Members Named to Fellowship in Food Protection

The International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI), delivering career-spanning, standards-based food protection training, has announced its 2011-12 cohort of the Fellowship in Food Protection. The announcement comes in conjunction with the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) 115th Annual Educational Conference, being held in Plano, Texas. The Fellowship in Food Protection provides future leaders with an intense professional development experience focused on critical thinking, problem solving and decision making skills, within the framework of food regulatory science, law and policy.

The Fellowship is a year long training that includes a series of sessions held at IFPTI’s global headquarters in Battle Creek, Mich. The sessions are divided into subjects spanning; law, policies, strategies and tools, labeling, evolving science of food protection, food systems control applications; and prevention, intervention and response. The Fellows will also complete research projects during the year and present their findings at the 2012 AFDO Conference in Providence, RI.

In announcing the members of the 2011 Cohort, Gerald Wojtala, executive director of IFPTI, said, “This class supports our objective of having highly-trained regulatory officials. We look forward to working with this group of talented individuals from across the country as we build the training infrastructure for the national integrated food safety system.”

Members of 2011-12 Class of Fellows include:

• Shana Davis, Lexington-Fayette County Health Department
• Kristin DeMarco Shaw, City of Portsmouth Health Department
• Jennifer Godwin, North Carolina Dept of Agriculture & Consumer Services
• Roxanne Hill, New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets
• Karla Horne, Michigan Department of Agriculture
• Katie McCullough, Dane County, Wisconsin
• Aaron McNeill, U.S. Public Health Service/Indian Health Service
• Brenda Morris, Florida Dept of Agriculture & Consumer Services/Food Safety
• Craig Nielsen, Georgia Department of Agriculture
• Courtney Rheinhart, Virginia Dept of Agriculture & Consumer Services
• Alice Robison, Northeast Tri County Health Department
• Jodi Taylor, The Ohio Department of Agriculture
• Shane Thompson, State of Wyoming Dept of Agriculture
• Jennine Wolf, Washington County Environmental Health Dept

The International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization building and administering the training infrastructure for the nation’s integrated food safety system. Working with federal regulatory and public health officials, IFPTI is establishing and overseeing the implementation of a career-spanning food protection training curriculum that will increase capacity, and assure competency and equivalency throughout all regulatory jurisdictions in meeting established U.S. federal food safety standards.

Financial support for IFPTI is provided by a grant from the Food and Drug Administration and by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.