Dr. Mark Hardesty is an 1988 graduate of The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine and received the Award for Excellence in Food Animal Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Hardesty also holds a Master’s degree in Dairy Nutrition and Management from Ohio State. He practices exclusively with dairy cattle and calves, working in all aspects of production medicine, with special interests in dairy management, cow comfort, building design, nutrition consulting, milk quality, heifer raising, and vaccination programs. He also writes a monthly column in the Hoard’s Dairyman magazine. Dr. Hardesty is an active member of the American Association of Bovine Practitioner’s, Ohio Dairy Vets, Tri-State Nutrition, Ohio Veterinary Medical Association, American Veterinary Medical Association, and received the Merial Preventive Medicine Award for Dairy in 2000. Dr. Hardesty served on Ohio’s Dairy Care Standards Committee and is involved in supporting local Ag Education. In 2014, he was named AABP Practitioner of the Year.

Dr. Adam Lock, a professor at Michigan State University, was born on a dairy farm in the UK. He earned degrees from the University of Nottingham and completed a postdoc at Cornell University. Joining Michigan State in 2009, his research has challenged conventional thinking and has led to new opportunities for the feeding of dairy cows. Collaborative efforts with nutritionists and producers have accelerated his research and extension program, enabling him to focus on recent areas of interest such as fatty acid absorption, fat supplementation strategies, transition cow nutrition, and milk fat synthesis. His contributions have been recognized with awards from the American Dairy Science Association and Michigan State University.

Tony Nassar has spent 15 years working for Chobani – first leading the company’s Transportation and Private Fleet teams, where he oversaw DOT compliance and safety, and now leading Chobani Dairy Procurement teams in New York and Idaho. His teams manage all raw milk contracting and sourcing, sell excess cream and acid whey, and support R&D with dairy ingredients. He also regularly visits the dairies they source from, meet with producers, and review monthly quality reports.

Before joining Chobani, Nassar spent 25 years running C.P. Craska, Inc., a refrigerated trucking company, which specialized in LTL refrigerated and frozen food distribution across New York, New Jersey, and New England. Fun fact: The company hauled Chobani yogurt when the company first launched.

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Thomas Thibodeau is a husband, father, grandfather, teacher, and an active community member from Wisconsin Rapids who has done nothing since coming to Viterbo in 1984 but inspire students and change the world. Through the years his infectious enthusiasm, compassion, and commitment to leadership and service have also inspired countless colleagues and community members. He is the founder of the Master of Arts in Servant Leadership, the first master’s degree of its kind in the nation, and also a founding member of hospitality and fellowship resource Place of Grace, in La Crosse. Thibodeau is a popular professor, talented public speaker, and an extremely active community member who lives the Viterbo values. He regularly leads The Ethical Life seminars, often team teaching with Rick Kyte, and also offers a Serving the Common Good seminar focused on homelessness.

Dr. Mike Van Amburgh does not hold an official extension appointment, but the applied focus of his research and teaching regularly leads him to participate in extension and educational programs across New York and around the world. He contributes to PRO-DAIRY and other statewide initiatives, including Winter Dairy Management programs, and frequently works with producers and feed industry professionals.

Much of Dr. Van Amburgh’s outreach stems from his role with the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System and CPM Dairy. He spends considerable time training producers, nutritionists, feed chemists, and academics—nationally and internationally—on how to apply and interpret these models. Highlights include presenting at the National Forage Testing Association meeting on analytical methods that improve cattle requirement predictions and influence lab procedures used across the industry.

His research in ruminant growth, development, nutrition, and physiology also leads to regular invitations to speak at conferences in the U.S. and abroad.