Our Keynote Speaker

Donna Maria                   Indie Business Network

Donna Maria is the Founder and CEO of the Indie Business Network (IBN), an entrepreneurial coaching company that also offers affordable insurance and leadership mentoring services to makers and artisan entrepreneurs nationwide. Under her leadership over nearly a quarter century, IBN has been featured in multiple media outlets including Entrepreneur, Working Mother, Black Enterprise, Forbes.com, ABC World News and many others, and has helped thousands of small business owners usher their businesses from kitchen table concept to money making reality. 
Donna Maria is the author of Making Aromatherapy Creams and Lotions and the host of the popular Indie Business Podcast where she has hosted nearly 400 episodes over the years. She is a sought after keynote speaker who lives The Ultimate Trifecta of a joyful life, a profitable business and a meaningful legacy. Her greatest joy is sharing the exact actions she takes and the precise principles she follows to continuously achieve the lifestyle business of her dreams for nearly a quarter century.
Donna Maria lives in her beloved hometown of Washington, DC, where she works with professionals and family members to care for her 96-year old mother. She is a frequent traveler, especially to visit her children who are scholar athletes in universities in North and South Carolina. 

Debrena Gordon

Blue Spring Run Farm

Debrena Gordon and her husband, John, own Blue Spring Run Farm just south of Covington, VA. Over the years, this family farm has evolved from a vegetable farm to an agritourism venue with plantings of herbs, perennials, and lavender for the bees. They manufacture a bath, body, and soap line for their farm and provide wholesale and private-label products for other farms and small businesses. They offer a variety of classes for the public as well as other small business

Allison Vought

AliMar Labs

Allison Vought, a leading figure in the skincare industry, returns as a repeat speaker at the Lavender Conference. As the founder and CEO of Smell No Evil, Ltd. (dba BathBodySupply.com) and Alimar Private Label, Allison is a seasoned Private Label Skincare Expert and Cosmetic Formulator with nearly two decades of experience. Specializing in aiding small businesses and skincare professionals, Allison's passion lies in helping entrepreneurs effortlessly launch their own branded skincare lines. Her dynamic presence at the Lavender Conference promises attendees valuable insights into the art and business of skincare, making her a sought-after authority in the field.

Dr. Steven Jeffers Ph.D. Clemson University

Plant Pathology- Phytophthora specialist 

Professor and Extension Specialist with statewide responsibilities for diseases of ornamental crops in nurseries, greenhouses, and landscapes, and diseases of trees in both urban and natural ecosystems. Research focuses on diseases caused by species of Phytophthora and rust diseases, with emphasis on the biology and ecology of Phytophthora spp., pathogen detection, identifying sources of inoculum, and integrated disease management, including optimizing fungicide applications, manipulating cultural practices, evaluating host plant resistance, and investigating the feasibility of biological control options.

Collaboration with the SC Dept. of Plant Industry, USDA-APHIS, and the USDA Forest Service to keep Phytophthora ramorum out of the Southeastern US and with The American Chestnut Foundation to screen hybrid chestnut seedlings for resistance to Phytophthora cinnamomi. At Clemson University since 1995 after 7 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison working on fruit crop diseases and 3 years in private industry developing biological control products for post harvest diseases. 

Kimberlee Nagel Hodges

Essential Depot

A practicing attorney since 1989, mainly in the areas of Criminal and Family law.  After representing Derek in divorce proceedings from his 2nd wife in 1994 and subsequently marrying him in 2002, Derek began  multiple ventures Derek, one was Essential Depot in 2009.  As Essential Depot grew, Kim's assistance was needed.  In approximately 2012 the legal areas of practice changed to meet the demands of Essential Depot (running including travel to source/verify product), Kim had to cease representing clients in trials and hearings due to her inability to regularly attend court hearings and trials.  Being fired many times by Derek and Kim having quit Essential Depot just as many times (understood by those who know us); Derek finally determined he had no choice but to rehire Kim to run operations (or be subject to the daily bombardment of shopping deliveries).  Those responsibilities cascaded Kim into an entirely new area of legal knowledge for Essential Depot and it's industry which she willingly shares with customers.

Emily Bond Papadopoulos

Mountain Air Farm                        

Emily Bond Papadopoulos started growing lavender on the farm she grew up on in Independence, VA in2019. She has experience as a home gardener, garden club member, and Master Gardener.  Mountain Air Farm is a woman-owned business and a Certified Naturally Grown farm, with no use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, chemicals or GMOs. Emily’s lavender products are all small batch, hand-crafted and made with minimal and recognizable ingredients from nature. Emily is a member of the United States Lavender Growers Association, Virginia Farm Bureau, and the Indie Business Network. She earned a BA in English from Davidson College and a MA in English from North Carolina State University. When not working or farming, she enjoys hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband Paul. 

Jessie  Lee Dean                           

Asheville Tea Company

As I traveled to other parts of the world, I became fascinated by new flavors and the way that they connect us to the places we inhabit. Unique botanicals and teas in particular fully fascinate me. Like drinking Yerba Mate in Argentina, Coca tea in Peru, milky black tea in England, Australia and New Zealand and fresh fruit or cacao and chili infusions in Mexico.                                                                  The mountains of Southern Appalachia around Asheville are so rich with plant life, pristine water, herbal traditions and local small farms. This inspired us to create Asheville Tea Company! We launched with a mission to work directly with farmers right here in the Southeast to celebrate the rich flavors of our mountains in the same way that tea and herbal infusions are enjoyed around the world. We create, blend and produce our craft teas right here in Asheville, NC with an amazing team of passionate folks, infusing love and care into every product. And we now partner with over twelve regional farmers to highlight incredibly fresh local ingredients in every cup of Asheville Tea Company tea.

Russell Bird                        

Lester Insurance

Russell has been in the insurance industry for 25 years. The first 23 years was with Virginia Farm Bureau in Bland County. The last two years he has been with Lester Insurance Group in Wytheville, VA as an independent agent. As a life long insurance agent he has been involved with both farm insurance as well as Agri-Business.
Russell holds LUTCF, FSS, FSCP & CASC designations. He and his wife Jennifer enjoy a work /life balance with their children Finley, 12 years old and Keatley, 10 years old.

Zakia Ringgold

Zakia, a seasoned entrepreneur and digital marketing maven, brings over two decades of expertise in Instructional Design to revolutionize small business owners' digital presence. Launching her entrepreneurial journey with Natural Soap By Zakia, she not only crafted handmade soap but also mastered the intricacies of live streaming and online marketing, setting the stage for her subsequent ventures.

Seamlessly transitioning, she founded the Virtual Experience Design Agency, strategically intertwining live streaming and digital marketing to create compelling online brand experiences for libraries, universities and non-profit organizations. 
Now, with Business Tech Lab, she offers tailored training and solutions to make digital marketing simple and effective for small business owners.  Zakia stands out as a prominent figure at the intersection of entrepreneurship and the dynamic world of digital marketing.

Ellen Reynolds

Beagle Ridge Herb Farm

Ellen opened Beagle Ridge in 2001 and has been specializing in Lavender for over 20 years. She is a recognized speaker at lavender and herb events up and down the East Coast, and is a Charter member of the USLGA serving on several committees over the years.

Beagle Ridge is a thriving Herb and Lavender Farm and agritourism destination  in Wytheville VA. Her passion for teaching other growers has created a thriving workshop series known as Lavender Academy. The academy teaches novice and expert growers how to grow Lavender and grow their lavender business. Since beginning the Lavender Academy in 2019, students from 32 states have come to take these weekend long workshops. Ellen said, “when we began, we never imagined this.” Ellen and Gregg encourage new growers to start small and to know what you like and want to do, before you get in over your head.

Dr. Marc Hight Ph.D

Marc Hight is the Thompson Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities at Hampden-Sydney College. He has spent much of his professional career educating young minds and doing research in fields like metaphysics and the philosophy of religion. He also specializes in the philosophy of political economy with an emphasis on behavioral economics and its implications for marketing. Currently he is a Research Scholar in the Center for the Study of Political Economy at Hampden-Sydney College. Hight has published two books (Idea and Ontology with Penn State University Press in 2007 and The Correspondence of George Berkeley with Cambridge University Press in 2013). His more recent work in political economy includes articles on nudge theory in the Cambridge Journal of Economics (May 2019) and forthcoming work on the history of political economy.