Dr. Victor Busov is a Professor in the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science. He uses methods of molecular genetics and genomics to understand how trees grow, develop and interact with their environment. Trees dominate terrestrial ecosystems and provide valuable resource and environmental services. The information and knowledge from his studies is helping grow, manage, and preserve healthy forest ecosystem in United States and around the world.

Dr. Kathy Halvorsen is Interim Associate Vice President for Research Development and University Professor of Natural Resource Policy. She has a joint appointment in the Department of Social Sciences and the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science. She currently studies climate change mitigation and biodiversity protection. Dr. Halvorsen leads a large, international, transdisciplinary group of researchers studying the impacts of forest-related bioenergy across the Americas. This project focuses, in part, on the impacts on biodiversity. She served on the 2010-11 National Academy of Science’s Committee on the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Increasing Biofuels.

Melissa Hronkin is an art educator, artist, and beekeeper living and teaching in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She teaches art at the Houghton Portage Public Schools and is an adjunct art instructor at Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College and Finlandia University. In 2014, she was named the National Elementary Art Educator of the Year by the National Art Education Association (NAEA). She holds an MFA from Minneapolis college of Art and Design, and an MA from the Ohio State University. Interspecies communication and fragility of natural systems have been persistent themes in her art work and installations. She and her husband, John, operate Algomah Acres in Greenland, their honey processing facility and meadery, art studio, and community art space.