An award-winning writer and seasoned natural products industry veteran—with decades of experience in food and supplement retail, lifestyle mail order and organic home textiles product development—Nutrition Business Journal Content & Insights Director Bill Giebler manages the NBJ business with a keen focus on the what, where and why of the dietary supplement market.

Zach Hedstrom is a long-time fungi enthusiast, mycologist and owner of Boulder Mushroom. He oversees diverse research into innovative applications for using native fungi in an environmental remediation setting and is currently managing research on the use of fungal inoculation as a nature-based tool for wildfire mitigation. Zach believes that the use of fungi in environmental remediation is paramount in addressing large scale global issues with nature-based solutions. Boulder Mushroom is a producer of fresh mushrooms, medicinal mushroom extracts, mushroom spawn, and community education in the field of mycology. Boulder Mushroom partners with government agencies to oversee research utilizing fungi for sustainable land management practices. More information is available at bouldermushroom.com.

Shane Schoolman, CEO and Founder of MyCOLove Farms, received his degree from CU Boulder in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and has been researching mycology from many aspects since 2016. Knowing how to cultivate organic, potent medicine, creating high quality therapeutic extracts and educating, are all a passion of his that he wants to share with budding mycologists. A Core Value of MyCOLove Farms is Education. The mycology space is lacking in medicinal mycology understandng and we feel it’s imperative that we explore this realm to better apply functional mushrooms to our daily lives.

Tom Vara, a mycologist with a profound curiosity for the hidden world of fungi, embarked on his journey of exploration during his years as a student at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he pursued a degree in environmental science.Tom's pioneering work not only expands our understanding of mycology but also underscores the critical importance of fungi in maintaining ecological balance.