Champaign, IL (May 31, 2023) - The American Dairy Science Association® (ADSA), the international organization of educators, scientists, and industry representatives who are committed to advancing the dairy industry, recently elected new leaders for the organization's 2023–2024 term.
Voted into office by their membership peers in ADSA, these new board members will be working to advance ADSA’s mission, deliver on its strategic plan, and ultimately provide value to all members.
Michael VandeHaar, PhD, a professor in Michigan State University’s Department of Animal Science was elected to the office of vice president for a one-year term. Phil Cardoso, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was elected Production Division director. Nicole Martin, PhD, who is an assistant research professor and the associate director of the Milk Quality Improvement Program in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University, was elected Dairy Foods Division director. Both Cardoso and Martin will serve three-year terms in their new roles with ADSA.
ADSA congratulates VandeHaar, Cardoso, and Martin and looks forward to welcoming them into their new positions at the ADSA annual meeting this June. They were selected from an incredible group of qualified candidates, and ADSA’s staff and leadership wish to extend warm thanks to those who came forward to serve the association, and to the members who cast their votes.
Learn more about ADSA’s new leaders in the following, and see ADSA’s full Board of Directors here.
Michael VandeHaar, ADSA Vice President
Mike VandeHaar grew up on a dairy farm near Pella, Iowa, attended Dordt College in northwest Iowa to study biology, and attended Iowa State University for MS and PhD degrees in nutritional physiology. He joined the faculty at Michigan State University in 1988.
VandeHaar has been a member of ADSA since 1982 and believes that ADSA and its annual meeting were instrumental in his career. He served on the Journal of Dairy Science Editorial Board, the Production Division Council, the Board of Directors from 2018 to 2021, and as chair of the Overall Program Committee for the 2019, 2020, and 2021 annual meetings.
VandeHaar’s research goal is to improve dairy feed efficiency, and he has led a large collaborative project to develop genomic selection tools for feed efficiency for the past 12 years. This resulted in the inclusion of a new trait “Feed Saved” in the US Net Merit Index in 2021 at a 21% weighting. VandeHaar finds great satisfaction knowing that his research is helping farmers produce quality food for people in a sustainable manner and that his teaching and mentorship are helping young people learn and gain confidence to be future leaders.
Phil Cardoso, ADSA Director—Dairy Production Division
Phil Cardoso is an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his DVM and MS degrees from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and his PhD from the University of Illinois. Since 2012, Cardoso has established a unique program and online presence that seamlessly blends his teaching, extension, and research efforts. Cardoso’s Dairy Science program places students in applied positions and academia. He and his students have published over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts (original research and invited reviews) and 3 invited book chapters to date.
Cardoso currently teaches an online course on dairy nutrition and diet formulation that has enrolled over 70 students from more than 15 countries. His program is built from questions from dairy producers and focuses on the dairy cow’s diet as a medical prescription for improved performance, health, and fertility. Cardoso is a past president of the ADSA Midwest Section board of directors and was a member and chair of the Journal of Dairy Science Management Committee. He is currently the chair of the ADSA Foundation Scholar Awards Selection Committee.
Nicole Martin, ADSA Director—Dairy Foods Division
Nicole Martin is an assistant research professor and the associate director of the Milk Quality Improvement Program in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Martin grew up in beautiful New York State, where she began a lifelong love of dairy by working on a local dairy farm. She received her BS, MS, and PhD degrees in food science from Cornell University, with minors in microbiology and animal science.
Martin’s research interests take a holistic approach to dairy product quality and safety, with the mindset that providing consumers with high-quality dairy products must start at the farm and be a priority throughout processing, distribution, and retail. In particular, Martin is interested in the transmission of dairy-associated spoilage organisms from environmental niches into raw and processed dairy products, strategies to reduce or eliminate this transmission, the implications of spoilage organisms on finished product, and the development of practical, industry-relevant methods of detection.
Martin was awarded the ADSA Foundation Scholar Award in Dairy Foods in 2019 and currently serves as the chair of the ADSA Dairy Foods Division and as a section editor for the Journal of Dairy Science.
ABOUT ADSA
ADSA is an international organization of educators, scientists, and industry representatives who are committed to advancing the dairy industry and keenly aware of the vital role the dairy sciences play in fulfilling the economic, nutritive, and health requirements of the world's population. It provides leadership in scientific and technical support to sustain and grow the global dairy industry through generation, dissemination, and exchange of information and services. Together, ADSA members have discovered new methods and technologies that have revolutionized the dairy industry. Learn more about the benefits of membership with ADSA.