Meet our team

8 LIMITLESS

Robyne (formerly Bowness) Davidson

B.SC. IN PEST MANAGEMENT, M.SC. IN PLANT SCIENCE PULSE RESEARCH SCIENTIST

Robyne Davidson joins Lakeland College from Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. She has been working specifically with pulse crops for the past 18 years, leading a pulse research team conducting trials across Alberta. Davidson works closely with the Alberta Pulse Growers Commission (APG) who fund the majority of her research work. Projects she has been involved with include: • Expansion of red lentil into suitable growing areas of Alberta and

Saskatchewan • Introduction, expansion and grower support for faba bean across the prairies • Introduction and suitability of winter pulses • Management of root rot and foliar diseases of field pea • Evaluation of new germplasm and breeding material from around the world • Agronomic practices and pest mitigation for tannin and low-tannin faba bean • Understanding and mitigating Aphanomyces in field pea and lentil • Adaptability, agronomy and production of blue and white lupin • Annual provincial pulse crop surveys

Davidson is also involved in the registration of new pulse crop varieties through the Prairie Grain Development Committee and monitoring prairie pulse concerns at the Western Forum on Pest Management. Davidson can be found at various conferences and industry events talking with farmers, industry representatives and stakeholders to understand the concerns and challenges the pulse industry is facing. This helps her tailor her work to address those concerns. She believes that any applied research program should be closely tied to industry to remain valuable and relevant.

Davidson and her husband Dave operate a 4,000-acre grain farm east of Red Deer, Alta., where they target a four-year rotation of barley, canola, wheat and field pea. Davidson enjoys experimenting on the farm to get a better feel for how the management practices she promotes affect large on-farm production. She feels that being a researcher as well as a farmer makes her stronger in both roles. At Lakeland, Davidson will lead the pulse team in continuing the research program and expanding in many areas. She is looking forward to being part of an expanding, multidisciplinary, industry-focused research team.

Trina Dubitz

B.SC. Trina Dubitz started her career in agriculture in 1998 by volunteering at the Agriculture Canada Research Station in Lacombe, Alta. She was hired on shortly after as an agronomy technician where she researched many crops including canola, wheat and barley for six years. She moved to Alberta Agriculture and Forestry in 2005, working in the pulse pathology/agronomy research department. As a pulse agronomy technician, Dubitz has worked with many crops including faba beans, peas, lupins, lentils and soybeans. She enjoys leading a productive and efficient team and takes pride in providing high quality research information as well as collaborating with diverse research organizations. Dubitz is excited to be making the move to Lakeland College. She looks forward to continuing to do what she loves in the pulse field and the opportunities that an academic intuition offers in an ever growing and vibrant pulse industry.

Dr. Obioha (Obi) Durunna

M.SC. IN QUANTITATIVE GENETICS, PHD IN GENOMICS LIVESTOCK RESEARCH SCIENTIST

Before joining Lakeland College, Dr. Obi Durunna was a livestock specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, providing extension and research support to livestock producers. He had also previously worked as a beef researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Since joining Lakeland in 2018, Dr. Durunna has developed a Livestock research program that has a strong applied focus on livestock production systems, especially identifying and developing strategies that advance the beef and dairy sector’s productivity, profitability and sustainability via production efficiency profiling, telemetric applications in livestock production, genetic/genomic evaluations and integrated crop-livestock strategies. Dr. Durunna is also an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

Emily Gannon

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES DIPLOMA CROP RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST

Emily Gannon is a Lakeland alumna who began her career as a summer student member of the crop research team for two years before being hired on full-time last October.

Andrea Hanson

BEEF EXTENSION SPECIALIST

Andrea Hanson has joined the Lakeland College team to assist in the beef cattle research and then share that information with students and grassroots producers. She knows what it is like to get dirty, find a short in the electric fence, manage the forage supply during the growing season, balance a ration and deal with frozen waterers as she grew up on her family’s farm east of Airdrie, Alta., and has managed her family’s cow herd through the years. Before joining Lakeland, Hanson spent over 10 years as a 4-H and then beef extension specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. She has also been a district agriculturist and a crop specialist. Hanson is particularly passionate about pasture and grazing management. At Lakeland, Hanson will be assisting the beef research scientists in various research projects and then developing extension programming for students and producers.

Dr. Susan Markus

B.SC IN AGRICULTURE, M.SC. IN RUMINANT NUTRITION, PHD IN ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR BEEF RESEARCH SCIENTIST

Kyle Kipps

M.SC. IN SOIL SCIENCE

Kyle Kipps has an interest in technology and data-driven decision making. He sees great potential for data and technology to help all producers increase the sustainability of their operations and is interested in learning about how best to apply the proper tools to efficiently manage the resources on the farm. He has taken these concepts and leveraged them to inspire students to take a closer look at their own decision-making in their agricultural education.

One of Lakeland College’s newest faculty members, Dr. Adrienne Levay is a member of the team responsible for developing and delivering Lakeland’s new bachelor of agriculture technology program. She is a two-time recipient of the Tri-Council’s Graduate Research Awards for both her Master’s research and her Doctoral Research in addition to being one of the University of British Columbia’s 4-Year Doctoral Fellows during her Ph.D. Dr. Levay has spent the last two years learning and growing, working at Alberta Innovates’ Alberta Data Institute supporting both public and private organizations, in the health and agricultural sectors, to explore the possibilities of using their data to develop solutions for their business challenges. Her research interests, past and present, have included food security, gender and health in the global south, nutrition policy, health systems research, implementation science, realist methodologies, pedagogical approaches to food systems education, and deriving value from data collaborations in agriculture, emerging technologies and the ethics of innovation.

Dr. Susan Markus has over 30 years of extensive experience in beef cattle production and sheep nutrition. Dr. Markus is currently involved in a large cow/calf, backgrounding and feedlot operation with her family in Castor, Alta. She has also been a leader in the Paintearth 4-H Beef Club and regularly organizes field trips and educational activities for her club and district.

While growing up on a large mixed farm in northern Manitoba, Dr. Markus developed a keen interest in cows and agriculture. That set the path for her future. Dr. Markus started her career with Manitoba Agriculture as an agrologist in Boissevain, Man. She has been with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry for 25 years, initially as a beef and forage specialist and, since 2006, as a livestock research scientist in the Livestock Research and Extension Branch. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta.

Her background in extension and adult education allows her to bring the science of animal research and new technologies into the classroom for students and onto the ranch for livestock producers. While Dr. Markus’s research involvement is varied from production, genomics, feed efficiency and nutrition to economics, she maintains a key interest in supporting practical ideas from the livestock industry.

Dr. Adrienne Levay

M.SC IN GLOBAL HEALTH, PHD IN LAND AND FOOD SYSTEMS

Andrea Kastendieck

RESEARCH COMPLIANCE COORDINATOR

Andrea Kastendieck has been part of the Lakeland College team since 2008 and part of the applied research department since 2011. She is responsible for financial monitoring and grant reporting.

Yuri Montanholi

M.SC., DVM, PHD INSTRUCTOR AND RESEARCHER

Dr. Yuri Montanholi has a dual appointment at Lakeland College as an instructor and a researcher. As an instructor, he develops and teaches courses for the new agriculture technology degree, as well as provides support for students. As a researcher, he is establishing a research program focused on the development of technologies applied to livestock husbandry, mainly beef, dairy, bison and small ruminants.

At Lakeland, Dr. Montanholi intends to expand his activities through an interconnected research and teaching program to assist new professionals and beef producers in increasing their production efficiency while safeguarding the environment and contributing to the strength of their communities. Currently, Dr. Montanholi is leading a research project on applied artificial intelligence for remote animal identification and phenotypes of interest for the livestock industry through a collaboration with OneCup AI.

Laurel Thompson

B.SC., M.SC., CCA CROP RESEARCH SCIENTIST

Laurel Thompson has been contributing to the Lakeland College crop research program since 2016. Focusing mainly on cereal crops, Thompson explores interactions between cereal genetics, agronomic management practices, and the environment to assist producers in making targeted and economically sound agronomic decisions. She enjoys sharing research findings with and learning from crop producers. Prior to joining the Lakeland research team, Thompson worked as an industry agronomist before attaining her MSc at the University of Alberta, where she studied agronomic methods for maximizing feed barley yields. Thompson also enjoys teaching, having taught courses at both the University of Alberta and Lakeland College. Thompson and her husband operate a grain and cow calf farm in the Vermilion area.

JP Pettyjohn

B.SC., P.AG. M.SC. (PENDING), CCA INSTRUCTOR AND CROP RESEARCH SCIENTIST

JP Pettyjohn began working in small plot crop research as a summer student in 1999 with SARDA a producer-led research group in Falher, Alta. In 2002, he began working for Roy-Boy farms, diversifying 4,300 acres of grain, oilseed and forage seed with a 200 head cow/ calf operation. In 2009, Pettyjohn managing SARDA and became the lead technician. He joined the Lakeland College team as a crop sciences instructor in 2016 and is currently covering Laurel Thompson’s parental lead on the crop research team.

Emma Robb

AGRIBUSINESS DIPLOMA CROP RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST

Emma Robb graduated from Lakeland College’s agribusiness program 2020 and joined the applied research team in the fall. She has always had a passion for agriculture, especially sustainability and longevity. Working in crop research allows her to be a part of the up-andcoming techniques and technologies that will ensure a strong future for agriculture.

Dr. Brenda Ralston

B.SC. IN AGRICULTURE, M.SC. IN VETERINARY PARASITOLOGY, PHD IN VETERINARY AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES. BEEF RESEARCH SCIENTIST

Dr. Brenda Ralston will be joining the Lakeland College team in the fall of 2021 after 35 years with Alberta Agriculture as a district agriculturist, beef specialist and research scientist.

Dr. Ralston is a firm believer that applied research is critically needed today more than ever and that colleges are an excellent fit to carry this out in collaboration with private industry, universities, government and, most importantly, producers themselves. Her guiding principle for applied research is that it must provide a product or practice that the producer can implement in their operation to enhance their efficiency, sustainability or profitability to support the agriculture industry. Dr. Ralston has tried to demonstrate that principle through her collaborative work with industry to assist in bringing livestock pharmaceuticals to market that address animal welfare issues related to management procedures such as castration, supporting the development of an anti-bloat agent that can be used during grazing of alfalfa for enhanced gains, boluses to address metabolic disorders in ruminants, and alternatives to antibiotics for the treatment of non-bacterial scours. She is also interested in practical solutions to address antimicrobial resistance determination on the farm level for targeted selection of antibiotic groups for better animal outcomes and enhanced antibiotic stewardship. Dr. Ralston looks forward to involving students in research projects and harvesting their great ideas to direct future research initiatives.

Carien Vandenberg

B.SC. IN AGRICULTURE, M.SC. IN ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR ASSOCIATE LIVESTOCK RESEARCHER

Trisha Mechor Josie van Lent

DEAN OF AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY & APPLIED RESEARCH

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT TO THE DEANS OF AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES AND APPLIED RESEARCH AND AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY

With a background in human resources, Trisha Mechor has been with Lakeland College for four years, three of which have been spent with the agricultural sciences department. Carien Vanderberg pursued her master’s degree studying the chicken. From there, she worked with the Dairy Farmers of Ontario, various dairy and horse farms in Alberta, and at Old’s College for nine years. In the last four years, she has pursued marketing and manufacturing roles and finds herself happily pulled back into research, livestock, the beautiful west and campus life.

Before moving into her new position as the dean of agriculture technology and applied research, Josie van Lent spent 13 years as the dean of agriculture sciences. In her new role, she provides leadership and support to applied research, continuing education, Lakeland’s new agriculture technology degree program and the Student-Managed Farm – Powered by New Holland. Van Lent spent the first half of her career working for Alberta Agriculture, Food & Rural Development as a district agriculturist and livestock specialist. Following that, she was employed in the crop service sector as an agronomist with Webb’s Crop Services in Vermilion before moving on to manage the crop input division in north eastern Alberta for the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA). Van Lent and her family also operate a commercial livestock and grain farm, Staden Farms, which includes beef, bison and crop enterprises.