IAFP Announces 2024 Travel Award Recipients

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Des Moines, Iowa – The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) will present Travel Awards to the following individuals at IAFP 2024, July 14–17, in Long Beach, California. Sponsored by IAFP and the IAFP Foundation, the Travel Award for Health or Agricultural Department Employees in North America 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 2024.

The Travel Award for Health or Agricultural Department Employees in North America will be presented to the following individuals:

Virginia Hamilton is a Quality Assurance Performance Consultant III with the Division of Public Health Protection and Safety at the Kentucky Public Health Department in Frankfort. In this role, Ms. Hamilton serves as the programmatic lead for Kentucky’s Local Health Department Environmental Quality Assurance Program. She is responsible for the ground-up design of new quality assurance and audit processes to systematically align local health department environmental regulatory programs with state and federal requirements for inspections, training, personnel, and administrative practices. She is directly responsible for conducting administrative aspects of audits for 61 local health departments.   

Christie Radtke is a Laboratory Scientist 3 in the Microbiology Unit of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Laboratory Services Division in St. Paul. In this position, Ms. Radtke acts as a lead worker for microbiological analysis on food and feed samples, which support the regulatory activities of the department as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This includes participating in the analysis of foods for bioterrorism agents, collecting retail samples for testing, and acting as the department’s lead for the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System grant.

Marie-Eve Rousseau is a newly appointed Strategic Advisor in Food Safety in the Food and Safety Branch of the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food in Quebec, Canada. Ms. Rousseau’s role focuses on extensive knowledge of both chemical and microbiological risks in the bio-food chain, and the development of a network with the research community and other qualified partners. With more than 17 years of experience in both the Quebec and Canadian public sectors, as well as in private industry, her career has largely been dedicated to food safety surveillance, analysis, planning, and risk management.

Nassifatou Tittikpina is an Assistant Scientist in the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES), where she plays a dual role as an analyst contributing to regulatory work and as a scientist conducting pertinent research. Dr. Tittikpina is currently assessing the interaction of contaminants from wildfire particles – namely polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – with crops when they are deposited on leaf surfaces. She is also involved in the FDA-funded Laboratory Flexible Funding Model (LFFM) programs on the analysis of human and animal foods for toxic/foreign substances, including heavy metals, mycotoxins, and pesticides. As part of the LFFM program, she is currently working on the analysis of vitamin B1 in animal feed using the AOAC 2015.14 methods with the goal of expanding the matrix to include cat and dog food.

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

Gloria Arinaitwe is a Senior Inspector in the Department of Regulatory Services with the Dairy Development Authority in Mbarara, Uganda. In this role, Ms. Arinaitwe manages the application of food safety guidelines and standards in the 30 milk-producing districts in Southwest Uganda. She also works as a freelance consultant of food safety, agribusiness, and trade, assisting various actors and stakeholders in the food value chains. She has designed training modules and manuals for small-scale processors, enabling them to obtain national certifications.

Ernest Bonah is a Principal Regulatory Officer with the Food and Drugs Authority and an Adjunct Lecturer at the University for Development Studies in Tamale, Ghana. Dr. Bonah’s major research interests include nondestructive detection of microbial foodborne pathogens, food adulteration, and authenticity using optical methods (Raman spectroscopy near-infrared spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging); biosensors (electronic nose, calorimetric sensor arrays), and data fusion strategy; along with machine learning and deep learning approaches. He has more than 12 years of international experience in research and the food industry, with expertise in food safety, quality, and regulatory affairs (FSQR), as well as food risk analysis, HACCP, and food safety management systems training.

Suresh Devatkal is a Principal Scientist with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research – National Meat Research Institute in Hyderabad, India. For the past 20 years, Dr. Devatkal has conducted research on projects focusing on meat and poultry processing and the quality and safety of fresh and processed meat products. His current research is focused on sensor and AI tools for meat safety, application of higher-pressure processing, ozone, and natural bioactive plant-based preservatives in improving the shelf life and safety of meat and poultry products. He is a certified food safety trainer, successfully training hundreds of meat retailers, street food vendors, and meat industry personnel.

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The International Association for Food Protection is a non-profit educational association of food protection professionals.  The Association is dedicated to the education and service of its Members and to industry personnel. The Association provides Members with an information network and forum for professional improvement through its two scientific journals, Journal of Food Protection and Food Protection Trends, educational Annual Meeting, and interaction with other food safety professionals.