher
of the Year” by UF’s College of Agriculture and Natural
Resources. In 2001 he received the “Teacher of the Year”
award from the American Phytopathological Society, the
world’s leading professional society for Plant Pathology.
Although retired since 2003, Dr. Zettler continues to serve
the department as Emeritus Professor by continuing to teach
PLP 2000 every spring and summer B semester. In cooperation
with the UF Communications Department, he is also developing
distance education versions of PLP 2000 and PLP 3002/5005.
General Session 2
-- Where Have all the Pollinators Gone?
Doug Corbin,
Florida Department of Agriculture
 I
am an Escambia County Florida resident since Jan. 1990 and
live on a part of what use to be my Mom’s Parents estate
since retiring from the Navy. As a youth, lived in
Pritchard, Ala. Graduated High School went to Univ. South
Alabama in Mobile for a short period received my Draft
notice for induction and joined the Navy. I achieved my
Associates Degree from Pensacola Junior College in 1992.
In March 1994, I hired on with the Florida Department of
Agriculture to monitor and maintain the Africa Bee trap line
established from Escambia Co. to Washington Co. and include
Bay Co. I still maintain and monitor this trap line but also
register beekeepers and inspect honeybee hives for disease
and pest in the Walton, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, and Escambia
Counties. I am a student in the University Florida Bee
College where I am working towards a Master Beekeeper
certification.
In 2008 the Florida Association for Volunteer Action in the
Caribbean and the Americas (FAVAC), selected me for a Famer
to Farmer program to Haiti teaching beekeeping and helping
with beekeeping problems. In 2009 FAVACA again selected me
to go to Dominica to go to work with the Dominican
Beekeepers to teach newer techniques for keeping honeybees.
This past March of 2010, I achieved Master Beekeeper
designation from the Univ. of Florida IFAS Bee College with
studies mainly in Rural Beekeeping.
General
Session 3 – Sustainability and The Scott’s Company
Jan Valentic, SVP, The Scotts Miracle-Gro
Company, Marysville, Ohio
 Jan
Valentic was named the Senior Vice President of
Sustainability for The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company in March,
2010. She is responsible for developing the company’s
environmental strategy and policies, reporting, and
developing relationships with opinion leaders. She works
closely with all functional groups to drive sustainability
into product, communications, and operations.
Jan joined Scotts in 2007 as the SVP of Global Marketing
Services and Growth Platforms in which she oversaw media
planning and execution, consumer insights/research and
brand/consumer scorecards, interactive and the scotts.com
website, the consumer call center, design for
packaging/in-store communications/promotions, and the
naturals/organics and alternative products.
Prior to Scotts, Jan led customer relationship marketing for
four of Microsoft's seven business units (server and tools,
gaming, MSN, and mobile) in 29 countries; she was the VP of
Global Marketing for Ford Motor Company; and started her
career at the Leo Burnett Advertising Agency where she rose
to the position of SVP leading accounts such as Hallmark
Cards, McDonalds, Oldsmobile division of General Motors,
Pillsbury and Keebler.
Jan earned a Bachelors of Science in Music and a Masters of
Business Administration. from the University of Illinois in
Champaign-Urbana.
Jan loves the outdoors – mountain biking, hiking, kayaking,
and playing from the men’s tees in golf. The poetry of Mary
Oliver speaks to her connection with nature and she and is
known to read poetry to her team. Jan also enjoys growing
vegetables and herbs.
 General Session 4 -- Use of
Color with Landscape Design
Gail Hansen,
University of Florida
Dr. Gail Hansen is an assistant professor in
the Environmental Horticulture Department at the University
of Florida. Her teaching and extension focus is sustainable
landscapes and her program addresses best design practices
and quality of life in residential and urban landscapes. She
is also a faculty member in the Center for Landscape
Conservation and Ecology (CLCE), and the statewide extension
specialist in landscape design. Dr. Hansen has an MLA and
PhD in landscape architecture. She worked for a private
landscape architecture firm in Gainesville, Florida for
eight years and as an adjunct faculty for seven years in the
landscape architecture department at UF before joining the
environmental horticulture department where she teaches the
residential landscape design courses.
 General Session 5 -- New and
Underutilized Plant Choices
Gary Knox,
University of Florida
Gary Knox is a long-time gardener in
Tallahassee and a Professor of Environmental Horticulture
with the University of Florida at the North Florida Research
and Education Center in Quincy. He has a professional
interest and personal obsession with collecting and
evaluating plants. From a research standpoint, he is
evaluating plants for their invasive potential as well as
their growth under nursery production and their performance
in north Florida landscapes. Current plant passions include
crapemyrtle, magnolia, hydrangea, rain lilies, hardy palms,
succulents, ornamental grasses, ornamental vines and many
other plants (so many species, so little time . . .).
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