During her tenure at the Xerces Society, Thelma developed sustainable pest management practices that incorporate beneficial insects into farm systems, reducing the need for insecticides and complementing beneficial insect protection, and gave workshops on conservation biological control in every continental U.S. state! She received her M.S. from Purdue University and her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, both in entomology, and her research focused on the risks and impacts faced by predatory insects from different pest management strategies. Prior to joining the Xerces Society, Thelma was an IPM and extension coordinator for field crop pests at Iowa State University. She is an organic dairy farmer in Wisconsin and member of the Organic Valley Co-op. She actively incorporates insect conservation on her family’s farm like the establishment of monarch meadows.