“They eat live insects so I had to find them,” said Keena, who was born in the Los Angeles area but moved at age 4 to Chico and then to Paradise as a teenager. “We fed them any insects we could find, since store-bought were too expensive. We fed them mostly crickets and grasshoppers. I also reared some mealworms at home for the winter.”
An international expert on the biology and behavior of the spongy moth (formerly known as the gypsy moth) and the Asian longhorned beetle, Keena focuses her research on “developing the knowledge and tools needed for exclusion, eradication or control of non-native invasive forest pests and investigating basic biology, behavior, and population genetics,” according to the ESA officials who announced her Honorary Membership.
Keena initially chose to attend UC Davis because of its renowned School of Veterinary Medicine. An entomology course changed her plans. "I had taken a non-majors entomology class and liked it, so I took the first majors course and told myself that if I got an A in it that would be my major. Then I did work study, helping in entomology labs so I was exposed to research. That led me to do the masters to see if research was for me. Obviously, I got hooked on entomology."
Keena holds three degrees in entomology from UC Davis: a bachelor's degree obtained in 1983, a master's, 1985, and a doctorate in 1988. Professor Jeff Granett served as her major professor for both her graduate degrees. A former chair of the department, Granett retired as an emeritus professor in 2006.
At UC Davis, Keena worked on spider mite pesticide resistance management in the almond cropping system. After receiving her doctorate, she headed to Connecticut as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Connecticut. She's served as a research entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service inHamden since 1992 and is now the lead scientist in the lab.
In a letter of support for her Honorary Member nomination, Frank Zalom, UC Davis distinguished professor, president of ESA in 2014, and an Honorary Member of ESA since 2021, said he has known Keena since 1983 when she "became a graduate student at UC Davis." He also served with her on a number of ESA committees.
Zalom wrote that "Melody has served the Eastern Branch as member or chair of at least eight of its committees (in many cases multiple times) over the last 30 years....Melody has also taken top leadership roles in ESA Section governance." She was secretary, vice chair, and chair of Section B from 2005-07, and then past president of its successor, the Integrative Physiological and Molecular Insect Systems Section, which is now the Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology (PBT) Section. She served as PBT Section's elected Governing Board Representative from 2009-11.
Program Co-Chair of 2014 ESA Meeting. "As an active ESA member and volunteer myself during this time," Zalom wrote, "I was impressed with Melody's outstanding leadership and organizational skills as well as, for lack of a better term, her good ideas." After Zalom's election as ESA vice president-elect, he invited her to become Program Committee co-chair for the 2014 ESA Annual Meeting in Portland, Ore. "I will forever be grateful to Melody that she accepted my invitation. Program Chair is one of the most difficult and time-consuming ESA volunteer positions. It is a three-year commitment as organizer for the student paper competition in the first year, the entire program in the second year, and then the poster competition in the third year. Melody did an exceptional job of organization, and she was the perfect complement to Sue Blodgett who was her co-chair."
Zalom pointed out: "Melody proposed and implemented several new ideas that have been adopted by subsequent ESA program committees including a new program category she called ‘organized meetings' that enabled participants in these frequently held ‘meetings-within-a-meeting' to make presentations that would not be counted against the per person presentation limits. Because of the increasing attendance at ESA Annual Meetings (the 2013 and 2014 annual meetings were the most well-attended annual meetings to that time), it was crucial that a limit on author submission be established, but that it be done in a manner sufficiently flexible to accommodate member networking. Melody's superb organizational skills led to new methods for tracking the student competitions that have since become institutionalized. I attribute the success of the 2014 Annual Meeting to Melody and Sue's enthusiasm, great ideas and superior organization of the program."
Excerpts from ESA website:
- "Dr. Keena has been an active member of ESA, the Eastern Branch, and the Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology Section (formerly Section B, Integrative Physiological and Molecular Insect Systems) for 39 years (for the last 5 years also a member of Plant-Insect Ecosystems Section). She has presented, invited, or contributed talks at 34 ESA Annual Meetings and organized four symposia. She was encouraged by a supervisor to get involved in the Society in the early 1990s and has continued to be involved in one or more ways every year since. In the Eastern Branch she has served on and chaired several Branch committees including employment, finance, registration, auditing, resolutions, program, and student competition. She also served as the elected member-at-large on the Eastern Branch Executive Committee. While serving on the student competition committee, she developed improved judging sheets."
- "Her national committee service includes: membership (1997-99, chair last two years), finance (2002-07), program (2007, 2013-2015, co-chair last year), strategic planning (1999), technology (in 2004 helping premiere the first digital presentations and 2016 for the International Congress of Entomology), honors and awards (2009-11), systematic resources (2001-03), and presidential committees. While serving on the membership committee, she successfully presented proposals to start the family and transitional membership categories to the Governing Board. During her years on the finance committee, the Society went through turbulent times dealing with more than one executive director and the sale of ESA's office building to improve its finances. At the very successful 2015 annual meeting, she and her program co-chair developed the concept of organized meetings for groups regularly meeting with ESA and determined that presentations made in these meetings should not count against the conference presentation limit. As student competition co-chairs in 2014, they developed improved methods for tracking the student competitions. At the Section level, Keena was secretary, vice-chair, chair, and past chair of Section B (2005-08) and was subsequently elected as Governing Board representative (2009-11) for the newly named Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology section during the section reorganization."
- "Dr. Keena served as a member and chair of the editorial board for the Journal of Integrated Pest Management (2011-2015), a physiological ecology subject editor for Environmental Entomology (2015–2019), and is currently co-editor-in-chief for Environmental Entomology (2019-present). As co-editor-in-chief of the journal, she has instituted the annual Reviewer's and People's Choice Awards, improved the diversity of the subject editor pool, overseen the creation of the very successful special collection on the spotted lanternfly, developed a new subject area and updated descriptions of the sections, and took the lead in creating an organized meeting for the journal (along with the Journal of Economic Entomology) at the ESA Annual Meetings where the award winners present an invited talk and the co-editors-in-chief can interact with members about the journals."
- "Throughout her career, Dr. Keena has encouraged many members and students to get involved in the Society, including actively participating in the Women in Entomology breakfasts, and she sees this as a critical part of any successful scientist's role in giving back to the Society and passing on the passion for entomology to the next generation."
Honorary Membership acknowledges those who have served ESA for at least 20 years through "significant involvement in the affairs of the society that has reached an extraordinary level," according to the selection criteria. Candidates are selected by the ESA Governing Board and then voted on by the ESA membership.
This year ESA selected three as Honorary Members. In addition to Keena:
- Walter Soares Leal, UC Davis distinguished professor with the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a former chair of the Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology) (See UC Davis news story)
- Research entomologist Alvin Simmons of the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
With the addition of UC Davis distinguished professor Leal, ESA has now singled out six UC Davis faculty members as recipients of its highest award. Distinguished professor Frank Zalom received Honorary Member in 2021; Professor W. Harry Lange (1912-2004) in 1990; Professor and 1984 ESA President Donald MacLean (1928-2014), in 1993; Professor Bruce Eldridge in 1996, and Professor John Edman in 2001.