Utah Beekeepers' Association

In our February 2027 conference, we will hear from several speakers including:

• Dr Cameron Jack is from a small farming community northeast of Las Vegas, NV. His grandpa was a sideliner beekeeper, so Cameron grew up around honey bees and beekeeping. He traveled across the country to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Florida under the mentorship of Dr. Jamie Ellis where he began investigating methods to control Varroa destructor a devastating honey bee pest. He is now an assistant professor at the University of Florida teaching nine different beekeeping courses and conducting research focused on pesticides, pathogens, and parasites that affect honey bees.

• Dr Arian Avalos is a Research Geneticist with the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service and a member of the Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Research Unit in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His research has focused on the analysis of honey bee behaviors including learning and memory, colony defense, and more recently pest hygiene. 

• Dr David Peck is the Director of Research and Education at Betterbee in Greenwich, NY, where he assists in product development and research, and also teaches classes and develops scientifically-sound educational materials. His doctoral work in Cornell University's Department of Neurobiology and Behavior was supervised by Professor Tom Seeley. His dissertation research focused on the transmission of mites between bee colonies, as well as the mite-resistance traits of the untreated honey bees living in Cornell's Arnot Forest. After earning his degree, he has continued to research varroa/bee interactions, including fieldwork in Newfoundland, Canada (where varroa still have not arrived) and Anosy Madagascar (where varroa arrived only in 2010 or 2011). He has served as a teaching postdoctoral fellow in Cornell's Department of Entomology, and is still affiliated with Cornell through the Honey Bee Health program in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Peck has kept bees for more than a decade, though his home apiary is often full of mite-riddled research colonies so he doesn't usually produce much honey

Association members may watch recordings of some of the 2026 presentations by clicking "Events" → "Past Conferences" → "Members Only".

At our 2026 annual dinner, our Hive Tool award was presented to past Association president Brian Stephenson.

Happy Beekeeping, Logan Cleaver, President, Utah Beekeepers Association