INSTRUCTORS

Dr. Stavros Avramidis is a Professor and Head of the Department of Wood Science at the University of British Columbia (UBC). His teaching and research portfolio covers wood structure and properties as a porous biomaterial and thermal processing, such as kiln drying and heat treatment. Stavros has extensive experience working with local and international industries solving problems related to producing top-quality products.

Dr. Patrick Culbert is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, as well as the Director of Curriculum, in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia. He earned his Ph.D. in Forestry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been on the faculty at UBC since 2016. His research background is in landscape ecology, with interest in spatial patterns of biodiversity, land-use change, and the legacies of agricultural land use.

In his current role, he primarily focuses on teaching and improving undergraduate instruction in the natural sciences. In this context, his pedagogical interests are broad but include applying cognitive science to teaching, innovative teaching techniques, effective use of educational technology, field instruction, and compassion and empathy for students. His essays on teaching have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. He tweets as @pdculbert_ubc and blogs about teaching and learning at Teaching Among Trees.

Terry Haddix took on the role of Operations Manager at Patrick Lumber Company in 2021. She has nearly 30 years of diverse industry experience in wholesale and remanufacturing. In her current position, she is responsible for creating, refining, and documenting processes, training, on-boarding, IT and special projects. Her previous position at PLC was in Business Administration, where her primary objective was to manage all aspects of her Trader's business, allowing them the freedom and flexibility to focus solely on buying and selling lumber.

David Jones, Ph.D, is currently the Director of Treated Wood and Laboratories with Timber Products Inspection. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Forest Resources/Wood Science from the University of Georgia, a Master of Science in Forestry from Stephen F. Austin State University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Forest resource Management from Clemson University. Previously he has worked as an auditor of forest products manufacturing both domestically and abroad, and was an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist at Mississippi State University. David resides in his family home in Hampton, Georgia.

Chris Knowles, Ph.D. assumed the role of Marketing Director at Timber Products. Prior to that, Knowles was a professor at Oregon State University with the Oregon Wood Innovation Center, where he provided technical support to many forest product companies and associations. In addition, he conducted extensive market research on products in both domestic and international markets.

Rémi LaFleche is the Controller for the Dakeryn Group of Companies overseeing all finance and accounting aspects of the business. When not crunching numbers, he spends time finding ways to increase the productivity and profitability of the companies by combining technology with the in-house experience of Dakeryn’s trade floor. Prior to joining the lumber industry, Rémi spent 5 years in banking between Edmonton and Calgary.

Dr. Minghao Li is an associate professor in UBC Wood Science Department. Trained as a structural timber engineer, he is interested in developing high-performance and cost-effective engineered wood products, connections, and building systems via experimental, analytical, and numerical techniques. He is particularly interested in resilient mass timber building design using low-damage technologies. Before joining UBC, he was an associate professor in Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Scott Olsen brings a combination of accomplishment and understanding of business matched with success in training individuals and groups. After completing his undergraduate work in Economics at the University of Washington, Scott has developed innovative training methods throughout his career that produce dramatic increases in productivity and customer satisfaction in a variety of organizations, including WebMD, Yahoo! and Apple. With a combination of skills and knowledge, Scott successfully advances management, leadership, sales, negotiation and interpersonal skills. He tailors each session to the particular needs of the group in which he is involved. Scott founded The Olsen Group in 1999. In addition to training, Scott provides personal career counseling for individuals and corporations.

Dr. Dominik Roeser is currently an Associate Professor in Forest Operations at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Over the past three years he has built a forest operations research program at UBC focusing on supply chain design, forest technology implementation, steep slope harvesting and biomass operations. Before starting at UBC in April 2018, Dr. Roeser was working at FPInnovations where he, as Senior Director, he managed a multidisciplinary team focused on improving the competitiveness of the forest sector and developing practical solutions to improve efficiency of forest operations and reduce the impact of wildfires in Western Canada. Dr. Roeser has more than 20 years of experience in forest research and innovation and has been working with industry to develop solutions that support the emerging bio economy both in Europe and in Canada.