Katherine Swanson Assumes Presidency of the International Association for Food Protection

Friday, August 3, 2012

Dr. Katherine M.J. Swanson assumed the presidency of the International Association for Food Protection at the conclusion of IAFP 2012 in Providence, Rhode Island.

President Katherine Swanson is Vice President of Food Safety for Ecolab Inc., Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she identifies control strategies for emerging food safety concerns and assists customers with high level food safety issues. Dr. Swanson received her B.S. degree in Dietetics from the University of Delaware and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Food Science from the University of Minnesota.

Prior to joining Ecolab in 2004, Dr. Swanson was Director of Global Product Safety at General Mills, responsible for microbiology, thermal process, toxicology, food allergen, and non-food premium support worldwide. Previously, she was Director of Microbiology & Food Safety for The Pillsbury Company, where she restaged their world-class HACCP program to meet regulatory requirements worldwide. Prior to joining Pillsbury, Dr. Swanson was a Senior Microbiologist at 3M and an Assistant Professor of Food Microbiology at Cornell University.

Dr. Swanson has been committed to the goals of IAFP since joining the Association in 1980. She served on the Journal of Food Protection Editorial Board for eleven years (1988-99) and the Food Protection Trends Editorial Board for three years (2005-07). She was also an active member of the Organizing Committees for the IAFP Latin America Symposium on Food Safety and the European Symposium on Food Safety.

Dr. Swanson has served on many IAFP Selection Committees and Professional Development Groups, presented numerous papers at IAFP Annual Meetings, and is recognized worldwide for her food safety expertise.

In addition to Dr. Swanson, other members of the Executive Board include:

President-Elect, Don Schaffner, Ph.D., Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Vice President, Don Zink, Ph.D., U.S. FDA, College Park, MD
Secretary, Alejandro Mazzotta, Ph.D., Campbell Soup Company, Camden, NJ
Past President, Isabel Walls, Ph.D.
Affiliate Council Chairperson, Tori Stivers, University of Georgia, Peachtree City, GA