Food Protection Trends - November/December 2022 - 548

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI)
COUNCIL
JULY 31, 2022
Attendees: Angela Shaw (Chair), Armitra Jackson-Davis (Vice
Chair), Yvonne Masters (Secretary), Arpita Aditya, Mary Anne
Roshni Amalaradjou, Benjamin Chapman, Shannon Coleman,
Lawrence Goodridge, Erin Headley, Adeniyi Odugbemi, Rose
Omari, Ana Allende Prieto, Manan Sharma.
Board/Staff Present: Ruth Petran, Lisa Hovey.
Visitors: Takiyah Ball, Teresa Bergholz, Kolawole Banwo, Carl
Custer, Anthony Flood, Amanda Kinchla, Rhoma Johnson, Kali
Kniel, Kathy Knutson, Vijay Krishna, Loralyn Ledenbach, Maurisa
Mansaray, Patricia Millner, Alexis Omar, Katie Overbey, Salina
Parveen, Gale Prince, Lory Reveil, Don Schaffner, Markeia
Scruggs, Brad Taylor, Trish Tolbert, Joelle Williams, Michael
Wood, Lily Yang, Mary Yavelak, Lei Zhang.
Number of Attendees: 45.
Meeting Called to Order: 3:15 p.m. Eastern Time, Sunday,
July 31, 2022.
Minutes Recording Secretary: Yvonne Masters.
Old Business: None.
New Business: Announcements from the IAFP Board (Ruth
Petran). Eighty percent of attendees and exhibitors this year.
DEI is an integral part of the IAFP and is a priority - diversity in
speaker selection, topic selection, and inclusion. Think about how
you can help with DEI at IAFP.
Angela Shaw recognized Vice Chair (Armitra Jackson-Davis),
Secretary (Yvonne Masters) and current DEI Council members
and new DEI Council members. She discussed the DEI Council
background (vision, mission, and what was done in the first year).
Angela Shaw described the goals of each of the subgroups
during the year (Survey, Evaluations, and Selection/Election
subgroups). She discussed the DEI Council virtual meeting that
was designed to get feedback ahead of the 2022 IAFP meeting.
For the Survey subgroup, 10% responded to the survey. A white
paper is in progress for the anonymous survey data. Armitra
Jackson-Davis discussed the Evaluation subgroup. She stated
that Shannon Coleman led the subgroup designed to review the
position of Secretary and Garry Acuff led the subgroup on the
evaluation of awards. Yvonne Masters discussed the work of the
Selection subgroup.
Angela Shaw asked for feedback from IAFP Members in the
room on the topic of how to make the IAFP events more inclusive.
She gave the idea of creating a Welcome Committee as an
example.
Then, Angela Shaw opened it up to the group in the room for
feedback. Below is what was discussed.
Question was asked about the difference between a Council
and a PDG. Angela Shaw discussed how members of the Council
were chosen and the selection process. She described the difference
between a Council and PDG.
Is Accessibility included in DEI? Angela Shaw explained that
accessibility was a part of the survey questions. One example
was given of using microphones so everyone can be heard.
Members expressed that this should be part of the announcements
at the start of each meeting (e.g., PDG, Committee,
Symposia, etc.).
548 Food Protection Trends November/December
Someone asked: Do we know what we are trying to solve?
What problem are we trying to tackle first? Angela Shaw explained
that we want representation on all levels since we are
an international organization. Our mission is food safety. We
want to have diversity of thought in our organization.
There was a question regarding diversity/identity of IAFP
Members. Angela Shaw explained that legal counsel's advice to
IAFP was to refrain from including identity questions in the IAFP
member profile and that IAFP should not store identity data.
She explained potential for lawsuit as explained by IAFP's legal
counsel. Several IAFP Members urged IAFP to look at what other
organizations have done for identity information, be bold, and
urged IAFP to continue to get identity data. These members felt
strongly about getting this information.
Armitra Jackson-Davis and Angela Shaw urged IAFP Members
to fill out the online survey to give feedback. The online
survey will be available for members to provide during the year.
Here is the link to the online survey to give feedback: https://
www.surveymonkey.com/r/IAFPDEIQualtrics.
Angela Shaw mentioned that we have the anonymous data
for the paper, but are still working on the recommendations.
One IAFP Member urged that the IAFP release the anonymous
identity data now and say that the recommendations will come
out soon. Someone said that there should be feedback from IAFP
Members for recommendations for the anonymous identity data.
Ruth would like to see very specific recommendations that
can be practically implemented.
Make DEI a benefit to the people and the organization.
Someone asked: Why is this meeting not hybrid? Most
large scientific conferences are hybrid. How can IAFP achieve
this? Several IAFP Members expressed that IAFP should have
a hybrid conference.
A DEI Council Member mentioned that there were awards
with a number of global affiliates. She listed them.
Find ways to get more diverse pool of award applicants.
One person said that we should directly encourage people to
apply for the awards and/or encourage people to consider joining
a committee.
How do we practically make the IAFP Annual Meeting more
inclusive? One suggestion is to make an announcement to use
the microphone at each meeting so people can hear you speak.
Another was to continue providing the pronoun stickers.
Someone brought up issue regarding student visas and
travel award winners. It was too late by the time they found out
to get a student visa for the IAFP Annual Meeting.
DEI Council should have a meeting after announcement of
awards process (in November) to come up with recommendations
for IAFP Members to nominate people for awards.
There should be more student involvement in DEI Council.
Angela Shaw noted that there was only one student applicant.
There should be a mentoring committee to help the mentors
know what to do and so they can be better mentors.
There was a recommendation to put a statement about
gender ponouns on the IAFP website.
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https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/IAFPDEIQualtrics https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/IAFPDEIQualtrics
Food Protection Trends - November/December 2022

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