Olivia M Menard

Olivia M Menard is a UGA Master Beekeeper in Lawrenceville, GA. An Aerospace Engineer by trade, Olivia began keeping bees to practice mindfulness. Bees have since become an integral part of Olivia’s path toward learning about where our food comes from and looking for ways to make her food more local and sustainable.

Olivia shares her passion with adults and children by speaking and creating content for experiences, lessons, and summer camps for all ages related to pollinators. Olivia advises on several different Georgia CTAE, TSA, and 4H boards and projects, and judges at state level events for students including GSPE Math Counts and TSA Leadership Competitions.

In addition to her own hives, Olivia has consulted and led the establishment of native bee habitat and honeybee apiaries at public and private institutions around Northeast Georgia. Most notably, the Hurricane Hives club and honeybee program at Monroe Area High School that brought a teaching apiary to campus and included a year long class attended by 16 students, an internship program with 2 interns each year, and a beekeeping / environmental club with field trips to Stone Mountain to see the variety of bees working the renowned yellow daisies there.

Olivia is a Regional Director with the Georgia Beekeepers Association where she serves on the Legislative Committee. Her local club is The Beekeepers Club of Gwinnett. She loves the opportunity to participate in local bee club Bee Schools where speakers and vendors partner each year to get new beekeepers off on the right foot.

Olivia shares the lessons she's learned through her time with bees and airplanes with others through consulting, writing, speaking, mentoring, and educational program development.