Meet the 2026 CCBA Intermediate Beekeeping Course Presenters

Phil Uptmor

Phil started his beekeeping journey in 2015 after attending the class taught by the Chatham County Beekeepers and NC Cooperative Extension.  He has helped teach beginning and advanced level courses for the past seven years and has served on the board of the CCBA for several years in the vice president and president roles.  Phil has achieved the NCSBA Master Beekeeper certification and the Eastern Apiculture Society Certified Master Beekeeper. 

Phil enjoys attending beekeeping conferences and interacting with the public, providing education about honey bees and selling local honey.  He has also enjoys competing in honey show competitions and has won several awards over the past eight years. 

Nancy Ruppert

Nancy has been active in beekeeping since the last century, when she took her first beekeeping class in early 1999, and maintains a few small apiaries in Montgomery County, NC.

Nancy was an apiary inspector for the NC Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Services for 11 ½ years, working primarily in south-central/southeastern North Carolina, until she retired in early 2022.  She came out of retirement in early 2023 to work part-time as beekeeper for Beez Needz, where bees and a wide variety of related equipment are sold in northern Randolph County, NC.  She is now happily retired once again. Her primary apiary interests are pest and disease management, honey bee stress mitigation, and honey bee nutrition. 

Nancy has been a registered nurse since the 1980’s, and worked for almost 20 years as a family nurse practitioner before changing to a less stressful occupation as apiary inspector. She still maintains an active North Carolina RN license. 

Jennifer Keller

Jennifer Keller is a member of Dr. David Tarpy’s apiculture program at NC State University. She started in the apiculture program at NC State as a graduate student with John Abrose. Her thesis involved research on the small hive beetle and understanding its biology, as this was still a new pest at that time. After graduation, she remained at NC State and began working with Dr. David Tarpy and has been there since 2003. She spent 20 years as the apiculture technician for Dr. Tarpy’s program which involved coordinating all the field research for that team. Some of the multiple duties included queen rearing, instrumental insemination, and seasonal management of honey bee colonies in numerous apiaries. She has since transitioned into a position that is more focused on extension and outreach.

Michael Smith

Mike grew up in eastern Kentucky and has lived in North Carolina for 29 years after leaving the military in 1998. He has been in the Information Technology field for over 33 years and started beekeeping in 2023. He has since earned his NC Journeyman Beekeeper certification and has served on the CCBA State Fair Committee for the past three years. Mike has won numerous 1st and 2nd place awards for his honey and mead products at the NC State Fair.  Mike currently maintains five bee colonies and enjoys catching swarms.

Valarie Pallatto

Valarie is a board certified veterinary clinical pathologist. She has been practicing veterinary pathology for 20 years serving veterinarians, their clients and pets. Honey bees are considered food animals and thus their health and wellness is an element of veterinary medicine.

She began beekeeping 6 years ago after attending the Introductory Beekeeping Course with the CCBA. She has served on the CCBA board of directors, State Fair Committee and as an instructor for the Introductory Beekeeping Course. She is a journeyman beekeeper with the NC State Master Beekeeper Program and working toward honey judge certification with the American Honey Show Training Council. She enjoys competing in honey shows, educating the public of the importance of honey bees and is passionate about continuous learning and improvement of beekeeping skills.

Jody Moore

Jody has been keeping bees for 25 years and is an NCSBA Master Beekeeper and an Eastern Apiculture Society Certified Master Beekeeper.  Jody is a past president of the Chatham County beekeepers and has helped teach beekeeping classes for several years.  He also maintains the honey bee colonies at Chatham Park and was instrumental in helping Sanford become a Bee City USA affiliate.

Jody owns and operates Rocky River Bees, LLC which has apiaries in Chatham and Lee Counties.  He has been the technical editor for the NCSBA Bee Buzz for several years and competes regularly in honey show competitions.