IAFP Announces 2013 Travel Award Recipients

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Des Moines, Iowa – The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) will present Travel Awards to the following individuals at IAFP 2013, July 28–31, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sponsored by IAFP and the IAFP Foundation, the Travel Award for State or Local Health or State Agricultural Department Employees and the Travel Award for a Food Safety Professional in a Developing Country will provide funding to enable recipients to travel to IAFP 2013.

The Travel Award for State or Local Health or State Agricultural Department Employees will be presented to the following individuals:

Kathryn Bennett is an Agriculture Compliance Specialist for the Georgia Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Division, in Atlanta. Along with her food safety inspections, investigations and licensing of retail firms, Ms. Bennett’s inspection territory also includes dairy farms and Grade A dairy plants. In 2012, she participated in the premier Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Leadership Development Institute, a year-long program. Ms. Bennett currently serves on the board of the Georgia Environmental Health Association.

Barbara Cote is a Public Health Microbiologist V for the State of Vermont’s Department of Health Laboratory in Burlington. She serves on the Association of Public Health Laboratory’s (APHL) Food Safety Committee and the APHL ISO 17025:2005 Training Steering Committee. She has been a member of the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) since 2005 and recently formed the Vermont Food Task Force. Most recently, Ms. Cote was instrumental in obtaining funds from the FDA as one of 31 Cooperative Agreement Program awardees.

Angela Fritzinger is the Lead Scientist for activities associated with foodborne disease surveillance and outbreaks at the Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS), the public health laboratory for the Commonwealth of Virginia in Richmond. During her tenure at DCLS, Dr. Fritzinger has served as a subject matter expert and training coordinator for the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN). She has been actively involved with many local, state and federal food safety emergency response partners, including the Virginia Food Safety Task Force, the Virginia Department of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s PulseNet Program.

Krissa Jones is the Rapid Response Team Program Manager for the Georgia Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Division, in Atlanta, where she helped develop a rapid response program to respond to food and feed emergencies and comply with Standard 5 of the Manufacturing Food Regulatory Program Standards. Mrs. Jones is a member of the Georgia Environmental Health Association, serving on the Executive Board from 2005–2010 and as President during 2008–2009. She is also a recipient of the Association’s Member of the Year Award.

New this year, the Travel Award for a Food Safety Professional in a Developing Country will be presented to the following individual:

Ratih Dewanti-Hariyadi is a faculty member with the Department of Food Science and Technology and the Head of the Food Science Study Program at Bogor Agricultural University (BAU) in Bogor, Indonesia. She is also a researcher and the coordinator for the Food Quality and Safety Improvement Program for SEAFAST (Southeast Asia Food and Agriculture Science and Technology) Center at BAU. Dr. Dewanti-Hariyadi has served as Chair for the Technical Subcommittee on Testing Methods for Food Contamination at the Ministry of Agriculture; as a trainer for food industries as well as food inspectors for the National Agency for Food and Drug Control (NAFDC); and is the resource person for the Revision of the National Food Microbiological Standards. She is a member of the International Commission on Microbiological Specification for Foods (ICMSF).