Food Protection Trends - May 2009 - 279

Katherine M.J. Swanson Elected as Secretary he International Association for Food Protection welcomes Dr. Katherine M.J. Swanson to the Executive Board as Secretary. Dr. Swanson will take office at the conclusion of the Awards Banquet at IAFP 2009, the Association’s 96th Annual Meeting in Grapevine, Texas. By accepting this position, Dr. Swanson has made a five-year commitment to the Association and will begin her term as President in 2013. Dr. Swanson is Vice President of Food Safety at Ecolab Inc., where she identifies control strategies for emerging food safety concerns and assists customers with high level food safety issues. 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. As Director of Microbiology & Food Safety for The Pillsbury Company, Dr. Swanson restaged their world-class HACCP program to meet regulatory requirements around the world. She also developed food allergen training for R&D and operations, managed electronic specification systems, oversaw food quality audits, and developed corporate product quality management systems. Earlier in her Pillsbury career, Dr. Swanson conducted microbiological research on fresh and frozen vegetables, bakery products, canned foods, fish, and pizza. Prior to joining Pillsbury, Dr. Swanson was a senior microbiologist at 3M, where she developed food applications for innovative microbiological test methods. She was also an Assistant Professor of Food Microbiology at Cornell University. With a long history of appointments on influential committees, Dr. Swanson has made significant contributions to food safety. She is a member of the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF), and chairs their editorial committee. As a seven-year member of the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF), Dr. Swanson contributed to reports on HACCP principles, Redefinition of Pasteurization, Safety-Based Shelf-Life Labeling, Fresh Produce, Sprouted Seeds, Evaluation of NSF Standard 75, Codex Pasteurized Milk Products, and others. Dr. Swanson is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and completed a three-year term on the IFT Board of Directors in 2008. She served on the IFT Panel that addressed redefinition of Potentially Hazardous Foods, which shaped changes in the Food Code. Dr. Swanson also served on the Food and Drug Administration’s Science Advisory Board, the Conference for Food Protection’s Council III, and currently serves on the National Academy of Science’s Standing Committee for the Review of Food Safety and Defense Risk Assessments, Analyses, and Data. Dr. Swanson has published and presented on food safety management, microbial ecology of vegetable and cereal products, norovirus, Bacillus cereus, and Listeria monocytogenes, and in the last five years alone has delivered over 50 invited presentations around the world. Since joining in 1980, Dr. Swanson has enthusiastically served IAFP. She was 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 Committee for the very successful 2008 IAFP Latin America Symposium on Food Safety held in Campinas, Brazil. Dr. Swanson was a past jury member for the Black Pearl Award and has presented numerous papers at IAFP Annual Meetings. 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. She has received numerous awards, including the 2003 NFPA (now GMA) Food Safety Award and the 2008 National Center for Food Safety and Technology Food Safety Award. t MAY 2009 | FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS 279

Food Protection Trends - May 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Food Protection Trends - May 2009