Beekeeping
EssentialsCornell

Certificate Program

Emma Walters works with beekeepers to understand factors affecting honey bee health, with a focus on parasites, diseases, pesticides, and management practices. Emma is particularly interested in training beekeepers in methods that improve their colonies’ health. During her time at Cornell University, she led the NYS Beekeeper Tech Team and the Cornell University Master Beekeeping Program. Emma started beekeeping in 2011 in Ontario, Canada, and completed her Master’s degree investigating honey bee behavioral genetics at Western University in Canada.

Ellen Topitzhofer has been working with beekeepers mastering on-the-ground testing and applicable research since 2012. She has spent most of her working career in the Northwest — a place that offers paid pollination in 15 different crops and average honey yields of 25 to 45 lbs. per colony annually.

After her graduate work studying honey bee nutrition at Oregon State University, she worked with commercial beekeepers as part of the Bee Informed Partnership’s Tech Transfer Team program. She continued working with honey bees as a Research Assistant in the Honey Bee Lab at Oregon State University, with a research focus on queen supply self-sufficiency techniques, and then as Senior Extension Associate in Apiculture at Cornell University.

Since May 2024, Ellen has held the appointment of Senior Faculty Research Assistant in the Oregon State Honey Bee Lab at OSU.