Elmer Gray

Friends of IPM Awards

The mission of the Southern IPM Center is to champion the development and adoption of integrated pest management (IPM), the science of managing pests while protecting people, the environment and economy. Each Regional Center engages broadly with stakeholders to identify and address regional pest priorities in agriculture, communities and natural areas.

Since 2003, the Southern IPM Center (SIPMC) has worked with USDA, Land Grant universities, Extension, and many other partners in promoting and facilitating the development and implementation of IPM in many settings across the region.

Many of these partners have contributed to the region’s well-being for years or even decades.

IPM Communicator Award

The IPM Communicator Award is presented to a professional that effectively communicates about IPM in either a formal or informal setting and actively engages in communication about IPM using either in-person and/or online channels.

Mr. Elmer W. Gray

Elmer Gray, University of Georgia, Extension Specialist

Elmer Gray is a Medical and Veterinary Entomologist and Public Health Extension Specialist at the University of Georgia. As an Extension Specialist, he equips public health professionals and the general public to implement IPM strategies to effectively control medical and veterinary pests.

While Elmer serves all people in the state of Georgia, his primary audience as a Public Health Extension Specialist is the commercial pesticide applicator community. As a commercial pesticide applicator himself, Elmer’s experience informs his communicative efforts to ensure that commercial pesticide applicators are thoroughly prepared to apply IPM approaches to pest control. Elmer readily shares practical knowledge through in-person and virtual training programs for county extension agents and industry professionals. Elmer is frequently requested as a guest speaker for a wide variety of venues, including the Georgia Pest Control Association.

For the past twenty years, Elmer has served as the Cooperative Extension Representative on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Mosquito Control Association (GMCA). In this role, Elmer collaborates with numerous industry professionals, ranging from county mosquito control technicians to the CDC’s head entomologist.

Elmer practically applies insights he gains through professional communication as Cooperative Extension Representative to develop useful educational presentations and programs. His work with programs such as the Chatham County Mosquito Country program, Georgia’s most comprehensive mosquito control program, delivers valuable IPM information to a broad audience across the state of Georgia and the Southern region.

In 2014, Elmer authored a Category 41 manual for Mosquito Biology, Surveillance, and Control. To complement the manual, Elmer created a two-hour training video summarizing its content, which has been viewed over 20,000 times. As a result of his IPM communication efforts, over 1,300 people have obtained licenses in Category 41 and have been trained in the IPM approach to mosquito control. Additionally, Elmer has written ten practical Extension publications to inform his audience about effective IPM approaches to controlling medical and veterinary insect pests.

During his thirty-eight-year career in Extension, Elmer has delivered IPM information to his audience in diverse and accessible ways, including IPM training sessions, self-paced digital short courses, podcasts (such as UGA’s IPM on the Fly), and media interviews.

His podcasts have been particularly popular with general audiences, with one listener commenting, “Absolutely awesome! Great info for the general public and expressed in a way that is easily understandable to everyone.”

A knowledgeable and captivating interviewee, Elmer regularly promotes IPM approaches to controlling medical and veterinary pests through local and national media outlets such as USA TODAY, the Weather Channel, and Georgia Public Broadcasting. Elmer maintains close relationships with local journalists and news reporters in Georgia to provide annual mosquito updates.

Through Extension publications, presentations, and media interviews, Elmer’s educational efforts concerning mosquito management and medical entomology have reached over 523 million people.

2024 Professional Awardees

IPM Hall of Fame: Dr. Gene Reagan* (posthumous award), LSU AgCenter
IPM Hall of Fame: Dr. Phillip Kaufman, Texas A&M
IPM Hall of Fame: Dr. Brian T. Forschler, University of Georgia
IPM Hall of Fame: Dr. Jawwad Qureshi, University of Florida
Pulling Together: Emerging Viruses in Cucurbits Working Group
- Led by Dr. Rebecca Melanson, Mississippi State & William (Bill) M Wintermantel, USDA-ARS
IPM Communicator: Mr. Elmer W. Gray, University of Georgia
IPM Educator: Dr. Cameron Jack, University of Florida
IPM Implementer: Mr. Dan Killingsworth, Environmental Security Pest Control
Future Leader: Dr. Tommy Butts, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture