Winter Conference Speakers

Dr. Amanda Blair

Amanda Blair began her academic career with SDSU in 2007 as an Assistant Professor in Animal Science with a Research and Teaching appointment in Meat Science.  Dr. Blair has risen through the faculty ranks at SDSU to become a Full Professor in 2018. She is widely recognized for excellence in meat science research, with her work in recent years expanding to include bison. Dr. Blair is committed to conducting research that is both relevant to the industry and beneficial to producers.

Tom Bragg, DVM

Dr. Tom Bragg oversees all animal health related issues for the Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture, including acute bison and wildlife disease issues and preventative disease management protocols. He develops and conducts animal health and disease related research projects on Institute properties, as well as provide professional support on projects conducted by university and agency collaborators. This support includes providing veterinary expertise; field assistance with sample collection and laboratory submissions; disease diagnosis, vaccine and drug procurement and dosing; and veterinary supply management, among other tasks.  He received his DVM from Kansas State University.

Dr. Danielle Buttke

Danielle is a veterinary epidemiologist and the One Health coordinator for the National Park Service. In her job, Danielle works with parks to prevent and manage human, animal, and environmental health issues. She helps the National Park Service take a holistic approach that is needed to understand, protect, and promote the health of all species –the concept of One Health– because human and animal health are inextricable linked.

Danielle discovered her interest in animals and the natural world early in life. She grew up on a dairy farm and saw first-hand the connection between the health of the environment and the health of animals. She now holds a doctorate in veterinary medicine, a PhD in biomedical sciences, and a master’s in public health. Danielle is board certified in veterinary preventative medicine.

Dr. Kristie Cammack

Kristi Cammack serves as the Assistant Dean for West River Operations for the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences at South Dakota State University (SDSU).  An SDSU alum, she earned a B.S. in Animal Science in 1999.  She also earned graduate degrees in Breeding and Genetics from the University of Nebraska (M.S.) and the University of Missouri (Ph.D.).  Dr. Cammack served on the faculty in the Animal Science Department at the University of Wyoming for ten years before joining the ranks at SDSU in 2016.  She serves as the Director for the SDSU Center of Excellence for Bison Studies, a partnership between SDSU, the National Bison Association, and the National Buffalo Foundation.

Ervin Carlson

Ervin Carlson is a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. He has been the President of ITBC since 2007. As President, Ervin represents the ITBC at various functions, including the Interagency Bison Management Plan. Ervin also presides over ITBC’s Membership and Board of Director meetings. Ervin is committed to growing ITBC to promote the welfare of American Indians and Native Alaskans by restoring buffalo to Indian lands.

Dr. Tyler Cozzens

Tyler Cozzens is the Director and Agricultural Economist at the Livestock Marketing Information Center. He has been with the LMIC since 2019 providing economic analysis for the livestock and feed sectors. Previously, Tyler worked as an agricultural economist at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) in Washington, D.C. where he provided situation and outlook economic analysis on U.S. and global livestock production and trade.  Tyler also worked for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center (USDA/APHIS/WS/NWRC) evaluating animal disease prevalence in U.S. food animal populations and unregulated wildlife populations.  Tyler received his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Colorado State University where his research focused on the economics of animal health. 

Dick Gehring

Dick Gehring is the owner and operator of Black Kettle Buffalo in Kansas. He offers consulting work to bison ranches far and wide. Black Kettle Buffalo began its journey over 35 years ago. In addition to raising animals, Dick is also the former owner operator of a small processing plant. Dick has served the bison industry on a number of boards including past president of the National Bison Association (NBA), the Throlson American Bison Foundation, the National Buffalo Foundation, and the North American Bison Discovery Center.

Mack Graves

Over the past forty-five years, Mack H. Graves has been active worldwide in food protein raising, processing and marketing.  He specializes in corporate strategy, management focus and marketing effectiveness in companies and organizations across the food protein chain from beef to chicken to turkey to seafood.

Since 1995, Latigo, Inc., the consulting firm Graves founded, has helped many companies more clearly define their focus and exact their marketing programs.  Graves speaks nationally and internationally on meat and poultry marketing issues with particular emphasis on establishing consumer trusted brands.  He also counsels firms on natural and organic meat and poultry marketing in which Graves is recognized as an expert.  His senior level general management experience enables him to counsel executives within companies across the food chain.

Troy Heinert

Troy Heinert, Sicangu Lakota, is the Bison Branch Chief for the Office of Trust Services at the BIA. Mr. Heinert is an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and resides on his ranch outside of Mission, SD. He has over a decade of experience assisting Tribes restore buffalo back to their lands. 

Mr. Heinert is the former Executive Director of the InterTribal Buffalo Council and served for 10 years in the South Dakota State Legislature. He is also a decorated Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and Indian National Finals Rodeo (INFR) rodeo pickup man in his spare time.

Dr. Bryan Kaplan

Dr. Kaplan is a Microbiologist in the Ruminant Diseases and Immunology Research Unit at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service’s National Animal Disease Center in Ames, IA. Dr. Kaplan received both his BS in 2005 and PhD in 2011 from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. Dr. Kaplan continued his studies as a postdoctoral fellow at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN from 2012-2016 researching Influenza Viruses. In 2016, he began as a researcher at NADC in Ames, where he continued working on influenza viruses in swine with a focus on vaccine development. Dr. Kaplan joined the Ruminant Diseases and Immunology Research unit in 2021 where his work has focused on understanding the host-pathogen interactions underlying disease and immunity following infection with Mycoplasma bovis and other bovine respiratory pathogens in large ruminants.

Angie Lemminger

Angie Lemminger is a graduate research assistant at South Dakota State
University, Department of Natural Resource Management. She completed
her bachelor of science in animal behavior and biology at Carroll University
and is in progress on a Master of Science in Biological Sciences and
Natural Resource Management at SDSU. She has broad experience
working as an environmental education intern in Wisconsin, Invasive
Species Technician, and Wildlife Biologist/ Technician in Wisconsin, Idaho,
and Wyoming.

Dr. Jeff Martin

Dr. Jeff Martin is an assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resource Management with South Dakota State University and located in Rapid City, SD. His research lab focuses on bison biology and management including responses of bison to climate change such as thermoregulation, greenhouse gas emissions, and body size change. He earned his Ph.D. in Wildlife Sciences from Texas A&M University in 2020 and his dissertation focused on the drivers and consequences of climate change on bison and stewards of bison across working and natural lands. He grew up on a small bison ranch in west-central Wisconsin and worked for a large bison ranch in western South Dakota during his undergraduate.

Joe Schuele

Joe Schuele is senior vice president of communications for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, where he oversees daily communications with exporter members, producer communications, and media relations. He also closely monitors logistics and transportation issues for USMEF and prepares the organization’s comments and messaging in transportation-related proceedings. Joe joined USMEF in 2008 after holding similar responsibilities with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Prior to his time at NCBA, Joe worked for the Nebraska Legislature for 10 years and was a telecommunications industry lobbyist and regulatory director for eight years.

Joe is a native of central Nebraska, where he grew up on a diversified farming operation. He has a master’s degree in economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Dawn Sherman

Dawn Sherman (Lakota, Shawnee and Delaware), founding board member and executive director of Tanka Fund, brings over 30 years of business expertise and entrepreneurial skills to her consistent leadership. Her background includes key financial management roles, expanding market reach, policy development, and streamlining sales and financial efficiency. 

Dawn is keenly aware of the fundamental needs facing individuals at the community level on the reservation. Her South Dakota roots inform her decision making and she is dedicated to seeking improvements in the food systems that benefit the health and wellness of her indigenous community as well as the community at large. 

She is dedicated to returning Buffalo to Native lands, and improving the lives and economies of Native Communities. Dawn is a member of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, where she represents her tribe, the Delaware Tribe of Indians of Bartlesville. She serves as a founding board member of The Regenerative Agriculture Alliance. She also represents her tribe as a board member of the American Woolen Company.

Dr. Rachel Short

Dr. Rachel Short serves as an assistant professor at South Dakota State University. Before her arrival at SDSU, she earned a B.A. in biology from Illinois Wesleyan University, an M.S. in geosciences from East Tennessee State University, an MST in secondary earth and life sciences teaching from the University of Maine, a Ph.D. in ecosystem science and management from Texas A&M University before serving as a postdoctoral research fellow in biology at the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Short’s research integrates ecology, biogeography and paleontology to generate a more complete temporal and spatial understanding of ecosystems, their evolution, their functions and the services they provide. The primary focus of my research program is on understanding how community structure arises over evolutionary time scales and how functional traits, such as locomotor morphology and dental characteristics, respond.

Heather Dawn Thompson

Heather Dawn is a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Buffalo conservation is in her blood. She is a direct descendant of Mary Good Elk Woman and Frederick Dupree, one of a handful of families credited with saving the last remaining wild buffalo in the 1800s.

Heather Dawn has been a practicing attorney in Indian Country with expertise in Indian law, rural economic development, Indigenous foods and food systems, buffalo conservation, and the intersection of economic development, self-sufficiency, and Indigenous values.

She is currently the Vice President of Native Nations Food Systems and Conservation at World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Recently she served as Director of Tribal Relations at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and briefly as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Indian Affairs in
the Department of Interior (DOI). While at USDA, she helped launch the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiative and the joint USDA-DOI Tribal Buffalo Initiative.

Past roles include serving as the Director of Government Affairs for the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and former President of the National Native American Bar Association. She has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and is known for her TEDx Talk, “Surviving an Invasion & Understanding Your Neighbors”. Heather Dawn is a mediocre but enthusiastic forager and outdoors person and splits her time between South Dakota and Alaska.

Dr. Doug Tolleson

Doug Tolleson, Ph.D., is associate professor and rangeland scientist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research station in Sonora. Prior to his current position, Tolleson was an extension specialist and research scientist at the University of Arizona V Bar V Ranch Experiment Station near Camp Verde, Arizona, from 2008 to 2016. Before obtaining his Ph.D. in 2007, he was director of the Grazingland Animal Nutrition Laboratory in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management. Tolleson conducts research on rangeland vegetation monitoring to inform grazing and fire management efforts and employs near infrared reflectance spectroscopy to study grazing animal nutrition and physiology.

Dr. Phil Urso

Philip Urso grew up on a cow/calf operation in Scurry, Texas and earned his Ph.D. in Animal Science from Texas Tech University. He was previously a professor of wildlife management in Texas before coming to South Dakota State University in 2023. Dr. Urso’s research focuses on establishing mineral and vitamin needs in bison, determining how these nutrients impact animal production, and using nutritional and proper management strategies to impact producer efficiency. He has also led efforts to develop bison specific curriculum and the first bison studies minor and certificate in the nation which is housed at SDSU.

Garrett Weldy

Garrett grew up in Wakarusa, Indiana, on a third-generation small dairy farm. After high school, Garrett attended Purdue University where he majored in Animal Science and Sales and Marketing. During his time at Purdue, he was active in the meat industry serving multiple roles in multiple processing facilities, including quality assurance, continuous improvement, and as the student manager at the Purdue Butcher block. Following his undergraduate degree, he moved to South Dakota State University to pursue his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Animal Science with a focus on Meat Science under the guidance of Dr. Amanda Blair focusing on bison meat quality.