PRESIDENT

Carla A. Park

For nearly forty years Carla was a career educator in Chesterfield County Public School and worked with many administrators and served on an endless number of committees while also serving over 7,000 students in her classroom. As a teacher of art, photo and graphics, she wrote curriculum, worked with the school PTA, attended and presented at state conferences, and in 2001 was named Virginia Art Education Association Teacher of the Year.

Carla is recently retired and can devote more time to creative endeavors, including beekeeping and her sideline business, Chestnut Ridge Garden. Relatively speaking, Carla together with her husband is active in the Rockwood Park Backyard Beekeepers Association (RPBBA). She has attained the Journeyman level in the VSBA MB Program.

Her projects related to community outreach/education are as follows: RPBBA Honey Bee Festival Committee (planning, logistics, organization, marketing, PR); Children’s Activities at the Honey Bee Festival (planning, supplies, set up and follow through); Volunteer on behalf of RPBBA at the Virginia State Fair Honey Booth; Presentations to local garden clubs sharing importance of pro-pollinator gardening practices; Presentations to fellow beekeepers on marketing of honey and value-added products; Monthly Study groups using the VSBA study guides for Apprentice/Journeyman; Member of the RPBBA Board for the past two years.

Carla looks forward to the opportunity to learn, to grow and to serve the VSBA, and will do her best to make it a productive time of growth for all of us, as we move forward into a changing world. While nothing can take the place of personal and face-to-face interactions, Carla applauds the use of webinars during the last two years and hopes that the VSBA can continue to use technology to supplement the goals of the VSBA, as education, unification and inclusion should continue to be expanded as integral components in the vision of the Virginia State Beekeepers Association. 

2nd VICE PRESIDENT

Nathanial (Nate) Muller

Nate is a founding member of the Fairfax Beekeepers where he has served for the last few years as President and is now turning that role over to others. He also serves as the treasurer for the Virginia Beekeeping Teaching Consortium (VBTC) a group that shares a similar curriculum with several other beekeeping clubs.

Nate helped develop the Fairfax Beekeepers group from a small group of about 15 new beekeepers to a tightly knit small club with about 150 members at present. He has taught beekeeping as part of the VBTC and assisted in the review and revisions of the curriculum. Locally Nate works with local Boy and Girl Scout troops to educate children about honey bees, pollination, and our native pollinators.

Nate has been keeping bees since 2015 and maintains between 10 and 20 hives depending on the season. He was taught by Pat and Jim Haskell. Nate spends most of my free time helping bee club members with their bees and bee problems, organizing club meetings, and learning more by continuing to explore the world of beekeeping. He is currently a Journeyman in the VSBA MB Program.

Nate would like to investigate the possibility of an umbrella insurance policy that beekeeping clubs could buy into to reduce the liability faced by clubs, especially in any public outreach or events with live bees. Currently it seems that every club has a very different policy. Nate is also interested in the possibility of programming two tracks at one of the VSBA meetings instead of one if there is interest. Overall Nate would like to investigate how local beekeeping clubs and the state beekeeping organization can best support each other.