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Meet the Native Bee Watch Team   arrow

The Native Bee Watch Community Science Program is comprised of an interdisciplinary team all passionate about bee conservation, education, and research. We have a variety of subject matter expertise on all aspects of the program.

Core Team

Lisa Mason

Lisa is the horticulture specialist and entomologist for CSU Extension in Arapahoe County. She started Native Bee Watch in 2016 for her Master’s Degree in entomology at Colorado State University. In 2019, she brought Native Bee Watch to CSU Extension when she started her position. Lisa enjoys bringing science education to communities on pollinators, insects, trees, plants, gardening, home landscape care, and ecology. Her research interests include using community science to support pollinator conservation. Lisa is passionate about the Native Bee Watch program because it incorporates education, research, and on-the-ground community work—all important components needed to support pollinator conservation.

Jill Zarestky

Jill Zarestky, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Adult Education and Training program in the School of Education at Colorado State University. Her research interests include informal STEM education and issues of sustainability. For Jill, NBW brings together the ecological and social strategies to address meaningful issues in our gardens, communities, and Colorado. 

Lauren Vilen

Lauren Vilen, M.Ed., is a doctoral student in the School of Education at Colorado State University. Her research interests include adult teaching and learning, professional identity, environmental adult education, and community-based education.

Lauren’s professional background includes public lands management and non-profit program management, where she developed and implemented service-learning programs and provided young adults with training and education focused on environmental stewardship and job readiness in the natural resource field. Lauren is a Minnesota native who loves camping and backcountry canoeing. Since moving to Colorado, she has enjoyed exploring the many public lands and hiking trails. Lauren’s excited about being part of Native Bee Watch because she believes in lifelong science and environmental learning, and that everyone can contribute to improving pollinator habitat.

Arathi Seshadri

Dr. Arathi Seshadri is a Research Entomologist at the USDA ARS Invasive Species and Pollinator Health Research Unit and the Lead Scientist at the Honey bee health lab in Davis, California. Arathi is a pollination biologist with expertise in pollinator behavior, pollination ecology, plant-pollinator mutualisms and plant reproductive strategies. Her contributions include demonstrating the impact of plant traits and responses on honeybee health, developing agroecosystem-based approaches for pollinator sustainability on farmland, ecological applications to conserve pollinators in rangelands and citizen science programs to support pollinators in urban areas.  


Volunteers, Student Employees, and Interns

Nancy Bartholomew, CSU Extension Intern

Nancy’s background is in education, and she is now pursuing a second bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology and a minor in ecological restoration at Colorado State University. She became more interested in pollinator conservation last summer when she had the opportunity to help survey native bees across Denver parks. She is excited to support Native Bee Watch volunteers in their own journeys of discovering and documenting the wonderful bee diversity around them.

Linda Parnes, Volunteer, GIS and Survey123 Specialist

Linda earned a certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from Front Range Community College (FRCC). She always had an interest in maps and data. Linda started working with Native Bee Watch when she was a student employee at the FRCC GeoEx Center. Linda plays an integral role by maintaining the online survey tool, assisting with data clean-up and organization, helping volunteers use the survey tool, and creating data dashboards that will serve as an educational tool for volunteers to see their data contributions in real-time. 


Past Student Interns & Employees

Ashley Daffron, CSU Extension Intern, Summer 2023

Anna de Zoeten, CSU Extension Intern, Summer 2022

Cassie McDonald, CSU Extension Intern, Summer 2021

Sam Palmer, CSU Extension Intern, Summer 2021

Sarah Viders, CSU Extension Intern, Summer 2020

Brooke Sayre-Chavez, Undergraduate Student Employee, former CSU Pollination Biology Lab under Dr. Arathi Seshadri

Colton O’Brien, Undergraduate Student Employee, former CSU Pollination Biology Lab under Dr. Arathi Seshadri

Victoria Halligan, Undergraduate Student Employee, former CSU Pollination Biology Lab under Dr. Arathi Seshadri

Tabitha Covey, Undergraduate Student Employee, former CSU Pollination Biology Lab under Dr. Arathi Seshadri