Dynamic, intelligent, and passionate with a heart that beats to help people prevent foodborne illness—this describes the inaugural recipient of our Dave Theno Food Safety Fellowship, Ms. Emily Forauer, to a “T!”
Have you heard about our Theno Food Safety Fellowship? In 2018, Stop Foodborne Illness began offering it to one recent college grad with an undergraduate or graduate degree in food science or animal science. This team member works in the STOP office for 35 hours per week focusing mainly on two designated projects while also participating in other activities that support learning and experience in food safety.
Emily has been a fantastic first fellow. Besides her unflagging enthusiasm, genius smarts, and boundless energy, Emily has made more positive contributions to our work than we can even begin to mention.
Check out more on Emily in the Q & A below to learn about this close friend who’s doing a lot to help us achieve a safe food supply for all.
I was first introduced to food science during my undergraduate studies at the University of Connecticut. I wanted to get some research experience, so I joined a food microbiology lab. I had never known much about or even considered food science as a possible career, but I love microbiology and always felt pulled to study science.
While in the research lab, I worked on projects focused on Listeria monocytogenes in dairy products. That work was new and interesting, and I really enjoyed it. As I progressed in the lab and gained more experience, I realized how much I loved the work. I found myself staying extra hours in the lab, going in between classes, and making my busy college schedule fit around the experiments I was doing. After just a few semesters, I knew this is what I should be pursuing for my future profession.
My most meaningful project has been acquainting myself with and adding to STOP’s Honor Wall, a dedicated place on our website where people impacted by foodborne illness can share their stories. This is special, important work—and it can get very emotional.
Getting to know the parents, children, siblings, grandparents, and others who have had a foodborne illness or have had a loved one affected is the most meaningful to me. Reaching out to new families and hearing directly from their perspective about what they’ve gone through has been eye-opening. Because of my work with STOP, I’ve become much more intimately involved with the human element of food safety in ways I couldn’t while working in a lab.
Another meaningful project has been creation of a training program for our speakers. These special individuals who feel empowered to share their story will attend and speak at meetings and events held by food producers, manufacturers, restauranteurs, schools, and government agencies. This program streamlines the process of teaching people all they need to know about writing their story for publication on our Honor Wall, the history of STOP, food safety basics, and how to present everything to an audience.
As a microbiologist, I’m most interested in environmental monitoring. If food producers know what parts of their process may be introducing contamination into product, controls can be put in place or other steps can be taken to stop dangerous food from leaving the facility and causing harm.
I’m very excited to be attending the University of Vermont and to getting back to doing what I love: science. When I graduate, I’d like to be in a position where I’m able to use my skills as a microbiologist to improve food safety. I don’t know exactly what this could look like for me; but, wherever I end up, my time at STOP will serve as a reminder that the work I do can prevent illness and make a significant difference in people’s lives.
Share a story!
Most people are familiar with basic food safety, like washing your hands before and after handling food or using a meat thermometer. However, not everyone has heard why you need to do these things. When you share someone’s story, your listener is hearing about a real person who has experienced health issues or other hardships from contaminated food and that often makes a strong connection and inspires change.
If you’ve personally experienced a foodborne illness, share your story!
It’s so powerful to talk about your experience and the real-life impact foodborne illness has had on your life. You can reach out to STOP to start a conversation on this or even sharing with family and friends can start positive change and create awareness.
To future fellows, I encourage them to learn as much as they can about STOP and its rich history that began through sharing stories, which created a huge movement around preventing foodborne illness. Doing this at the outset of your work will be instrumental in making you a better fellow. Everything I’ve learned about the “why” of food safety and the human element will stick with me through my career as a scientist (as well as in my everyday life) and it will resonate with future fellows as well.
Emily Forauer is a 2018 graduate of the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Science in Pathobiology and Veterinary Science and a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Emily is the first recipient of the Stop Foodborne Illness Dave Theno Food Safety Fellowship.
As a Theno Fellow, she helps advance STOP’s work on preventing foodborne disease and assisting people impacted by foodborne illness while simultaneously completing courses with Michigan State University for an Online Food Safety Certificate. After her time with STOP, Emily has plans to pursue further study of microbiology and food safety in graduate school.
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.
Stop Foodborne Illness is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent the law allows.
