Melanie Margarita Kirby is an entomologist by education, agroecologist by practice, and a poet at heart.  A registered tribal member of Tortugas Pueblo- a non-federally recognized mestizo indigenous community located in southern New Mexico, Melanie and her familia have been practicing their cultural and traditional beliefs and practices for generations. She is a professional beekeeper and Extension Educator. She began first beekeeping as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer stationed in Paraguay, South America in the late ’90s and fell in awe of the bees. The bees have since taken her around the globe to work with farmers, beekeepers, land stewards, and organizations such as the American Beekeeping Federation, USAID Farmer to Farmer Exchange, SlowFood International, Apimondia World Beekeeping Congress, Fulbright, and National Geographic. She cofounded Zia Queenbees Farm & Field Institute in the southern Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico in 2005, specializing in breeding regionally adaptive bees, pollination services, field research, and outreach. She also serves as the Extension Educator for the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she collaboratively designs programming focusing on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) complemented with western sustainable agriculture science. She enjoys writing (technical and creative non-fiction articles), enjoying the outdoors, and ceramics.