Meet Our Humans
Jacob Pressley
Co-Owner, Certified Arborist & Consulting Forester
jake@gratefultreesandbees.com
Sustainable arboriculture services and consulting forestry services form the foundation of Grateful Trees and Bees. Jacob Pressley, company owner and founder, has long shared an intimate relationship with trees, planting his first stand of blue spruce (Picea pungens) on his family’s farm at the age of four. Jake is a Registered Forester with the North Carolina State Board of Registration for Foresters; a Certified Arborist with the International Society of Arboriculture; and he carries a bachelor’s degree in forestry from the University of Maine at Orono.
For a decade Jake served as the Orange County Forest Ranger with the North Carolina Forest Service, overseeing the planting of 1.54 million trees and crafting over five hundred management plans to care for 26,577 acres of forests and green spaces. In this capacity he gained experience with a wide variety of landowners and environmental objectives, employing both the techniques of traditional and urban forestry.
Through Grateful Trees & Bees, Jake is able to expand his involvement in land management beyond the planning stage. We work where “the rubber meets the road,” using cutting-edge knowledge as well as tried-and-true arboricultural and forestry practices to actualize and implement plans to insure tree and forest health, whether the prescription is for a single tree or hundreds of acres of timber land.
Jennifer Socey
Co-Owner, Office Manager & Beekeeping Contact
jennifer@gratefultreesandbees.com
Jake’s wife and co-owner, Jennifer, runs the GTB administrative office, wearing many hats including scheduling guru, finance manager, Web site caster, writer and wood yard C.E.O. She is also the point person for GTB’s beekeeping services, custom designed to offer as much or as little support as you need to establish and maintain a healthy hive on your land.
Jennifer holds a master of arts degree in liberal studies from Duke University and a bachelor of arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her background is in academic program management at Duke where she worked in the Biology and Economics Departments from 1997 to 2008. She finished a gig supporting the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Economics in 2016 and she is now engaged at GTB full time.
Pixie Barrows
Certified Beekeeper
pixie@gratefultreesandbees.com
Jake’s mother, Pixie Barrows, is the reason for the “Bees” in our “Grateful Trees and Bees.” Pixie’s grandfather taught her the art of beekeeping. She began passing on the tradition to Jake at an early age. She is doing the same with her grandson, Reid, who first donned the beekeeper’s suit, hat and gloves when he was in Kindergarten. Pixie brings over thirty-five years of experience in working honeybee hives to her position, is a North Carolina Certified Beekeeper and is a member of the North Carolina Beekeeper’s Association as well as the Orange County Beekeeper’s Association.
Dr. Stan Holt
Journeyman Beekeeper
stan@gratefultreesandbees.com
Effective Spring 2018, we are pleased to welcome Stan Holt as a GTB Beekeeper! Stan is moving into his fourth season working with bees and has reached the Journeyman level of the North Carolina State Beekeepers Associations’ Master Beekeeper Program. He manages the apiary at Durham Public Schools Hub Farm and the Durham County Beekeepers’ Club Apiary at Duke Campus Farm.
Stan earned his doctorate in public administration at North Carolina State University in 2014 and holds a master’s of public health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor of science degree from Southwest Missouri State University. He is an Adjunct Faculty member in the Public Administration Department at North Carolina Central University and has over 25 years of experience in non-profit management working with the United Way of the Greater Triangle, Genesis Home, the Piedmont Peace Project, the Institute for Southern Studies and the North Carolina Lesbian and Gay Health Project.