Our Team

Dr. Lisa Gring-Pemble is the co-founder of the Honey Bee Initiative. She is also an associate professor within the Foundations Area at the George Mason University Costello College of Business. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of St. Olaf College, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in rhetoric from the University of Maryland.

Since joining Mason in 2000, she has pursued teaching and research around three main areas: 1) global impact and engagement, 2) argumentation, rhetorical criticism, and persuasion, and 3) political communication and public policy. She is author of Grim Fairy Tales: The Rhetorical Construction of American Welfare Policy and a co-editor of Readings on Political Communication. Her work has appeared in The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Political Communication, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, and Communication Quarterly. Current research focuses on the role of rhetoric and morality in capitalist markets, the role of language in legislation on equal pay and immigration, and the role of business in addressing sustainable development goals and creating positive impact.

Gring-Pemble supports university-wide initiatives that engage students of all majors in social innovation, social enterprise, and entrepreneurship. She is deeply involved with impact and sustainability initiatives as co-founder of the Honey Bee Initiative, member of Mason’s team in the Deans and Directors Cohort of the Global Responsible Leadership Institute (GRLI), a representative of Mason in the Champions Cycle of the Principles of Responsible Management (PRME) Initiative of the UN Global Compact, and Mason’s liaison to Ashoka.

Contact Lisa at: lgringpe@gmu.edu

 

Andrew Garavito is the Beekeeper for the Honey Bee Initiative. He manages the honey bee colonies and engages in a variety of teaching efforts to educate both the Mason community and the general public about honey bees. Prior to joining the Honey Bee Initiative, Garvito was the Apiary Manager for the vanEngelsdorp Bee Lab at the University of Maryland where he managed 200 hives for the various research needs of the Lab. He has a Masters in Entomology where he studied the effects of pesticide exposure via pollen consumption on honey bee health. Garavito is interested in developing sustainable beekeeping practices for the HBI colonies and other beekeepers in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Contact Andrew at: agaravit@gmu.edu

 

We’d like to keep growing our impact and need your support. We need help:
  • Educating students and the community about the interdependence of pollinators and human food sources, and modeling best practices in the management of honey bee hives.
  • Advancing global sustainability initiatives and economic alternatives for underserved regions.
  • Collaborating with public and private groups on improving the Northern Virginia ecosystem and establishing a sustainable business model.

If you think you might want to join our great team of partners, please let us know. Give us a buzz at ciemason@gmu.edu.