Speakers

Jim Bogart is the President and General Counsel of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California. The Association represents some 300 growers, shippers, packers, processors, cold storage facilities and other entities affiliated with, or connected to, the vegetable industry in the counties of Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Santa Clara. Mr. Bogart received his undergraduate degree in 1973 from the University of Southern California (B.A. History). He earned his law degree in 1977 from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. He has specialized in labor and employment law since his admission to the California State Bar in 1977. Since 1980, he has served as the attorney for the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California counseling and representing agricultural employers in virtually all aspects of labor and employment law including wrongful discharge, discrimination, sexual harassment and labor-management litigation; unfair labor practice charges and other proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board and the California Agricultural Relations Board; organizing campaigns; collective bargaining; union contract administration, grievances, and arbitrations; proceedings before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and other wage/hour and worker safety compliance agencies; disability accommodation; family and medical leave; employment contracts and personnel policies. He has spoken to several groups and organizations over the years and has written numerous articles on various labor and employment law matters. He also served as an editor and technical reviewer of the University of California’s published text, Labor Management Laws In California Agriculture. He is a member of the Monterey County Bar Association, American Bar Association, and the California State Bar Association where he serves on both the Labor and Agribusiness Committees.

Mr. Bogart serves, or has served, on many charitable and philanthropic boards including the Community Foundation for Monterey County, Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce, Ag Against Hunger (Founding Director), Shelter Outreach Plus (Past President), Healthy Eating Lifestyle Principles (Founding Director), Monterey County Agricultural Education, and the American Cancer Society Salinas Valley Chapter (Past President).

Roberta Cook has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University. Since 1985 she has been the Cooperative Extension Marketing Economist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ARE) at University of California, Davis. She conducts an applied research and industry outreach program focusing on the marketing and international trade of fresh fruits and vegetables, including studies on international competitiveness, industry structure and procurement practices, and trends in consumer demand and food distribution.

She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Ocean Mist Farms and in December 2011 completed 11 years of service on the Board of Naturipe Farms. She has served on numerous PBH committees and is a member of the Monsanto Vegetable Seeds Advisory Council. Other board service includes: the PMA Foundation for Industry Talent; Sunkist Growers; the California Kiwifruit Commission; and the American Agricultural Economics Association Foundation. From 1998-2003 she was a member of the ATAC for Fruits and Vegetables of the U.S.D.A. and the U.S.T.R.

She was honored as one of the top 25 produce industry leaders for 2011 by The Packer (The Packer Top 25). From 2003-spring 2011 she was Faculty Director of the California Agribusiness Executive Seminar, a program co-sponsored by the Department of ARE and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis, and Wells Fargo Bank.

Dr. David S. Douches, with over 30 years of experience in potato breeding and genetics, has an active potato breeding program directed toward the development of improved cultivars in Michigan. Dr. Douches is the principle scientist of the Michigan State University potato breeding and genetics project and co-PI in the North Central Regional Potato Breeding and Genetics project. He is also the director of the multi-institutional USDA/AFRI grant, SolCAP: translational genomics for potato and tomato (2011 USDA Secretary’s Honors Award). Dr. Douches also directs the Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology Interdepartmental Graduate Program at Michigan State University and is the faculty coordinator for the Michigan State University Montcalm Potato Research Center.

Dr. Farhad Ghavami has over 9 years of experience working on plant molecular biology, plant genomics, transcriptomics, quantitative genetics and also molecular breeding. He has worked on a wide range of plants from wheat to spruce trees but his major focus in the last few years was on wheat genomics and nuclear-cytoplasmic interaction (NCI) in wheat. Dr. Ghavami earned his Ph.D. from university of Tehran, Iran and then was working as a post-doctoral scientist at Simon Fraser University, BC. Canada. He was a research faculty at North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND. and also a senior research associate at University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN prior to his current position.

Dr. Michael Havey is a USDA Research Geneticist and Professor in the Dept. of Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. His research program is focused on the breeding, genetics, and genomics of the Alliums (onion and garlic) and cucumber. Dr. Havey received his B.S degree in Plant Pathology from Iowa State University, M.S. degree in Plant Pathology from the University of Wisconsin, and Ph.D. degree with a double major in Plant Pathology and Plant Breeding & Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin. Prior to assuming his present position in 1988, he completed post-doctoral research positions in Brazil and at Washington State University.

Dr. Ivan Simko’s research focuses on lettuce genetics, genomics, and breeding. His laboratory studies the inheritance of traits, uses linkage and association mapping approaches to identify loci for economically important traits, develops molecular markers for marker-assisted breeding, and works on the development of enhanced breeding lines adapted to California and Arizona growing regions. Dr. Simko received his Ph.D. degree from Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra, Slovakia. He was a Post-doctoral researcher at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY and was also a Research associate at USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD prior to his current position.

Dr. St. Clair is a professor of plant genetics and breeding at UC-Davis. Her research program focuses on breeding, genetics and genomics of quantitatively inherited traits, including tolerance to biotic (diseases and pests) and abiotic stresses, in tomato and other crops. Her research includes quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, marker-assisted breeding, and use of genomics tools in breeding. Dr. St. Clair is also interested in genetic diversity and the use of wild plant species in breeding, pre-breeding and development of improved germplasm. Dr. St. Clair received her Ph.D. in Plant Breeding & Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her M.S. in Agronomy and B.S. in Plant Science from UC-Davis.