Dr. Marla Spivak is a Distinguished McKnight Professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Minnesota. She received a B.A. in Biology from Humboldt, California State University in California in 1978. She obtained her Ph.D. in Entomology at the University of Kansas 1989 on the ecology and identification of Africanized honey bees in Costa Rica. From 1989 to 1991 she was a post-doctoral research associate at the Center for Insect Science at the University of Arizona and was hired at the University of Minnesota in 1993 with a combined Research, Teaching and Extension appointment. Her goals are to protect the health of bee pollinators and to promote sustainable beekeeping practices. Her current research efforts focus on protecting and enhancing the health of bees through social immunity and bee breeding.