HBVC Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium officers - Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium

Home2020 Officers

President Britteny Kyle, DVM

Dr. Kyle graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2009 and began her career in a busy 24 hour small animal emergency clinic in Toronto, Ontario. She worked as an associate for several years before leaving practice to focus on her young family. During her time away she began to study honey bee medicine. She joined the Consortium in 2018 and became the President elect and Chair of the HBVC Conference in 2019. Dr. Kyle is passionate about educating veterinarians and the public alike about issues surrounding honey bees and other pollinators. in 2019 she established a pollinator garden at her local elementary school where she works to engage the children, as well as the community at large, in conservation efforts to protect pollinators. She enjoys lecturing to the veterinary community and writing about her experiences as a new beekeeper and honey bee veterinarian. Her articles are regularly featured in her local newspaper. Dr. Kyle plans to return to practice in the spring with her own honey bee practice. When she is not studying bees, Dr. Kyle is busy maintaining her small zoo of three boys, two cats, one dog, numerous fish and a small handful of honey bee colonies.

Immediate Past President
Jeffrey R. Applegate, Jr., DVM, DACZM

Dr. Applegate was born and raised on the coast of New Jersey where he still enjoys spending free time surrounded by salty air. He attended Virginia Tech for undergraduate studies in animal science and biology and Kansas State University for veterinary school. Following a small animal rotating internship at the Animal Medical Center in New York City, he worked as an exotic animal clinician in a busy New Jersey private practice. He then served as faculty at North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine in the exotic animal medicine service for over five years where he remains involved as adjunct faculty. Dr. Applegate has written various honey bee veterinary medicine book chapters and has lectured on honey bee veterinary medicine both domestically and internationally. He is a diplomate in the American College of Zoological Medicine and is founding member of the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium (HBVC), in which he served terms as secretary, conference chair, and president. Dr. Applegate has also worked as a small animal veterinary technician, and a volunteer firefighter. In his free time he enjoys the outdoors and tending his own apiary.

President Elect Alexzandra Mosel, DVM

Dr. Mosel grew up in northern Michigan and attended the University of Michigan where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Movement Science and minor in Biology. Veterinary school brought her to the East coast where she earned her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from Tufts University, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Massachusetts. After graduation, she practiced veterinary medicine in Connecticut for 5 years before returning to her home state. Her special medical interests include surgery, behavior, and honeybee medicine. This spring, she’s excited to join “Bees in the D”, a non-profit that educates the public on the importance of pollinators and brings bee hives to urban Detroit.

Dr. Mosel shares her home with her fiancé, their cat, Maizey Blue, labradoodles River and Luna, a dozen chickens, and approximately 60,000 honeybees! During her spare time, she enjoys gardening, knitting, volunteering, and spending time with family and friends.

Vice President Deborah Pasho, DVM

Dr. Deborah Pasho is a graduate of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in BioMechanical Engineering. After she graduated from vet school, she joined a mixed animal practice in NH, treating all creatures great and small. Dr. Pasho began beekeeping in 2017 and has had up to 5 hives of her own. While actively learning from and assisting with a commercial beekeeper’s queen-rearing program, she attends any veterinary bee courses possible, has been to both HBVC conferences, is selling her own nucs, and is working toward becoming a Certified Beekeeper with the Vermont Beekeeping Association (VBA). She will be ready to open her own veterinary beekeeping practice in the spring of 2020 and hopes to help with the local VBA club meetings. Dr. Pasho now gladly homeschools all three of her middle school-aged sons, is active in the special needs community, and maintains her veterinary license in NH and VT.

Treasurer Randy C Lynn, DVM, MS, DACVCP

Dr. Lynn completed graduate training in Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology and graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine at the Ohio State University in 1983. In 1985, Dr. Lynn left full veterinary practice and moved to the corporate world. He has 33 years of experience in drug development, regulatory affairs and technical services at CIBAGEIGY, Novartis, Blue Ridge, IDEXX, Intervet Schering-Plough and now Merck Animal Health. He has worked with poultry, cattle, horses, dogs and cats.

Dr. Lynn was recently appointed as Adjunct Faculty at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics and a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology. Dr. Lynn gained an early interest in beekeeping from his grandfather who lived near the AI Root, Co. He received formal training at The Ohio State University from Dr. Walter Rothenbuhler in 1975. He acquired his first colonies in 1990 and continues to manage his bees as a side-line business. Dr. Lynn wrote Raising Healthy Honey Bees for Christian Veterinary Missions and sometimes teaches beekeeping at The Masters Mission in Robbinsville, NC. Outside of his corporate work, Dr. Lynn still sees veterinary patients once a month and is actively involved in veterinary missions work.

Secretary Terry Ryan Kane, MS, DVM

Dr. Terry Ryan Kane earned a Master of Science degree in Ecology from the University of Illinois, Chicago and took beekeeping while attending veterinary school at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. She founded Michigan’s first feline-only hospital in 1981. After decades of practice she pivoted to policy having received an AVMA-AAAS Congressional Science and Technology Policy Fellowship. She served as a science advisor in a Senate office working on the Farm Bill, emerging diseases, and antibiotic resistance. The FDA ruling on antibiotic stewardship was being debated while she was in Congress. When she returned home to Michigan, she started up her bee hives again and founded A2 Bee Vet, a practice devoted to honey bee medicine. She has lectured on Honey Bee & Pollinator Biology and Ecology and taught Bee Labs locally and nationally.

Newsletter Editor Gregory A Lewart, MS, VMD, Dipl. ACZM & ECZM (Zoo Health Mgt)

Greg is a Professor of Aquatic Animal and Wildlife Medicine at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine where he has taught since 1993. He has degrees from Gettysburg College, Northeastern University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Greg is a diplomate of the American and European Colleges of Zoological Medicine and an author on over 125 scientific articles, four books, and approximately 30 book chapters about invertebrates, fishes, amphibians and reptiles.

Membership Committee Chair Amy Franklin, MS DVM

Dr. Franklin holds a B.S. in Forest Resource Management from West Virginia University, M.S. in Wildlife Biology from Villanova University and a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University.

Dr. Franklin is founder of Farms for Orphans, Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Loveland, CO. Farms for Orphans provides training and resources in edible insect farming to vulnerable youth in countries where the consumption of insects is a culturally favorable practice, providing these youth with a sustainable source of protein and economic opportunities. Currently, FFO is training orphanages and street youth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to farm palm weevil larvae, a popular, typically wild-caught food source throughout the Congo Basin. FFO plans to incorporate honey bees into their farming program to produce honey as an additional source of income for orphanages.

Dr. Franklin is a member of the HBVC, Northern Colorado Beekeepers Association and the North American Coalition for Insect Agriculture. She divides her time between the DR Congo and Loveland, CO where she resides with her husband, three children, two mammoth donkeys, three dogs, a fat rabbit, a flock of chickens and countless honey bees. She is currently working toward her Master Beekeeper certification.

Education Committee Co-Chair Kristen Obbink, DVM, MPH, DACVPM

Dr. Kristen Obbink is a public health veterinarian and sixth-year beekeeper dedicated to the promotion of animal, human, and environmental health. She holds her BS (Zoology) and DVM from Iowa State University, her MPH from the University of Minnesota, and is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. In addition to working in private practice, she previously served as the State of Iowa’s enteric disease epidemiologist and coordinator for food/feed emergencies. She also served as a Veterinary Specialist with the Center for Food Security and Public Health at the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine where she co-managed the development of materials for the USDA’s National Veterinary Accreditation Program, including a module on honey bee veterinary medicine. In January 2019, she assumed her current role as Associate Director for the National Institute of Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education (NIAMRRE), based at Iowa State University. Dr. Obbink is also active in organized veterinary medicine at the state and national levels. She lives in Central Iowa with her husband, Matt, where she enjoys being a farmher and caring for her fibered, feathered, furry, and buzzing menagerie known as the Happy Bottom Homestead.

Education Committee Co-Chair Amanda Levesque, DVM

Dr. Amanda Levesque is a beekeeper and veterinarian based in Boulder, CO. She is a 2014 graduate of Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, and completed a small animal rotating internship at WestVet Animal Emergency and Specialty Center in Boise, ID following graduation. Dr. Levesque has been practicing community and shelter medicine on the Colorado front range since 2015. She is currently a shelter veterinarian at the Denver Dumb Friends League. Dr. Levesque was trained in the One Health mindset at Tufts, and became interested in transforming her curiosity about honey bees to practical application following the FDA ruling on antibiotic stewardship. She is a member of her local and state beekeepers associations, lectured on honey bee medicine at the 2019 CVMA Convention, and manages hives in Boulder, CO with her beekeeping partner. She is the owner of The Bee Doctor LLC, based in Boulder.

Social Media Committee Chair Mitch Stephens, DVM

Mitch is projected to graduate from North Carolina State University CVM in May 2020 with an interest in aquarium medicine. He became a beekeeper 7 years ago after taking two NCSU undergraduate courses on honey bees. As an undergraduate, he co-founded and was president for 5 years of The Beekeepers Club at NC State University, a student organization focused on teaching fellow students about honey bees and beekeeping. While in vet school, he taught several lectures and labs about honey bee medicine. In his free time he enjoys beekeeping, working on his aquariums, and gardening.

Webmaster Kristol K Stenstrom, DVM cVMA

Dr. Stenstrom received her DVM in 1994 from Kansas State University. She spent a decade as a research scientist specializing in the design of phase III and IV companion animal clinical trials and continues to operate a research consulting business. Additionally, Dr. Stenstrom owns a referral-only veterinary practice where she specializes in the treatment of pain in large and small animals with a secondary emphasis in palliative/hospice care for companion animals. Dr. Stenstrom became interested in honeybees 5 years ago when a swarm decided that her front porch would make the perfect location in which to set up housekeeping. In order to maintain a cordial relationship with her neighbors, she contacted local beekeepers and, armed with very little information but a load of gumption, she and her husband re-homed the bees to their backyard where their single swarm grew into a 3-hive apiary. She is actively involved in the Northeast Kansas Beekeepers Association and the American Beekeeping Federation. Environmental management of residential hives and the accurate diagnosis of bee diseases and parasites are her areas of interest as she follows her newest passion. She resides in Shawnee, KS with her husband, Mike, 3 teenagers, 2 dogs, 4 cats, 11 chickens, 1 leopard gecko, too many beef cows, and who knows how many koi & goldfish.

Member At Large Christopher J Cripps DVM

Chris Cripps started to keep bees when he earned his Boy Scout Merit Badge in Beekeeping. While earning a BS degree at Cornell University, he took beekeeping classes that included laboratory sections. In veterinary school at The Ohio State University, he worked as a bee inspector for Franklin and Delaware Counties. After graduation, he moved to Greenwich NY where he worked as a food animal veterinarian for 17 years while keeping bees as a sideline hobby. In 2012, he bought Betterbee, a beekeeping supply business. He teaches classes and works with customers to help diagnose and correct problems that come up with their bees. He is a Past-President and now Webmaster of the Southern Adirondack Beekeepers Association. He helped organize the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium. Chris is also a member of the New York State Apiary Industry Advisory Committee.

Member At Large Tracy Farone, DVM

Dr. Tracy Farone, DVM, is a Professor of Biology at Grove City College. She has worked in various areas of private practice, academia and research for over 20 years.

Over the past three years, Dr. Farone has been researching beekeeping and bee medicine. In 2018, she was granted a sabbatical to allow additional time to pursue apicultural studies, and develop a small teaching and research apiary at her College. In 2019, Dr. Farone worked in the field with multiple (16 total) backyard, sideline, and commercial beekeepers and interviewed over a dozen more beekeepers. She visited France, where she worked with multiple experts in bee medicine and research at ONIRIS College in Nantes and the OIE in Paris. Additionally, she visited The University of Edinburgh and the Roslin Institute in Scotland, meeting with additional bee experts. In June 2019, she traveled to Montana/Crow Reservation to work with 10K hive, migratory, commercial beekeeping operations. These experiences provided Dr. Farone with a unique perspective in the development of relationships between veterinarians and beekeepers.

Dr. Farone has discovered that bee vet interest in Pennsylvania is high, and she has been creating veterinary continuing education with the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association (PVMA), PA Department of Agriculture, Penn State University (PSU), delivering continuing education content for PA vets. In the last six months, she has given a 101 honey bee medicine lecture at PSU, spoke to several beekeeping clubs, and delivered a full day of bee medicine CE at the PVMA’s Annual conference in Hershey, PA. She has several bee related projects and CE speaking events planned for 2020.

Member at Large Dan Dombrowski, MS DVM

Currently the Head Veterinarian at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Adjunct Faculty at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. In 2006, earned a D.V.M. from NCSU with a focus in zoo medicine and advanced courses in reptile, fish, invertebrate, avian, and wildlife medicine. In 2006, Dr. Dombrowski also received the Wildlife, Avian, Aquatic, and Zoological Medicine (WAAZM) Proficiency in Zoological Medicine Award. He earned an M.S. in Biology and B.S. in Biology from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond Virginia. He has been an author and coauthor of several publications in pharmacology, natural history, and 2 book chapters focusing on invertebrate medicine. Dr. Dombrowski is a long-time honey bee health enthusiast and new (2018) beekeeper.

Veterinary Student Representative Sarah Tremblay

Sarah first felt the sting of curiosity regarding that fascinating insect, the bee, while studying biology at Université Laval in Quebec City, a curiosity that has progressively developed into a passion during her current studies in veterinary medicine at the Université de Montréal, where, under the auspices of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, she has been able to attend conferences on apiculture and apitherapy now and again. Moreover, she had the chance to participate in a research project during the summer of 2019 at the apiculture division of the Deschambault Research Center in Animal Sciences, where research is in progress on Varroa Destructor, a parasite that thrives on bees throughout the world. What’s more, to do her part in ensuring the future welfare of the bee—and thus our own—she intends to pursue her career in veterinary medicine in this field.