Campuses:
Earl Dotson, President/CEOEarl Dotson is President/CEO of Validus Services, LLC. Validus, an ISO 9001 certified company, assists food companies and producers by providing specialized services at the farm level. These services focus on social responsibility in the areas of animal welfare, environment, food safety, worker care and biosecurity.
Validus works with livestock, poultry, crop, vegetable and citrus producers in providing assessments, audits and consulting services to ensure that production practices meet or exceed expectations in the marketplace. Through the consulting department Validus works with farming operations and companies to help them achieve their goals in employee training, crisis management planning, business management training and standard operating procedures development. Before joining Validus, Dotson was Vice President of Education, Environment, and Production Research for the National Pork Producers Council. Dotson obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture and his Master’s degree in Education both at the University of Missouri. He also holds a Specialist in Education degree from Northwest Missouri State University.
Wendy Powers, Ph.D.Dr. Wendy Powers is a professor and Director of Environmental Stewardship for Animal Agriculture in the Departments of Animal Science and Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering at Michigan State University. She joined the faculty at Michigan State University in November 2006 after being on faculty at Iowa State University for just under 10 years. As director, Dr. Powers coordinates environmental activities related to animal agriculture for the college. Wendy’s primary research focus is on diet modification to alter odor and gaseous emissions and manure nutrient excretion working in a multispecies capacity. Extension efforts are currently focused on implementation of management practices to reduce environmental impact and addressing the concerns of rural citizens by improving understanding and communication.
Roger A. Cady, Ph.D.Roger Cady currently serves as a Sr. Technical Consultant for Elanco Animal Health. In this role, Dr. Cady serves as the science officer assuring Elanco dairy products and marketing efforts are supported by sound science and sustainable agricultural practices. Research and dairy cattle industry expertise includes training as a quantitative geneticist with a heavy emphasis on statistics and dairy management records. Throughout his career Cady has worked to integrate research information with practical on-farm management in the area of heifer management and on-farm economics including how micro-economics the farm and the macro-economics of the industry interact. Roger is currently focused on how productivity applying productivity to environmentally sustainable practices in the dairy industry.
Cady is a native of New York and received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Breeding from Cornell University. Dr. Cady has been employed in several technical roles during his 9 year employment at Monsanto prior to the recent acquisition of the Posilac business by Elanco Animal Health. Prior to working in industry, Cady served as professor and extension dairy specialist for 18 years at University of New Hampshire and Washington State University. While working in the academic sector, Cady co-founded and served as moderator of Dairy-L, a popular international e-mail based discussion group covering issues important to dairy herd and dairy cattle management. He is a founder of the Professional Dairy Heifer Growers. Recognition Cady has received during his career include the Alfa-Laval Agri, ADSA Award for excellence in dairy cattle extension and in 1999 PDHGA honored Cady with an award named in his honor, The Cady Award, for excellence in service to dairy heifer growers. Dr. Cady is a member and past officer in the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) and has served on various national and state industry committees and boards. He currently resides in St. Louis, MO with his 3 children.
Marcia Endres, Ph.D.Dr. Marcia Endres is an associate professor and extension dairy specialist in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Minnesota. She joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in October 2001 after working as Animal Nutrition Manager for Mycogen Seeds, a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company for about 6 years. She received her Ph.D. in Dairy Science from the University of Minnesota, M.S. in Beef Nutrition from Iowa State University, and a Veterinary Medicine degree from University of Parana, Brazil.
For the last 6 years Dr. Endres has focused her research and extension efforts in the area of dairy management, welfare and behavior. She spent some time at the University of British Columbia, Canada, collaborating on a project with internationally known experts in dairy welfare and behavior early in her career at the U of M. From 2004 to 2008, she was a director for PAACO (Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization). PAACO’s purpose/mission is to promote the humane treatment of animals through education and certification of animal auditors and to promote the profession of animal auditors. Members of PAACO include national species-specific veterinarian organizations and animal science organizations. Dr. Endres represented The Federation of Animal Science Societies (and more specifically the American Dairy Science Association) in the Board of Directors. Recently she was invited by PAACO to participate in a national 3-member review panel that is evaluating dairy welfare programs for their agreement with the National Animal Dairy Well-Being Initiative. She has also been a member of the Animal Behavior and Well Being Joint Program committee for ADSA and ASAS, and represents the University of Minnesota on the national NC-1029 Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare committee.
Larry Jacobson, Ph.D.Larry D. Jacobson is a professor and extension engineer and livestock housing specialist in the Department of Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Special research and extension emphasis areas are: air quality and emissions for both animal and human health concerns, environmentally safe manure management systems, and economical facilities for livestock and poultry. He is a registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) in the State of Minnesota.
Jason Hill, Ph.D.Jason Hill is a resident fellow of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, where he also serves as program coordinator in the Institute’s Global Landscapes Initiative. His research interests include the technological, environmental, economic, and social aspects of sustainable bioenergy from current and next-generation feedstocks. His work on carbon-negative biofuels from diverse prairie biomass and on how land-use change caused by ethanol and biodiesel production results in greater life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions has been published in the journals Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is currently focusing on how the rapidly expanding global transportation biofuels industry impacts climate change, biodiversity, air pollution, and human health. Prior to his current appointment, he was employed as a research associate in the University’s Departments of Applied Economics and Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, and as an assistant professor in the Departments of Biology and Environmental Studies at St. Olaf College. Dr. Hill received his A.B. in Biology from Harvard College and his Ph.D. in Plant Biological Sciences from the University of Minnesota.
