2020 Fall Workshop Speakers

Ron Arpin | Little Valley Wholesale Nursery, Brighton, Colorado

Ron Arpin is the Nursery Manager at Little Valley Wholesale Nursery near Brighton Colorado, where he has worked for 37 years. His major responsibilities include ensuring: containers, potting media, liners, fertilizers, pesticides, and labor are available when needed. He also provides crop cultural guidance and oversight of production and irrigation facilities maintenance.

Dr. Tom Fernandez | Dept. of Horticulture, Michigan State University

Dr. Fernandez is currently a Professor at MSU where he teaches Nursery Management and Landscape Plant Identification and works primarily in the ornamental nursery industry.. His research and extension program focus areas are on water quality and management for container nursery production. He is particularly interested in methods to conserve water and remediate agrichemicals from irrigation return flow and recycled production water and is investigating the use of RFID to facilitate precision agriculture practices for container production. With over 250 presentations to his credit, he speaks to state, national and international audiences.  

Al Gerace, CGG | Welby Gardens, Arvada, Colorado 

Al Gerace was born and raised in Welby, Colorado, an old Italian farming community just north of Denver. Today the business continues, with multiple generations: brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and nephews working together. It has grown from a truck farm to a greenhouse operation with a strong reputation for quality, integrity and excellence of service. Al has played an instrumental role in Welby's success, notably developing the Hardy Boy Plant logo and brand in 1976. Al continually gives back to the industry and community through his service on numerous boards. Rightfully so, he has been the recipient of many industry awards. 

Dr. Will Healy | Ball Horticulture, West Chicago, Illinois

For the last 40 years Will has worked with growers around the world on production issues.  Will was the Floriculture Specialist at CSU from 1982-1984. During his 29 years at Ball he has focused on young plant production. By focusing on training growers to properly manage irrigation methods and decision processes, he has been able to improve order fulfillment to well over 99%.

 

 Jim Mueller | CPS Distributors, Inc., Westminster, Colorado

 

Jim is the Territory Sales Manager for Nurseries and Gardens Centers.  Over his career he has worked 22 years with several Parks Departments in Colorado, serving in multiple roles including superintendent and parks manager. He has also managed collegiate and professional athletic fields, construction and material sales.
Jeffrey Neff | Argus Controls, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada 

Jeff is a Senior Application Technician who provides design, commissioning, installation support and training for all controlled systems in horticulture growth environments. These systems included fertigation, irrigation, water treatment systems, heating, ventilation, dehumidification and humidification, CO2, lighting systems and heat storage management. He also provides customers with a variety of services on single ion / single element fertigation, which includes PPM recipe development and training. 

Brad Udall | CSU Colorado Water Center, Fort Collins, Colorado

Brad is a Senior Water and Climate Research Scientist/Scholar at Colorado State University’s Colorado Water Center. Brad’s expertise includes climate change, hydrology and related policy issues of the American West with a focus on the Colorado River. He was a contributing author to the 2014 IPCC climate change report and was a co-author of the 2018 U.S. National Climate Assessment. In 2017, with co-author Jonathan Overpeck he wrote an influential paper on the ongoing Colorado River ‘hot’ drought. Brad has testified to Congress multiple times, provided input to several National Academy of Science panels, and has given hundreds of talks on climate change impacts to water resources, water law, and water policy.