Amanda Joerndt
ORLANDO — At PestWorld 2025, general session speaker Elatia Abate got attendees thinking futuristically with her mission to revolutionize leadership to empower humanity in the age of artificial intelligence.
Named a Forbes leading female futurist, Abate is a globally recognized expert on the futures of work and strategy and currently serves as futurist in residence for Paylocity.
Abate said that when it comes to business disruptors, "we can either be captives of our circumstances and ask why this is happening to us, or we can step into the captain's seat and say, given that we're here, what do we want to create?"
The future is not something that one has control over, she added, but it is co-created in every moment of every day.
“You have a choice,” Abate said. “You can sit back and scroll by in your social media feeds," or you can consider making "a total upgrade in leadership and how you change your business.
Instead of asking “What can we do with the resources and knowledge we already have?” she encouraged attendees to ask, “What is the true result we’re looking to create?”—which takes visions and strategies constrained by prior paradigms to open-ended and boundless with possibility, she said.
Change has accelerated and shifted from centuries to seasons to seconds, Abate said, resulting in nearly 76% of the workforce being actively disengaged in their jobs.
“AI is altering everything. It’s not disruptive in one industry, but all industries,” she said. “Leadership is struggling, and there is no future committee coming to help solve this problem.”
These accelerated changes are increasingly transforming the workforce and how we think about our careers. “We are actually inside a window of empowerment to create more opportunities, if we work together and use the technology being built in order to create that impact,” Abate said.
PWIPM Awards. The Professional Women in Pest Management (PWIPM) gathered for morning for breakfast and awards ceremony, sponsored by FieldRoutes, to award two women in pest management the annual Deni Naumann Women in Pest Management Empowerment grant.
The mission of PWIPM is to attract, develop and support women in the pest management industry through educational programs, resources and peer networking, said Jen Fox, director of service delivery, Rentokil Terminix.
The grants, sponsored by Rentokil Terminix, were given to Alyssia Zimmaro of Aardvark Pest Management in Pennsylvania, and Jennifer McIntosh of American Pest, Fulton, Md.
Zimmaro spent ten years teaching in an urban school district before transitioning full-time into her family business. Over the past three years as operations coordinator, she has applied her organizational and leadership skills to modernize and streamline the company’s operations. She will soon be stepping into the role as owner of the company and plans to carry forward the legacy built by her father, Marty Overline.
Zimmaro plans to use the empowerment grant to take a digital marketing course at her local community college and also attend NPMA’s 2026 Academy.
McIntosh began her career in the pest control industry as a technician in 2017, and distinguishing herself as a dedicated servant in her community. By 2021, she advanced to service manager and in 2022, she obtained her certified operator’s license in the state of Georgia and was a recipient of an NPMA Impact Award.
After relocating to Maryland in 2023, she joined American Pest and was promoted to assistant branch manager at the beginning of 2025. McIntosh is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in business administration as well as the associate certified entomologist certification. She plans to use the grant to help in these pursuits.
BOM’s Networking Reception. The Black Ownership Matters (BOM) reception allowed BOM members to network in a space to help grow their businesses. Joe Campbell, president of BOM, said BOM’s goal is to uplift, strengthen, educate and build a sense of community within the pest management industry.
The keynote speaker of the reception, Russel Drake, CEO of Build Black Daily, talked about his mission as an empowerment agency dedicated to building up communities in the economic, social, educational and civic senses through a commitment to supporting black and local businesses daily.
Drake, a speaker, strategist and community advocate, said 70% of black-owned business are struggling and not getting the proper funding needed to grow in the current economic climate.
“We’re not just growing this for ourselves,” he said. “We’re growing it for our future generations; to build an inheritance.”
Drake encouraged members to continue utilizing resources from BOM and other associations in the pest control industry to further business growth.