Protecting consumers by building strong food safety cultures
Each year, beginning summer 2023, the Alliance highlights rising stars who are revolutionizing the field of food safety and leaving an enduring impact on the industry, academia, or the regulatory realm.
If you would like to nominate a food safety professional for our next round, be on the lookout for announcements on LinkedIn in June 2024. When nominating, be sure to include: a brief bio, their accomplishments, leadership qualities, and the positive impact they have made. Emphasize the nominee’s potential for future growth, their contributions to food safety culture, and their ability to inspire others.
We look forward to featuring more professionals in the years to come!
In the inaugural year of our 40-Under-40, we were thrilled to have representation from 7 countries and 15 states in the U.S. These featured professionals come from across industry, regulatory agencies, journalism, independent consulting, and academia, all serving the cause of food safety.
Aaron Bodie, PhD, is currently a food safety consultant and has been working as a food safety professional for eight years. He first started as a lab assistant at University of Arkansas’s Center for Food Safety. He continued his career as a graduate research assistant under Dr. Steven Ricke at the University of Arkansas and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Through this and other research, Dr. Bodie has published literature on rice byproducts, Listeria, and Campylobacter.
As a consultant, Aaron helps smaller manufacturers produce safe food and maintain GFSI standards. He works with hundreds of processing facilities to meet regulatory standards. He communicates with food safety professionals in many levels and functions, including those with “boots on the ground” and in research. He is an avid writer for Frontline Data Solutions’ food safety blog and is the face of viral food safety videos under the pseudonym “Dr. Micro Food Safety” on social media, engaging audiences in the food safety goings-on in the world.
Ada Omekam is a quality assurance professional who promotes collaboration and cross-functionality to streamline food safety processes. She holds a BS from the University of Georgia in Agriculture, Food Science. She has worked at Inspire Brands for nearly five years, beginning as a supplier quality specialist and quality assurance systems analyst before entering her current role as a senior quality assurance systems analyst.
In this position, she has worked with internal and external partners to create specifications and drive decision making around supplier quality and supply chain initiatives. She has streamlined systems to standardize supplier audits and has developed key performance indicators (KPIs) for supplier processes. She has taken the lead in investigations, corrective actions, and issue reports, emphasizing accountability across the company and suppliers. Her relationship-building with both internal and external teams, her drive to create better systems to support safety and quality, and her focus on data-driven decision making have helped Inspire Brands in their journey of continuous improvement.
Ashley Lehl is a business analyst for the Global Food Safety and Quality Assurance group at JBS USA. She holds an Associates of Science degree from Front Range Community College. She is a passionate advocate for food safety and has extensive technical and business expertise in the field. Ashley has worked with one of the world’s leading food companies for seven years helping develop and implement innovative strategies for food safety and quality assurance.
Most recently, she is co-leading the food safety culture initiatives at JBS around the world, working with many different cultures, companies, and levels of food safety culture maturity. Ashley is also an active member of various food safety and quality committees on behalf of JBS, including the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness and American Meat Science Association’s Reciprocal Meat Conference. Ashley is committed to ensuring the highest standards for food safety and quality assurance on a global scale and is dedicated to making a difference in the food industry.
Becky Unwer is a food scientist who has held multiple roles across the food industry. She received a BS in Food Science and Human Nutrition from University of Florida and an MS in Management Information Systems from the University of South Florida. She has, throughout her career, held roles on the supplier side, within a certification body, and in food service, giving her a unique perspective of the food safety continuum. In her current role as Senior Manager II on the Supplier Food Safety team, Becky focuses on food safety for fresh and frozen produce. She has also covered many categories from pet food to grocery to frozen foods.
During her time at Walmart, she has skillfully handled food safety emergencies, trained and mentored others in emergency management, and worked alongside suppliers and merchant operations. She works with suppliers and partners, evaluating their processes and developing food safety acumen and capabilities. She has led projects related to antibiotics in pet food and controlled environment agriculture, collaborating with companies and professional organizations beyond Walmart, including the Center for Produce Safety, the International Association for Food Protection, and the Leafy Greens Safety Coalition. Her passion, openness, and “big picture” perspective inspire others to action in the name of food safety and to protect all within the interconnected world of food.
Beth Wittry earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Environmental Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008 and a Master of Public Health degree from San Diego State University in 2010. Following this, Beth worked with the Indian Health Service (IHS) as a Service Unit Sanitarian. She later joined the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) as an Environmental Health Officer and continued to work with the IHS through 2013. While at IHS, Beth worked diligently to improve the tribe’s health; her work included leading a multi-agency investigation of a norovirus outbreak that affected 135 people. She joined CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) in 2013; this program provides public health inspections and outbreak investigations for cruise ships. In this position, Beth conducted 260 cruise ship inspections, served as an expert on food safety code interpretation for VSP staff, and taught 100 food safety courses to cruise industry management.
Beth is considered an outstanding instructor and excels at making complex materials understandable. She also led investigations of 5 shipboard outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness. In 2017, based on her extensive skills and experience, she was selected to join CDC’s Safe Food Section (SFS), where she serves as a retail food safety subject matter expert. In this role, she leads food safety research projects, develops national food safety guidance and training for health department staff, and analyzes and interprets foodborne outbreak data. She has also taken on leadership roles in national workgroups, including one that improved guidance for outbreak investigators, and one focused on the AFDO Healthy People 2030 initiative to reduce foodborne illness.
Boris Bolshchikov, PhD, is the Head of Food Safety Research and the Global Food Safety Center (GFSC) at Mars Incorporated. He leads a team of food safety scientists and capability-building experts dedicated to capturing and translating new knowledge and scientific insights into novel technical solutions and practical capabilities. Boris holds a Master’s and PhD in Chemistry from the Russian Academy of Science and Moscow State University, specializing in synthetic and computational approaches in macromolecular drug design. He joined Mars in 2011 and has since held various leadership roles in Innovation, R&D, Quality and Commercial across Russia, Eurasia, and Asia.
Throughout his career at Mars, he has helped build supply chain resilience against global food safety challenges. Before the GFSC this involved mitigating microbial and food integrity risks by fostering a quality culture, sharing knowledge, and enhancing technological capabilities in Asia and Eastern Europe. These efforts spanned supply chains such as cocoa in Indonesia and dairy in the CIS region. Under Boris’s leadership, the GFSC continues to be vision driven enabling safe food for all through a pre-competitive approach and collaborative culture. He and his team proactively share advancements in science and technology, helping to build food safety capabilities in Global Supply Chains through training and sharing best practices.
Britanny Saunier is the Executive Director of the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE). She earned her MPA with a health policy focus from the School of Public Affairs at the American University in Washington, DC. Her passion for preventing foodborne illness brought her to PFSE as an intern in 2011. Britanny previously served as the PFSE Director of Development, successfully increasing program service revenue and bringing diversification to the Partner network. She facilitated program engagement with consumer and academic food safety experts and supported PFSE programs, including the national Consumer Food Safety Education Conference.
In her current role as Executive Director, Britanny focuses on leveraging the Partnership’s historical leadership in cross-sector collaboration and ensuring organizational effectiveness to realize its mission to develop and promote effective education programs to reduce foodborne illness risk for consumers. Bringing together the public and private sectors to collaboratively influence positive health outcomes is what sparks her joy.
Callin Godson-Green is an experienced auditor, advisor, trainer and food safety manager with The Food Safety Company of Ireland. She earned an undergraduate degree from Technological University Dublin in Food Innovation, followed by a Master of Science from the same institute in Food Safety Management. Her Master’s thesis entitled “Would you like flies with that?” specifically examined consumer perceptions of food safety in the United States and Europe and how common safety preconceptions could be changed through promotion of positive food safety culture in all aspects, not just within the food industry.
Callin is a safety-driven individual who has experience across the globe, assisting in a variety of sectors ranging from primary production and manufacturing to restaurants and grocery. In her current role, she works on translating food safety legislation and best practices for those outside of the industry, in order to help them understand how their products can promote positive food safety. She also trains businesses on their relative jurisdictional requirements, amplifying how technology can promote best practices and go above and beyond with food safety.
Eric Moorman, PhD, is the Corporate Manager of Food Safety and Scientific Affairs at Butterball. Prior to working at Butterball, Eric completed his MS in Food and Environmental Virology and a PhD in Food Safety Microbiology at North Carolina State University. In his current role, Eric supports Butterball’s manufacturing plants by responding to issues related to microbiological process control, sanitation, and environmental monitoring. He also investigates new technologies that can be used for the detection, prevention, and control of foodborne pathogens, both within manufacturing plants and on farms.
Eric is active in multiple food safety professional groups. He is a board member of the Educational Advisory Board for the Food Safety Summit, co-developing and presenting in Summit sessions on sanitation and organizing a session on proposed regulatory changes and intervention strategies for Salmonella in poultry. In addition to this board position, Eric is the recently elected Secretary on the Food Hygiene and Sanitation Professional Development Group for the International Association for Food Protection.
Georgina Cuckston, PhD, is a highly skilled and experienced science communicator with a proven track record of success driving the conversation around food safety, helping build food safety cultures. She holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, where her research focused on the development of new test methods for determining detergent mechanisms when cleaning food soils. She also has a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of York.
Currently a science communications manager at Mars, Georgina is responsible for developing and delivering science communication strategies for the Global Food Safety Center (GFSC), a pre-competitive research center focused on ensuring access to safe food for all. She has over 10 years of experience in science and science communication, with a focus on chemistry, chemical engineering, and food safety. Using all of this experience, Georgina has developed and delivered science communication strategies for global food manufacturers, including driving communications strategy for communication of pre-competitive food safety research.
Hager Shalaby is an independent researcher specializing in food safety systems and public policy. She is a fellow at the American University in Cairo and just completed her thesis on policy implementation challenges of food fraud prevention in Egypt. She collaborated with professors to conduct exceptionally well-researched research on the evaluation of the microbiological quality of milk from different sources in Egypt, which contributed to the identification of potential health hazards and the development of strategies for improving milk safety and public health. Hager has an extensive background and professional experience in food safety and quality management, working with diverse teams across different levels of organizations, including the National Food Safety Authority (NFSA) in Egypt.
Within a short time after joining NFSA, she embarked on studying public policy at the American University in Cairo, forging collaborations with prominent scientists and acquiring in-depth research expertise and familiarity in broad areas of food safety policies. Hager has a proven record of leading project collaboration under challenging, fast-paced environments and guiding cross-functional partners at NFSA. This was achieved by providing technical support for implementing food safety and quality programs and projects. She provided valuable input for technical documents, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and relevance while working as a food safety auditor at NFSA. Furthermore, she contributed to the implementation of food safety risk management. She also contributed to developing capacity building for food safety and quality, including auditors at NFSA.
Joe Whitworth is a journalist specializing in food safety and quality and holds a journalism degree from the University of Central Lancashire. After graduating, he worked on newspapers in Australia, as an editor for William Reed Business Media and as a reporter for Food Navigator. He now works for Food Safety News where, as a dedicated staff writer, he has been instrumental in raising awareness and understanding of critical food safety issues, empowering individuals and organizations with the knowledge they need to safeguard public health. His deep understanding of the subject matter, combined with his exceptional storytelling skills, has allowed him to effectively communicate complex concepts to diverse audiences, fostering a stronger culture of food safety in the process.
Beyond his journalistic contributions, Joe has actively participated in industry events to foster dialogue and collaboration. His moderation of sessions at Food Ingredients Europe in 2015 and The Ingredients Show in 2018 exemplify his commitment to knowledge sharing and promoting best practices within the food safety community. By facilitating meaningful discussions among industry professionals, he has been a catalyst for positive change, propelling the industry forward and inspiring others to prioritize food safety.
Jonael Vergara is a determined and dependable food safety professional with many years of work experience in the food and beverage manufacturing industry. He holds a BS in agricultural engineering, and most of his experience focuses on the production of coconut food products packed in bulk and retail sizes, such as desiccated coconut, coconut milk, and other coconut beverages.
He has a proven track record for leading the AHYA Coco Organic Food Manufacturing Corporation, Millennium Specialty Coconut Products Inc., Franklin Baker Incorporated, and Franklin Baker Company of the Philippines successfully including cGMP, HACCP, and BRCGS Food Safety; sustainability certifications including Organic, Fair Trade, and RSB; and product claims certification like halal and kosher. He has also facilitated the development, implementation and continuous improvement of comprehensive food safety and quality management system programs, including food safety culture, internal audits, root cause analysis, and corrective actions. He has been a valuable resource for training sessions at the organization, speaking on quality and food safety and working to establish a supportive environment for productivity, food safety, quality, and safety.
Julian Graham is a dedicated safety specialist at Sodexo Live! having been on the team since 2012. With 23 years of experience in the food service industry, Julian’s unwavering commitment to food safety is evident through implementing initiatives like the Health Ambassador program and translating evolving science into actionable operational objectives. His active involvement in professional organizations, including the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), and Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO), demonstrates his continuous pursuit of learning and professional growth.
With a strong foundation in leadership and operations, Julian has held various roles throughout his career, including Director of Retail Hospitality. Julian’s dedication to inspiring team excellence, increasing professional engagement, and creating a harmonious work environment has positively impacted food safety culture. His commitment to driving a zero-harm culture ambition showcases his proactive approach to prioritizing safety and continuously improving protocols.
Karina Falcone is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian in Florida working with the University of South Florida’s Dining Services for nearly three years. She attended Florida International University and received her BS in Physics and her MS in Dietetics and Nutrition. In her role in Dining Services, she has excelled in food safety, earning certifications for ServSafe Manager and AllerTrain Manager. She is the allergen champion on campus and is the go-to resource for allergies, accommodations, and preventing cross-contact.
Karina spends most of her days in the dining halls educating staff on the importance of food safety and eliminating cross-contact and cross-contamination. She has built relationships with staff across all four dining halls and two campuses who see her as an expert in the field. She goes above and beyond to ensure each team member truly understands the importance of the “why” behind each food safety practice and how it can affect guests when something goes wrong.
Katherine Clayton, PhD, is the CEO of OmniVis, a company dedicated to developing easy-to-use platforms to detect food borne pathogens. She is passionate about proactive approaches in food and health – seeing how early detection in food and the environment can prevent food waste and protect public health. Born and raised in San Francisco, she had an uncle pass from a dangerous infectious disease, declaring one day she’d “cure the world of all diseases.” Katherine obtained a BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. In that time, she developed a love for infectious disease diagnostics and researched a new and novel technology that she later spun off into OmniVis.
Katherine wants to make testing accessible. She’s worked with stakeholders worldwide from different education and language backgrounds, integrating their feedback into the products OmniVis makes today. Implementing user-centered design into product development makes OmniVis’ technology intuitive. Katherine’s dedication to food safety and diagnostics is reflected in the 14 grants she’s been awarded, entrepreneurship awards, mentorship of students, and features in major news outlets such as NPR and Entrepreneur Magazine.
Lauren Edwards is the Rapid Response Team Epidemiologist with both the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). Her role is to act as a liaison between the state food regulatory agency and the state and local public health departments during foodborne outbreak investigations, and she fills that position with great enthusiasm. She began her role as an enteric disease intern in 2018 with the MDHHS and fell in love with the field of enteric epidemiology and solving foodborne outbreaks.
In the years since, she has been involved in and helped to solve multiple foodborne illnesses outbreaks, has presented regionally and nationally, contributed to the literature, become a known entity among federal, state, and local colleagues, and has become a valued resource not just within the food program, but the entire Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Her skills and abilities have made her a highly valued contributor to Michigan’s Rapid Response Team, and a trusted collaborator and colleague for many people in federal, state, and local agencies, from both those with decades of experience and the students finding their way into public health. She proactively took part in the Great Lakes Leadership Academy to build her skills in leadership, management, and public policy development. Lauren has also completed Michigan State University’s Great Lakes Leadership Academy.
Lily Yang, PhD, is Senior Manager of Food Safety at The Acheson Group (TAG). Dr. Yang holds a PhD in Food Science and Technology from Virginia Tech and has published extensively on topics such as food safety markets and consumer attitudes. Her research at Virginia Tech, working alongside Virginia Cooperative Extension and the International Food Information Council Foundation, developed risk communication toolkits and interventions to improve food safety culture and promote new technologies. With previous expertise in mixed-methods research, she has converted and incorporated qualitative and quantitative knowledge into real-life applications through the food, beverage, and cannabis industries. At TAG, her leadership and industry knowledge focuses on diverse audiences to support food safety culture and food safety practices both at work and at home.
Her current work finds her collaborating alongside clients to support practical and co-developed food safety solutions focused on mitigating operational, regulatory, and reputational risk in the manufacturing, retail, and new innovation/technologies spaces. Fluent in multiple languages, her work and training activities focus on effective communication to diverse audiences and stakeholders to meet them where they are. In her spare time, she co-runs the pseudoscience debunking social media AcademicFoodiez with her friend Dr. Nicole Arnold. The two seek to collaborate with other food safety, nutrition, and medical professionals to dispel food safety pseudoscience and increase consumer awareness.
Lindsey Ferraro is an epidemiology professional with a passion for foodborne illness containment and response. Lindsey completed a Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) Applied Epidemiology Fellowship at the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) with a concentration in foodborne and enteric diseases, while concurrently completing a graduate certificate in food safety from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. As a fellow, Lindsey led multiple projects which contributed significantly to the advancement of TDH’s Foodborne and Enteric Diseases (FED) program, including a comprehensive evaluation of the surveillance of Cyclospora cayetanensis. Lindsey also conducted an extensive evaluation of Yersiniosis surveillance trends from 2010 to 2020.
In her work with TDH, she has contributed to outbreak investigations within the state of Tennessee and has worked extensively on the state of Tennessee’s public facing complaint system which will be used to stop foodborne illnesses in real time. Lindsey maintains professional conduct with owners and operators during site visits in which she seeks to provide educational guidance, which is impactful in creating a lasting food safety culture in restaurants and other food service establishments. Her positive attitude throughout this program and her willingness to continue to learn and grow are inspirational to the TDH team.
Loron Pinnock Brown, PhD, is a dedicated Food Safety and Quality Professional with over 12 years of experience. Her passion for food science and its impact on health drove her to pursue a PhD in Animal Sciences, researching produce safety and the Leafy Green Value Chain. Loron has worked across diverse sectors including local government, food manufacturing, and agriculture, working on regulatory compliance, microbiology, food technology, and quality assurance. In each role, she has implemented and maintained robust food safety management systems, conducted comprehensive risk assessments, and delivered training. She applies her analytical skills to identify risks and devise effective mitigation strategies.
In her current role, she is also a communicator and leader, building and managing cross-functional teams and fostering a culture of collaboration and accountability. Her relationship-building approach has established trust between her and her colleagues, clients, and regulators. In addition, Loron actively participates in workshops, conferences, and training programs, demonstrating her commitment to continuous improvement. Her goal is to keep herself and her teams adaptable and dedicated to innovative solutions that raise the bar for food safety standards.
Maria is a passionate, professional, and rigorous food safety and quality expert, well-experienced and educated in executing a culture of food safety excellence. She earned her MS in Food Safety while supervising and leading a team of 15 quality assurance specialists at Agropur. Here, Maria continued to orchestrate systematic process improvement to reduce spoilage, eliminate microbial contamination contributors, and standardize site-wide training in microbiology, foodborne illness, and food safety. She launched her career at Mead Johnson Nutrition as a lab analyst where she quickly earned trust from management and her team as a leader. Her contribution to food safety has boomed since 2021 when she became the Food Safety Quality Assurance Manager, then Supplier Quality Manager at Hudsonville Ice Cream, responsible for ensuring safety and quality of multiple national ice cream brands.
At Hudsonville, she’s improved quality policies and execution, sourced and implemented a company-wide supplier management platform, and improved supplier quality and accountability through innovative scorecards, auditing programs, and automated workflows. One example of Maria’s commitment to food safety culture is her launch of “Brilliant at the Basics,” an employee engagement initiative paired with food safety awareness training for her former staff at Agropur. This initiative created new, self-sustaining common language and accountability within her team that radiated across upstream and downstream departments. Examples like this are present in any challenge Maria accepts.
Mary Yavelak is a food safety extension associate with a passion for designing, implementing, and evaluating food safety programs grounded in educational psychology models. She holds a BS in Food Science with a minor in Microbiology and an MS in Food Science with a minor in Psychology, both from North Carolina State University. In her current role as the Retail Program Coordinator with the Safe Plates team at NC State University, Mary is responsible for developing technical food safety curricula related to retail settings, as well as coordinating in-person and virtual trainings to promote positive food safety culture.
Additionally, she creates educational graphics to engage non-technical audiences, many of which have made significant contributions to the Safe Plates Food Safety Information Center which uses social media as a food safety education tool. Beyond her professional work, Mary actively participates in the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) and the Conference for Food Protection (CFP). Her strong foundation in food science, combined with expertise in educational methodologies and communication, enables her to champion food safety messaging across diverse audiences.
Monica Khoury is a quality expert at Nestlé USA who has demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication to promoting a strong food safety culture. Her passion for this important work was ignited during her studies with Frank Yiannas, and she has continued to focus on culture as a key factor in the fight against foodborne illness. She earned a master’s in food safety and a bachelor’s in animal science from Michigan State University.
Monica’s experience in quality and regulatory affairs is extensive, having worked in meat, ready-to-eat desserts, and sugar confections facilities and supported a wide variety of businesses through her corporate quality and regulatory roles. Monica has taken on the leadership of the food safety culture workstream, in addition to her responsibilities for allergen management expertise and supporting several factories. She has engaged employees in events such as Food Allergy Awareness Week and World Food Safety Day and implemented a recognition program focused on safety and food safety behaviors. Her efforts have helped to create a culture of safety and awareness throughout the organization. Monica’s commitment to food safety is not limited to her work at Nestlé USA. She is also active with the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness e-commerce and toolkit working groups, demonstrating her dedication to improving food safety practices across the industry.
Morrine Omolo, PhD, is a research scientist devoted to interconnecting technical aspects of food safety science with the fundamentals of behavioral science. She earned a BS in Biochemistry from Farleigh Dickinson University and her MS and PhD in Food Science from University of Minnesota. Her research examined the use of genomic tools to target weaknesses in the E. coli genome by manipulating ingredients in food matrices. She coupled this with behavioral research on how food handlers navigate food regulations to innovate new approaches to meet food safety standards. Her research took her to Japan and Kenya, where she is originally from, where she not only collaborated with other scientists but also taught foundational food safety to numerous audiences. She now works at University of Minnesota, St. Paul, as a food safety research scientist.
In this role, Morrine continues to approach food safety from an interdisciplinary perspective, seeking to better understand the relationship between human behavior, decision making, compliance, and best practices. By understanding and building on this relationship, she aspires to act as ambassador and advocate for food safety excellence across industry, regulatory agencies, and consumer communities. Her most current project examines how this relationship manifests at the local level, drawing on how individuals’ upbringing and early experiences influence their engagement with food safety culture as adults. In all her work, she is committed to mentoring others both within and outside of the food safety field because she believes collaborative problem solving will help empower everyone to have a positive impact on food safety.
Natalie Seymour is the Food Safety Analytics & Intelligence Manager with Ecolab Commercial Digital Solutions, where she supports new initiatives in advanced analytics with suggested corrective actions and program updates. Natalie is also the technical lead and lead instructor for the Certified Professional in Food Safety training program and technical lead for the Food Safety Culture Assessment Program. She holds both a BS and MS in Food Science from North Carolina State University where she researched the use of audit data to provide insight into patterns in food safety behavior. Prior to her current role, Natalie was the Food Safety & Audit Development Manager in the Ecolab Food Retail Division where she employed a strategic, research-focused approach to the development and implementation of food safety audits. Beyond audit development, she supported food safety program offerings to large and small grocery chains and served as the technical lead for the Ecolab Science Certified program in Food Retail Services.
Since starting her career, Natalie has worked on bringing food safety culture to everyone by helping inform the decisions of all people. She believes strongly in inclusion and diversity and uses those principles to help in her communication and assisted in her retail and consumer education roles at NC State University. Natalie has continued to work on training programs at Ecolab, teaching for the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) Certified Food Professional Courses. She has begun working on customer projects to help them with their specific food safety needs, which will impact food safety culture in individual businesses. Natalie has served on Conference for Food Protection (CFP) committees and worked with International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) groups as well to advance food safety.
Neal Fredrickson leads food safety, quality, and regulatory training at Cargill where he is responsible for driving the company’s design strategy to make effective and engaging training. He holds a MEd in Learning Technologies from the University of Minnesota where he is now a PhD candidate. Neal’s research interests include statistical modeling of the relationship between food safety training and food safety outcomes in the manufacturing industry. Before joining Cargill, Neal served as the curriculum coordinator at the Food Protection and Defense Institute (FPDI) where he designed and delivered food defense training for diverse audiences including domestic and international food manufacturing industries, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and he facilitated a multi-national symposium on food defense at Interpol in Lyon, France in 2016.
Neal joined Cargill in 2018 to lead the company’s food defense and food fraud strategies where he took a learning-first approach to quickly scale the newly developed programs. In addition to his work with Cargill, he participates in professional groups dedicated to continuous improvement of food safety culture across the food industry, contributing time and thought leadership to develop tools for small- and medium-sized companies.
Olamide (Ola) Afolaya, PhD, is a dynamic and passionate food safety professional with a vision to ensure increased accessibility to safe food for all. With an unyielding commitment to challenging the status quo, she stands as a champion for food safety, inspired by the belief that safe, wholesome food for everyone is attainable. She holds a BS in Biological Sciences with a minor in Organic Chemistry from the University of Botswana where she worked as a research assistant exploring properties of plants and legumes. She also holds a MS and a PhD in Food Science from the University of Georgia. Prior to joining the Kellogg Company, Ola developed her expertise as a food safety research assistant at the Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia and as a Microbiologist at a MillerCoors brewing facility.
In her current role as the Director of Global Food Safety and Regulatory at the Kellogg Company, Ola has nearly a decade of invaluable experience with the organization. Her career trajectory has been marked by positions of increasing responsibilities. What drives her in her work are the small victories that cumulatively drive impact: crafting policies, scrutinizing supplier programs, and engaging in critical decision-making processes. These moments ensure the safety of the food produced by her company. Additionally, Ola finds great joy in sharing her knowledge and experience, both at Kellogg and beyond, actively sharing thought leadership to develop tools for small- and medium-sized companies. She takes these mentorship responsibilities very seriously as she passes on the invaluable lessons she has learned.
Pavlos Fragkopoulos has been in the food industry for over a decade, supporting quality and food safety across several sectors. He holds a BSc in Food Science from the Technological Educational Institute of Athens in his home country of Greece and an MSc in Food Quality Management from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Throughout his career he has worked in six different countries and two states in the US, currently leading raw material & packaging quality, external manufacturing, and holistic quality risk management for MARS Inc.
During his career with MARS, he has improved traceability for global markets, led the certification of quality management, and improved accuracy of customer care. His work in these areas earned him a nomination as a Mars Make the Difference finalist. Pavlos was also the creator of Quality Week, an event celebrated in multiple countries and segments in the Mars network. Through this event, he engaged over 1,000 associates in quality principles and culture, earning a Corporate Quality Hero award. He holds numerous qualifications and professional memberships, mentoring food safety professionals and students, has been presenting to international conferences and universities and supporting the United Nations’ World Food Programme. In all of these roles, he seeks to improve quality and food safety by strengthening risk assessment and engaging teams in the continuous improvement of risk management strategies.
Rachel Jorden is a senior engineer with the Global Food Safety team at PepsiCo, specializing in compliance and management systems. She attended Texas A&M University and graduated in 2013 with a dual degree in Food Science and Nutritional Sciences. She worked in Quality and Food Safety at Conagra before coming to PepsiCo in 2016. At PepsiCo she began working in Quality and Food Safety at a site, managing their Quality and Food Safety Systems and winning multiple sector and site awards for food safety and quality initiatives. Rachel is in the Food Safety Culture Working Group for PepsiCo, offering her expertise to the team on compliance. She has taken the lead on several food safety culture projects for PepsiCo that were employed globally, including a Virtual Food Safety Escape Room for this year’s World Food Safety Day that was played by 195+ employees and groups globally.
In addition, she has led World Food Safety Day celebration events, taught numerous Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) classes, and led PepsiCo’s Global Food Safety Mandates program. Rachel also belongs to the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness Gamification Working Group, where she shares and learns best practices on gamified learning with other food safety leaders. As she grows in her career at PepsiCo, she plans to continue to champion food safety and ensure commitment at all levels of the organization.
Rebecca Wynne is a quality and safety professional with a background in environmental and public health. She holds a BS in Exercise Science with a concentration in Kinesiology and Biomechanics from Transylvania University and an MPH from University of Oklahoma. Rebecca joined Darden in 2012 as a Total Quality Manager supporting Olive Garden restaurants throughout the western United States. She has led initiatives across Darden restaurants to positively promote a strong culture of food safety across 10 recognizable brands. She currently leads a team of food safety professionals supporting 1850+ full-service dining locations where teams strive to create exceptional dining experiences for guests. Rebecca believes there is empowerment in education. She focuses on awareness and accountability to foster constructive food safety behaviors and adherence to protocols at all levels. She is actively engaged in many food safety committees and organizations dedicated to reducing foodborne illness.
Rebecca has made many connections with industry, regulatory, academia, and professional organizations. She has served on the Conference for Food Protection for over a decade and will continue to grow her career focused on food safety efforts. She also serves on the NEHA food safety committee and was selected for a position on the Retail Food Safety Advisory Group representing industry. Rebecca brings valuable perspectives from the field and experiences. Prior to joining Darden, she worked for NSF International as a Food Safety Auditor. She also served as an as a Registered Environmental Health Specialist (REHS) for the Tulsa City-County Health Department where she conducted regulatory food inspections and taught community food safety classes. She is a Registered Sanitarian (RS) and Certified Professional of Food Safety (CP-FS).
Rishi Banerjee is an experienced food policy professional based in Washington, DC who currently serves as head of the SmartLabel program at the Consumer Brands Association. In his current role, Rishi is focused on leveraging his expertise to develop robust food safety use cases for SmartLabel. Recall modernizations, allergen declarations, safe handling instructions, and validated cooking instructions are just some of the resources he is working with industry to bring to consumers through SmartLabel. Rishi’s career spans multiple sectors including government, non-profit, consulting and retail.
Rishi began his career at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Environmental Microbial Food Safety Lab (EMFSL) where he conducted research on foodborne pathogens including Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli. After leaving USDA, Rishi served as Director of Regulatory and Technical Affairs for the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI), where he worked with industry on developing comments to new regulations under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Rishi went on to lead the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) for the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) in US and Canada. Following GFSI, Rishi led Regulatory and Industry affairs for Amazon’s North American Food Safety team where he focused on issues relating to human food, pet food, baby food and dietary supplements.
Ryan Dittoe is a food safety and public health professional committed to robust food safety culture and enhancing regulatory compliance. He holds a BS in Business Administration and Management from Purdue University. He has been working with Chipotle for seventeen years, holding multiple roles responsible for operations, safety, security and risk, and food safety. He now serves as the Senior Director of Restaurant Food Safety and Quality Assurance. In this position, he developed and implements food safety strategies and programs that impact 3,200 restaurants in the US, Canada, and Europe. His ability to identify process deficiencies and implement effective safety solutions has help enhance Chipotle’s food safety systems.
Additionally, his commitment to establishing robust employee wellness monitoring, training programs, and partnerships between Chipotle and food safety technology leaders has helped bolster Chipotle’s food safety culture. Under Ryan’s leadership, Chipotle earned Fast Casual’s 2023 Food Safety Excellence Award, which he accepted at the Fast Casual Movers & Shakers Gala. He has also received a CEO award for his work with the organization. His contributions continue to elevate food safety practices and set a benchmark for the industry.
Shelby Calvillo is currently an internal food safety specialist for MGM Resorts in Las Vegas. She graduated from the University of Arizona in 2015 with a BS in Public Health. Shortly after graduation, Shelby began her environmental health career as an inspector in Pima County, Arizona, where she found a passion for food safety. She progressed onto becoming a trainer in Pima County and helped manage the successful launch of electronic inspection software in Pima County. In 2019, she studied the efficacy of risk control plans in retail food when used as an enforcement tool.
Since moving to Las Vegas, she has helped champion food safety culture at MGM resorts. Las Vegas saw over 38.8 million tourists in 2022, with Shelby overseeing the safety of consumers in two resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. She has continued advocating for food safety not only in her own resorts, but also recently presented at the Nevada Enviornmental Health Association Conference in 2023 on how to advocate for food safety as a regulator, an industry professional, or someone in academia.
Silin Tang, PhD, is a research scientist specializing in the development, evaluation, and validation of foodborne pathogen identification methods. She earned her PhD in Food Science and Technology at Cornell University where she researched and developed a transcriptome analysis of foodborne pathogens under stress conditions, the application of sequencing technology to subtype bacteria, and other control strategies against foodborne pathogens. With her knowledge of pathogens, she has worked in veterinary medicine developing vaccines and in food safety sequencing genomes. Silin’s dedication to science-led innovation has helped transform microbial contamination source tracking to improve the speed, accuracy, and cost-efficiency with which pathogen sources can be identified and potential threats to human health mitigated.
In her current role as a senior research scientist at the Mars Global Food Safety Center, she leads and supports projects related to pathogen confirmation and tracking, raw material adulteration prevention, and foreign body contamination prevention. Her goal in all her work is to help people thrive by raising the standards of how quickly and efficiently risks to food safety can be identified and managed across the supply chain.
Sofia Feng, PhD, is a food scientist dedicated to safe and nutritious foods for both humans and animals. She holds an MS and a PhD in Food Science from North Carolina State University. She has worked with multiple food manufacturers across commodities providing not only food safety trainings but also hands-on implementation of alternative interventions for pathogen bio-control. She has worked with regulators, private food industry stakeholders, and over 100 quality assurance personnel in the US and Latin America. She encourages manufacturers to be inquisitive about regulations and engage in federal compliance.
Sofia has been a presenter, organizer, and convenor of numerous sessions at the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP). She also acts as the Secretary for the state of Georgia’s affiliate (GAFP). Sofia has served multiple roles within the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and is active as a qualifications committee member at the Honor Society for Food Scientists: Phi Tau Sigma. In her meetings, trainings and presentations she speaks about regulations as well as the culture necessary to uphold those. In June 2023, she joined Briess Ingredients and in her current role as Division Manager she plans to continue promoting foods that are safe, acting as an ally industry leader and advocate in the food safety community.
Stephanie Cotter, PhD, is a food safety scientist and subject matter expert for instructional design for food safety training. She holds a BS and a PhD in Food Science from North Carolina State University. Since earning her degrees in food science with an interdisciplinary focus in instructional design and adult education, Stephanie has become a go-to professional at NC State for food safety expertise and instructional design, whether the need is university- or industry-focused. She also acts as an educator and workplace learning expert. In addition to teaching traditional on-campus or virtual university classes, she planned and coordinated the Summer Scholars program in 2021, where students came from across the United States and abroad for an experiential learning program focused on food safety in food manufacturing. She has also served as an instructional designer in the development or redesign of numerous NC State online food safety training offerings which reach approximately 1,500 food industry professionals each year.
As the Food Safety Coordinator at Feldmeier Dairy Processing Lab, where NC State’s Howling Cow milk and ice cream is manufactured, Stephanie transitioned the HACCP Plan to a Preventive Controls Food Safety Plan, developed and implemented a 3rd party auditing program, and established an Environmental Monitoring Program with routine plans for ATP, allergen, and microbial sampling. Between her scientific background and educational expertise, Stephanie continues to contribute towards better, more effective food safety and food safety training across academia and the food industry.
Tia Glave is the President & Co-Founder of Catalyst, LLC. She has over a decade of experience in large and small food manufacturing, food retail, and start-up food environments, including supporting iconic brands like Pillsbury and Yoplait, and leading food safety and quality at the nostalgic sweet shop Milk Bar. As a chemical engineer and a Certified Master Coach, she combines her technical knowledge of systems, data, and proven strategies, with her passion for developing and growing the capabilities of others to empower technical experts to become technical leaders. She holds numerous certifications and has led teams in food safety and quality, sanitation, laboratory services, operations, and maintenance.
In 2021, Tia founded the Black Professionals in Food Safety & Quality networking group to mentor and grow Black talent. She is an active International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) member, serving as the Retail & Food Service Professional Development Group (PDG) Chair and the Food Safety Culture PDG Vice-Chair, and is an advisory board member for QA & Food Safety (QA) Magazine. In addition, she is a member of the International Coaching Federation.
Tyler Williams is a consumer product safety and quality expert with significant experience in the food and beverage, cannabis, and dietary supplement industries. He graduated with a master’s degree in food safety and a certificate in international food law from Michigan State University. He holds professional development certifications in food defense, food fraud, preventive controls, HACCP/International HACCP Alliance Trainer, USDA Organic, and PCQI for both human and animal food. In January 2023, Williams became the youngest CEO to run ASI, a 92-year food safety company. Previously, Tyler was ASI’s Chief Technical Officer, where he was responsible for the certification process of over 3,000 audits annually, while also training and consulting major food and beverage companies around the world to help improve their food safety practices.
In 2020, Williams founded Cannabis Safety & Quality (CSQ), the first cannabis certification program to meet Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmarking requirements in addition to ISO requirements and regulatory requirements from seed to sale. Food safety is hardly “just a job” for Tyler – he’s a self-proclaimed “food safety nerd” who’s gone great lengths to safeguard our industry’s future through his non-profit organization Show Me Food Safety. This 501c3 provides free resources to small food manufacturers and growers in Missouri to help improve their food safety practices and get on the shelves of local grocery stores. The organization’s Show Me Food Safety Scholarship Fund awards $2,000 each year to students currently enrolled in food science, food safety, or a related degree program who have improved the food supply chain. Through Show Me Food Safety’s small supplier program, the organization offers pro-bono services to local companies that can’t typically afford the cost of an audit/certification, such as a popcorn company based in southeast MO and a small Asian American and Pacific Islander-owned business based in Saint Louis.
Veronica Bryant is an environmental and public health professional who specializes in food safety projects. She holds a BS in Chemistry from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. After graduation, she began her career in food safety as a local environmental health specialist in Mecklenburg County, NC. Veronica worked in local environmental health for several years before transitioning to the NC Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health as a regional environmental health specialist.
Veronica currently serves as the Emergency Preparedness and Outbreak Coordinator, where she provides training and technical assistance for local environmental health specialists on outbreak and emergency response, HACCP and specialized processing, and leads other food safety projects, including coordinating food protection teams at large events. Veronica has been a lead instructor for the NC State University Retail HACCP Validation and Verification Course since 2017. She is an active member of the Conference for Food Protection (CFP), International Association of Food Protection (IAFP), and North Carolina Food Safety and Defense Task Force, organizations which allow her to work collaboratively with other food safety professionals to help prevent and respond to potential risks to consumers in the food system.
Yuwei Chang, PhD, is a senior research scientist at the Mars Global Food Safety Center. She works in the food integrity research program, which is focused on developing new and improved tools and analytical methods that help mitigate food integrity challenges across the global food supply chain. Yuwei received her PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a focus on method development and applications of plant metabolomics. Prior to Mars, she worked in the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a focus on the development of plant metabolomics methods to help illustrate important plant pathways and its regulation.
Over the past six years, Yuwei has utilized her passion for analytical sciences to lead and deliver breakthrough research including the development of non-targeted analytical methods. Yuwei’s drive for high-quality research has enabled the building of a platform, including both hardware and software, to conduct real-time and routine surveillance for authenticating cocoa butter. This work was utilized on a small-scale sample set, which laid a solid foundation for expansion into scaled-up experiments of other critical raw materials. In addition to these achievements, Yuwei has led research into foreign material detection focused on practical challenges found in the industry. This work could potentially lead to a significant reduction in food safety incidents involving low-density foreign materials in food stuffs.
As the voice of people affected by foodborne illness, we collaborate with partners in academia, the food industry, and government to prevent foodborne illness. We advocate for effective food safety policy and facilitate culture change to increase food safety.
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