WHO WE ARE

Jeff Shaw
Jeff ShawPresident, Webmaster
Jeff is a third-generation beekeeper who currently manages 60-70 hives and mentors beginning beekeepers. He is passionate about promoting healthy colonies through natural beekeeping practices and sustainable integrated-pest-management techniques. Jeff has worked closely with Burgh Bees since 2009 in various capacities to increase community awareness and support for the organization. Elected to the board in the Fall of 2013, he served serve as teacher, webmaster, community outreach, and most recently apiary director for the Homewood apiary, while managing corporate accounts for our hive leasing and management program, including such start up hives with Whole Foods Market, The Porch at Schenley, an Eat’n Park hospitality group restaurant, and the Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport. Jeff is an avid environmentalist and sustainable business owner. He created and runs SEEDS Green Printing and Design, a green printing and design company located in Pittsburgh that serves clients worldwide.

Kyle Pattison
Kyle PattisonApiary Manager/Director
Kyle says he was drawn to bees for their non-stop work ethic and instinctual know how. He says that he was drawn to the Burgh Bees organization for the same reasons. Kyle is a graduate of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh and when he is not digging in the dirt or attending his hives you may find him banging a drum for the Pittsburgh based Scottish pipe and drum corp. Balmoral Pipes and Drums.
Carlos Trigo
Carlos TrigoVice President
Carlos grew up in Houston, Texas and moved to Pittsburgh in 2013. He lives in Highland Park with his wife Mary and son Diego. Carlos works in the medical IT field supporting EMTs, Firefighters, and other first responders. Fulfilling a childhood fascination, Carlos signed up for the Beekeeping 101 class taught by Burgh Bees and never looked back. He now has bees at the Homewood Community Apiary. As part of Burgh Bees, he has been an active volunteer and enjoys educating the community on the importance of bees. Carlos is also a member of the PA State Beekeepers Association.

Ted Starmack
Ted StarmackTreasurer
Ted started keeping bees in the spring of 2016 at his home in Ellwood City, Pa. with the help of his wife,Jeanne. Ted has always been an avid outdoorsman and fisherman, acting as an Assistant Scout Master during the time his son, Raymond, progressed through the ranks from Tiger cub to Eagle Scout. He also served as a Venture Crew Leader when his daughter, Sadi, became the president of that coed branch of the Boy Scouts of America. He has an undergraduate degree in communications from Clarion State University and an MBA from Duquesne University. He co-owns two businesses: Cat-in-the-bag Co. and StarShine Soaps. He is also Board Secretary/Treasurer for The Allie Foundation, A charity dedicated to providing aid for abused and neglected animals.

Christina Neumann
Christina NeumannDirector
Christina Joy Neumann has been enamored with the diverse world of bees (superfamily apoidea) since the early 2000s. While studying biomimetic design with author Janine Benyus, she was fascinated by the complex relationships pollinators play in providing important ecosystem services as “keystone species”. As a Carnegie Mellon-trained architect with a focus in sustainable design, Christina’s practice focuses on the interconnections between the human structures and the natural environments in which they are built. Her experiences in green architectural design inspires her to forge an ever deepening relationship with bee species, organisms that provide an essential window into the health of ecosystems that support human agriculture and civilization itself. From 2008 to 2009, she gained significant practical knowledge of honey bees and artisanal honey production working full time as a commercial beekeeper on the Big Island of Hawaii for the Volcano Island Honey Company (now Rare Hawaiian Honey Co https://www.rarehawaiianhoney.com ). During her employment with Volcano Island, her contribution focused on implementing an integrated pest management plan for this certified organic apiary. Volcano Island’s highly conscious meditative approach to beekeeping left a deep impact on Christina’s own development as an apiarist and served as an inspiration for apoidea’s principles and practice.

Christina currently manages an non-migratory apiary of 60-80 hives of her own (apoidea apiary http://apoidea-apiary.com ) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her apiary is Certified Naturally Grown ( https://www.cngfarming.org/apiary ) and she is committed to keeping honey bees healthy without reliance on antibiotics, synthetic chemicals, or high fructose corn syrup feed. Since 2005, she has been naturally breeding Northern honeybee stock and also raises mason bees (Osmia lignaria) and leafcutter bees (Megachile rotundata) at her urban apiary. Several honeys crafted at her apiary have won a Good Food Award ( https://goodfoodfdn.org) and she was the 2019 Good Food Awards Honey Category co-chairperson. As a co-founder of Burgh Bees in 2008, Christina played a guiding role in developing landscaping strategy for the pollinator gardens surrounding the Homewood Cooperative Apiary. In addition to managing her own bees at urban and suburban outyards around the City of Pittsburgh, she is the apiary consultant for Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Chatham Eden Hall Farm and Rivendale Farm. Christina gives presentations and conducts design charettes specifically on landscape strategies for increased pollinator forage, particularly incorporating high nectar-yielding tree species. Believing first and foremost that beekeeping should be about practicing awareness, she conducts guided meditations through observation and drawing to refocus the mind and body on the task of caring for the needs of these delicate and ecologically-sensitive creatures.

Paul Martin
Paul MartinNewsletter Editor
Paul is a lifelong resident of the Pittsburgh area. During the late 60’s and early 70’s, Paul spent 4 years in the US Navy as an “Aviation Electronics Technician Petty Officer 2nd class.” He was deployed with his squadron for 3 cruises in Vietnam, 2 on the USS Constellation and 1 on the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carriers. After leaving the Navy He attended Penn State’s ‘School of Forestry”. Paul is a retired landscape contractor of 26 years. After retiring from his landscaping business he spent 5 years working at the non-profit Manchester Bidwell Corporation in the Drew Mathieson Center greenhouses growing orchids and seasonal plants on Pittsburgh’s North Side. His interest in bees began when he and his wife Ruth moved into their present home in 1996 which is 120 year old farmhouse on 8-1/4 acres just 7 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh. Circumstances weren’t right at that time for bees, but the interest was there. Finally, after full retirement, having bees became a reality. Paul and his wife Ruth’s hives at the time of this writing are numbered at 9. In addition to Burgh Bees Paul is also a member of the PA State Beekeepers Association.(PSBA) My goal is to assist Burgh Bees & its members in any way that I can to help new and other beekeepers to be successful in this wonderful hobby.