The 35 years of combined skills, experience, and educational training of Michele Colopy and Terry Lieberman-Smith working on behalf of pollinators and beekeepers has led to wonderful collaborations, shared visions, and purposeful projects on behalf of pollinators and beekeepers.
Executive Director and co-founder, Michele Colopy, has been focused on honey bees, beekeeping, and pollinator education for more than seven years. Her father was a beekeeper in southeast Ohio for their small apple orchard. She keeps honey bees in the city, and has replaced her crabgrass front yard with pesticide-free pollinator flowers for her honey bees and native pollinators. She was the Program Director for the Pollinator Stewardship Council from 2013 to 2019.
Ms. Colopy holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management/Arts Administration. Her nonprofit experience includes work in the performing arts, housing and homelessness, foreclosure prevention, community development, and health and wellness. She volunteered as Treasurer of The Ohio State Beekeepers Association (OSBA) from 2016-2019 modernizing the accounting, co-managing a USDA grant, administering the Affiliate program, and managing two grant programs of OSBA.
Coordinator and co-founder, Terry Lieberman-Smith has been actively involved with bees, beekeeping, and local beekeeping associations for over 15 years. She has held a variety of leadership positions in both the local and state level beekeeping associations. At The Ohio State Beekeepers Association, Inc., she was Newsletter Editor for 8 years, Conference Coordinator for 7 years, Vice-President for 4 years, and President for 2 years.
Terry understands the importance of clean pollinator habitat and enrolled part of her property in CRP to ensure that not only the bees in her apiary, but all pollinators in the area have a haven for forage.
Terry holds an undergraduate degree in business, along with an MBA specializing in Logistics. She incorporates her business background, leadership skills, and interest in sustainable beekeeping practices to help strengthen the beekeeping community and develop partnerships with other like-minded groups.
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