2025 EAPK Symposium Speaker Lineup
Gregg Rentfrow Ph.D., M.S., B.S. - University of Kentucky
Dr. Gregg Rentfrow grew up in the farming community of Shelbyville, IL, where he was active in 4-H and FFA and learned to cut meat at a local grocery store. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Animal Science and Meat Science, respectively from the University of Illinois. At the University of Missouri, he earned his Ph.D. in Meat Science and Muscle Biology, while coaching the meats judging team and serving as the interim meat lab manager and as meat specialist for the Commercial Ag Program. He joined the University of Kentucky as the Extension Meats Specialist in 2006, with an extension/teaching appointment. Dr. Rentfrow received the university’s highest extension award, the M.D. Whiteker Award for Extension Excellence, in 2017. He lives in northern Madison County, Kentucky with his wife, Sheila, and their daughter, Brooke.
Wesley Adams – Co-owner Bare Bones Butcher
Wesley Adams started working in restaurants to pay the bills while in college at Louisiana State University. So he went to work at Maxwell’s Market, where the owner, Ross Barclay, passed on his butchery expertise. Adams later became a manager of Maxwell’s and started a catering business. They ran the business together for over a year, but with most of his life spent in Louisiana, Adams needed a change. He moved to Nashville for a role at Porter Road Butcher in 2014, where he met his future business partner, Patrick Davidson. Both co-managers at Porter Road Butcher, Adams and Davidson shared the same dream—to open their own community-driven, neighborhood meat market. When the Porter Road brick and mortar closed in 2016, the duo joined forces to open Bare Bones Butcher, a whole animal butcher shop that supplies cuts from local farms and sandwiches made from their house-cured meats. Together they’ve built a comprehensive training program to help bring up the next generation of young butchers.
Dr. Andrew Weaver, Ph.D., M.S., B.S. – North Caroline State University
Dr. Andrew Weaver works at NC State University as an Assistant Professor and Extension Small Ruminant Specialist. Dr. Weaver grew up in central Michigan and was active in 4-H youth livestock programs. He attended Michigan State University majoring in Animal Science. While at Michigan State University, Andrew was a member of the 2012 Meat Judging Team and worked at the Sheep Teaching and Research Farm. He completed his M.S. at Virginia Tech studying terminal sire options for hair sheep producers. That research led him to West Virginia University where he completed his Ph.D. in Dr. Scott Bowdridge’s parasite immunology lab. His research and extension interests focus on utilization of genetic tools and management practices to improve parasite resistance, performance, and end-product value of small ruminants in the Southeast US.
Scott Bowdridge, Ph.D., M.S., B.S. – West Virginia University
Dr. Bowdrige is the Program Coordinator of Animal and Nutritional Sciences and a Professor of Food and Animal Production at West Virginia University. Dr. Bowdridge’s research interests are centered around improving small ruminant production. His basic research program is focused on identifying immune mechanisms necessary to clear helminth parasite infection using parasite-resistant St. Croix sheep as a model. To better translate this basic research in an applied setting his lab has recently acquired a flock of Texel sheep to determine differential immune response to Haemonchus contortus, demonstrate how these sheep may be used in crossbreeding systems interested in maintaining parasite resistance and the establishment of a fecal egg count EBV for the Texel breed in the US. Additionally, Dr. Bowdridge works with a team of faculty across the School of Food and Agriculture to evaluate grazing practices that will reduce the impact of gastrointestinal parasitism of grazing livestock.
Dr. Joan Burke, Ph.D., M.S., B.S. – USDA, Agricultural Research Service
Dr. Joan Burke is a Research Animal Scientist with the USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center in Booneville, Arkansas. She received a Ph.D. in reproductive biology at Oregon State University, a Master’s in animal science from the University of Maine and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. Dr. Burke has been with ARS since 1999 where she has conducted research on the control of gastrointestinal nematodes in sheep and goats. Her program focuses on addressing problems of small and mid-size farmers including: organic and grass-fed production systems for ruminant livestock, alternatives to synthetic anthelmintics which includes specialty forages, genetic and genomic selection for parasite resistant animals that are also great producers, nutrition and products such as copper oxide wire particles. She was co-recipient of a patent on the use of sericea lespedeza to control parasites in animals, and her team received the 2016 Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer, and the 2015 ARS Southeast Area Technology Transfer Award for the development of technology to aid in the control of internal parasites in sheep and goats. She works closely with producers conducting research and disseminating results. She is one of the founding members of the American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control, which began in 2001.
Chris Fletcher, D.V.M., B.S. – Virginia Department of Agriculture
Dr. Fletcher completed a B.S. from Virginia Tech in Animal and Poultry Science and his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine in 2007 from St. George’s University. He came back to his hometown and was part owner in a private large animal mobile vet practice for 16 years. During this time, he had a strong emphasis on small ruminant medicine and surgery. Recently, he has taken a position with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as the Regional Veterinary Supervisor. In his current role, he has the pleasure of helping other veterinarians and producers with outreach education. He also is involved with collecting samples for the National Scrapie Eradication Program and for the 2024 NAHMS sheep study. Beyond his professional endeavors, Dr. Fletcher and his wife Mandy, operate a NSIP flock of seedstock Katahdins.
