IAFP Announces 2019 Travel Award Recipients

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Des Moines, Iowa -The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) will present Travel Awards to the following individuals at IAFP 2019, July 21–24, in Louisville, Kentucky. Sponsored by IAFP and the IAFP Foundation, the Travel Award for State or Provincial Health or Agricultural Department Employees and the Travel Award for Food Safety Professionals in a Country with a Developing Economy will provide funding to enable recipients to travel to and participate in IAFP 2019.

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

Gregory Danzeisen is a Research Scientist with the Microbiology section of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) Laboratory Services Division in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Mr. Danzeisen’s primary focus is evaluating, validating, and employing detection methods for various foodborne pathogens. In addition, he is working on rapid confirmation methods for pathogens, including MALDI-TOF. Mr. Danzeisen is also an instructor with the USDA Food Safety Inspection Services (FSIS) FERN Training Center in Minnesota, where he teaches current methodology for detection and isolation of foodborne pathogens to FERN scientists from across the country.

Ashley Giddens is an Environmental Health Specialist IV for the Worth County Health Department in Sylvester, Georgia, working in all areas of the Environmental Health Program including Food, On-Site Sewage Management, Rabies, Tourist Accommodations, Pools, Body Art, Well Water, and Emergency Preparedness. Since 2007, she has been trained in every aspect of the Food Program and currently serves as the sole District Standard/Training for the Department’s 14-county health district. Ms. Giddens’ expertise is in the Food Service Program, where she ensures that new staff is properly trained in the Food Program, and the entire staff is standardized to State requirements.

Emily Harvey is an Epidemiologist in the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) in Boston. Ms. Harvey is currently one of two Foodborne/Waterborne Disease Project Coordinators who oversee the investigation and reporting of foodborne illness outbreaks to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is also a founding member and current coordinator of the Department’s Working Group on Foodborne Illness Control, a collaboration of epidemiology, environmental health, local boards of health, and laboratory peers who meet regularly to discuss current foodborne illness outbreaks and best practices in outbreak and case investigation.

Mona Johnson is the Senior Scientist for the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) at the Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS) in Richmond. Her responsibilities include validation of new methods to isolate and/or characterize foodborne pathogens, providing QA guidance and technical training for personnel within the section, and overseeing QA procedures of the lab in support of ISO/IEC 17025 standards. Since joining DCLS in the Food Microbiology Laboratory in 2017, she oversees day-to-day operations within the lab, which provides testing for the Commonwealth of Virginia, along with testing performed in collaboration with federal partners at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Food and Drug Administration within the FERN Microbiology Program.

Lorraine McIntyre serves as a Food Safety Specialist with Environmental Health Services at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver. With a 25-year career at the Centre, Ms. McIntyre investigates food issues and outbreaks, conducts applied research, and serves as a technical specialist providing advice to health inspectors. She has led several multi-stakeholder groups to create guidance on a range of topics, including best practices for sous vide and food distribution organization. She is the current chair of a national working group to create fermented food guidance, and also serves on the Health Canada food expert advisory group.

The Travel Award for Food Safety Professionals in a Country with a Developing Economy will be presented to the following individuals:

Charles Bashiru Bakin is a Food Safety Officer with the Food and Drugs Authority in Ghana, where he provides training and technical assistance in the implementation of food safety systems and is responsible for auditing food businesses to ensure they demonstrate commitment to responsible safe food production. Mr. Bakin also briefly served with MARS GmbH, European Headquarters in Verden, Germany, where he worked in the Supplier Quality Assurance Department.

Abdoulie Jallow is a Scientific Officer at the Food Safety and Quality Authority of The Gambia, responsible for identification of food safety risks in the national food value chain, risk profiling, and data collection and analysis. He recently completed the development of a risk profile that researched Salmonella in Gambian raw cow milk. Mr. Jallow has received training in microbiological and chemical risk assessment supported by FAO. He is an executive member and co-founder of the Gambian Association, a youth-led organization seeking to advocate and work toward standardization and implementation of safety and quality systems in Gambian products and processes, with a special focus on agricultural products.

Ismail Ayoade Odetokun is a Senior Lecturer, Assistant Professor and acting Head of the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria. Dr. Odetokun teaches undergraduate students in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program. His research interests are in the areas of foodborne diseases, food hygiene, and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the food chain. Dr. Odetokun is a published author and serves on various university committees in an administrative capacity.