Speakers
Scott Dee
Scott Dee earned a DVM, MS, and PhD from the University of Minnesota, is board-certified in veterinary microbiology, and past President of the AASV. After 12 years in both swine practice and academia, Scott joined Pipestone Veterinary Services as Director of Applied Research. He has been awarded > 12 M in research funding and published 175 peer reviewed papers, including the initial publications on the proof of concept of PEDV transmission in feed and the transboundary survival of ASFV in feed. He received the AASV Practitioner of the Year, the Howard Dunne Memorial, and the Leman Science in Practice awards, a Warrior Chip from the FBI, and is a Master of the US Pork Industry. In 2022 he guest-edited a Special Issue on Feed Risk in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases and was awarded the Distinguished Service to the US Pork Industry Award from the National Pork Board.
Stephen J. Dinsmore
Stephen J. Dinsmore is a Professor of wildlife ecology and Department Chair in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Iowa State University. He received a B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology from Iowa State University (1990), a M.S. in Zoology (minor in Statistics) from North Carolina State University (1994), and a Ph.D. in Fishery and Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University (2001). Prior to his move to Iowa State, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries at Mississippi State University. His primary interests are avian ecology, population biology, capture-recapture analysis, and monitoring animal populations. His research program at Iowa State University emphasizes studies of avian population biology although his work encompasses other taxa too. He currently supervises one research scientist and five graduate students working primarily on issues of demography and habitat management of birds. In addition to projects involving graduate students, he maintains his own research program with Mountain Plovers and collaborates with scientists on projects related to avian ecology, population biology, and sampling and study design issues. His teaching responsibilities include an undergraduate course in ornithology, a graduate course in avian ecology, and study abroad courses to Antarctica, Costa Rica, Madagascar, and Tanzania. He gives seminars and scientific presentations nationwide, and enjoys teaching workshops on the use of Program MARK and the analysis of wildlife demographic data. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife (Karen) and daughter (Lena), bird-watching, and traveling.
Joe Hedden
Joe Hedden is a third-generation turkey farmer and began his career raising turkeys on his family’s farm. He attended Merced Junior College and University of Georgia and has now managed live production operations for three turkey integrators, stretching from the West Coast to the Midwest, and over 40 years. Joe has worked in every aspect of turkey live production.
Joe has been a member of the California Poultry Federation, a current board member of the Iowa Turkey Federation and a member of the National Turkey Federation, where he serves on the NTF Health and Welfare Committee and Salmonella Task Force Committee.
Joe shares his turkey knowledge to help others within and outside the industry. He has judged turkeys at 4H and FFA events, given farm tours for school children and raised and presented the Thanksgiving Turkey for pardoning to several United States Presidents and three state governors.
Joe is currently Director of Live Operations for Tyson, Storm Lake.
Julie Kelly
Dr. Julie Kelly is a Diplomat of the American College of Poultry Veterinarians and has been working for Michael Foods, Inc. for over 10 years. She graduated with a DVM from Oregon State University in 2010 and proceeded to complete a poultry medicine residency through UC Davis at the California Animal Health and Food Safety (CAHFS) laboratory system. Upon finishing the program, Julie and her family moved back “home” to the Midwest where she now resides in Wakefield, NE with her husband and two daughters, Madelyne (10) and Delilah (5).
Terry Olson
Terry was born and raised as a “farm kid” in Ephraim Utah. His Father owned and managed a large, successful turkey operation for Moroni Feed Company and the Norbest brand. It was here, asking such questions as, “Dad, why did these turkey’s die”, that an interest in disease and veterinary medicine began. Terry graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Utah State University in 1984 and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University, in 1988. After graduation he was fortunate to be offered a job to provide veterinary services for the Moroni Feed Company and move back “home”. After a career of 22 years, Terry accepted a new opportunity and moved his family to Storm Lake, Iowa to work as a Veterinarian for Sara Lee/Hillshire Brands. Terry is now in his 14th year with what is now Tyson Foods. He has been a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Association of Avian Pathologists (AAAP) for 35 years. He has also been active in the National Turkey Federation (NTF) and the Association of Veterinarians in Turkey Production (AVTP).
Mike Pruitt
Dr. Mike Pruitt is a 1983 graduate of Oklahoma State University (Animal Science Production), and 1986 graduate of Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He practiced in western Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle, and southwest Kansas in multiple rural practices emphasizing food animal medicine. In 2005, Dr. Pruitt began his regulatory career with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, & Forestry as the cervid and cattle programs administrator. In 2009, he joined USDA APHIS VS as a field veterinary medical officer for central Oklahoma. Dr. Pruitt has also served as one of the operations chiefs for the Gold Incident Management Team. In 2016, Dr. Pruitt accepted the AVIC (Area Veterinarian In Charge) position with USDA APHIS VS in Austin, managing the program disease office and field staff in Texas.
Dr. Pruitt enjoys being a cattleman, having raised Maine Anjou, Maine-Angus and Chi-Maine heifers, bulls and steers.
He has two grown children, Kasie and Brandon, a son-in-law, Seth, all of whom are graduates of the Oklahoma State University, and two granddaughters, Dakota Laine and Saige Rae.
Rachel Ruden
Dr. Rachel Ruden started with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in 2019 as Iowa’s first State Wildlife Veterinarian. Dr. Ruden earned her VMD and Certificate in Veterinary Public Health in 2016 from the University of Pennsylvania and went on to complete her PhD in Wildlife Ecology at Iowa State University studying a disease of songbirds. Dr. Ruden has statewide responsibilities investigating morbidity and mortality events affecting Iowa’s wildlife and contributes to research projects examining the impacts of infectious diseases and other health issues on free-living populations. Dr. Ruden holds an affiliate appointment within the Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and is based out of Ames, Iowa.
Larry Sadler
Dr. Larry Sadler serves as the vice president of Animal Welfare for United Egg Producers. Working with producers and a scientific advisory committee, Dr. Sadler helps oversee UEP Certified, which certifies more than 90% of the laying hens in the United States.
Randy Singer
Dr. Singer is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine. He received his DVM and MPVM from UC Davis in 1995 and his PhD in Epidemiology from UC Davis in 1999. Dr. Singer’s research and educational program has focused on predicting the emergence, spread and persistence of infectious diseases. In 2000 he was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by President Clinton for his work on antibiotic resistance. Since that time, he has devoted most of his research program to this topic. He has spoken twice to the U.S. House of Representatives on this topic and served as a voting member of the U.S. Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria from 2015 to 2019. In 2020 he published papers on the use of antimicrobials in the U.S. poultry industry that covered approximately 90% of U.S. chicken production and 80% of U.S. turkey production. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Zoonoses and Public Health.
Patrick Webb
Dr. Patrick Webb is the Assistant, Chief Veterinarian at the National Pork Board, where he joined in 2005. He is responsible for the Pork Checkoff efforts in foreign and emerging animal disease planning, preparedness and response. Dr. Webb received both his DVM and BS in animal science degrees from Iowa State University.
