Joe LaForest

Joe is Associate Director for the University of Georgia's Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health (Bugwood) and leads the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Forest Health programs. He joined University of Georgia in 2006 and has focused on developing resources for educating all audiences on IPM and plant biosecurity as well as using technology to enable more effective use and distribute information. He leads system development for various databases and interfaces used by the center for organization and delivery of images, video, presentations, occurrence data, maps, and other user created content. He also serves as Co-Director for the Southern IPM Center and coordinates the Facilitation of Innovation Through Technology (FITT) initiative to encourage communication between systems focused on IPM and Plant Biosecurity while also leveraging the capabilities of each system to maximize the benefit to all stakeholders. In concert with the extension and leveraging of digital resources, he has begun work to improved impact evaluation of digital resources as well as structural analysis of content delivery and exchange networks.