Member Directory

FSC Chair

Sadhana Ravishankar

Sadhana Ravishankar

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Associate Professor

Chair, Food Safety Consortium

Food Science Interest - Controlling foodborne pathogens using various technologies and natural plant antimicrobials; improving the safety and quality of organic leafy greens; understanding the survival of foodborne pathogens on fresh produce, composts, and compost teas; attachment and biofilm formation of pathogens on fresh produce; ecology of foodborne pathogens in fresh produce growing environments; reducing pathogens and carcinogenic compounds in meats using plant antimicrobials; and stress response in foodborne pathogenic bacteria.

FSC Industry Advisory Committee Member

norman barnett

Norman Barnett

Arizona Department of Agriculture
FSMA Produce Safety Rule
Lead Food Safety Trainer

Industry Advisory Committee Member

Norbert Chirase

Norbert Chirase

GTX Technologies
Founder and President

Industry Advisory Committee Member

De Ann Davis

Western Growers
Senior Vice President, Science

Industry Advisory Committee Member

Jeremy Vanderzyl

Duncan Family Farms
Director of Technical Services

Industry Advisory Committee Member

Joli Weiss

Arizona Department of Health
Epidemiologist

Industry Advisory Committee Member

FSC Committee Chair

Kerry Cooper

Kerry Cooper

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Assistant Professor

Chair, Research Committee

Research - food safety, foodborne pathogens, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, Listeria, genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, outbreak source tracking, bioinformatics, microbiome, foodborne epidemiology, whole genome sequencing, bacterial pathogenesis.

Teaching - veterinary microbiology, medical microbiology, food safety, food microbiology, bioinformatics, microbial genetics, microbial genomics.

Margarethe Cooper

Margarethe Cooper

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Assistant Professor of Practice

Chair, Internship and Education Committee

Food Safety, Food Microbiology, Microbiology, Parasitology

Richard Park

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Research Laboratory Assistant

Chair, Young Professionals Committee

My main focus is the transfer of foodborne pathogens from the soil and dust onto the melon rind surface. The specific foodborne pathogens of interest are Salmonella and Listeria.

FSC Member

Dan Bogert

Arizona Restaurant Association
Chief Operating Officer
Juanfra DeVillena

Juanfra DeVillena

Wayne Farms LLC
Director of Quality Assurance and Food Safety

Juanfra is a devoted lecturer at international forums & conferences as well as at prestigious Universities such as Auburn University and University of Georgia. Juanfra currently serves as the chairman for the Advisory Committee to the Agricultural Technology Research Program at Georgia Tech and was featured as the Science Profile for the February 2021 edition of MeatingPlace magazine. Juanfra has also served in several planning committees with the US Poultry & Egg Association.

Kevin Whitehurst

Shamrock Farms
Farm Manager
Debbie Reed

Debbie Reed

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Program Coordinator, Senior

Lingling An

The University of Arizona
Agricultural-Biosystems Engineering
Associate Professor
Alexandra Armstrong

Alexandra Armstrong

The University of Arizona
College of Public Health
Research Scientist

Past FSC Chair

Campylobacter and Salmonella in the environment and foods. Vaccine development for reduction of foodborne pathogens.

Larry Bender

Arizona Department of Agriculture
Federal State Inspection Service/Fresh Products Grade Inspection
Program Manager

Jeff Black

Arizona Department of Agriculture
Animal Services Division
Dairy Program Manager
Natalie Brassill

Natalie Brassill

The University of Arizona
Environmental Sciences
Assistant In Extension, Environmental Water Quality

Teaching - water quality citizen science workshops, microbial lab techniques, field sampling and analysis in the subjects of food safety, surface water quality and water reuse.

Research - environmental microbiology, surface water quality, public health, non point source pollution, food safety.

Kelly Bright

Kelly Bright

The University of Arizona
Environmental Sciences
Associate Research Professor

Interest in ensuring that foods, and in particular fresh produce, possess a minimal amount of risk for consumers from foodborne pathogens. Work focuses on understanding the transport and fate of foobborne pathogens in the environment and also on interventions to remove or mitigate microbial contamination of foods.

Sharon Carson

Pima County Health Department
Communicable Disease Investigator
Cristobal Chaidez

Cristobal Chaidez

Centro de Investigacion en Alimentacion y Desarrollo (Research Center in Food and Development)
Culiacan Station
Scientist and Regional Director

Nina Corson

Pima Community College
Academic Dean
Goggy Davidowitz

Goggy Davidowitz

The University of Arizona
Entomology
Professor

Edible insects

Michael Dunn

United States Department of Agriculture
Federal State Inspection Service
Compliance Investigator

John Ehiri

The University of Arizona
College of Public Health
Professor

Kacey Ernst

The University of Arizona
College of Public Health
Associate Professor
Program Director, Epidemiology

Ed Foster

Arizona Department of Agriculture
Citrus, Fruit and Vegetable Standardization
Assistant Director

George Frisvold

The University of Arizona
Agricultural and Resource Economics
Specialist
Teaching - Agricultural Policy, Production Economics, Resource Economics, Environmental Economics.
Research - Biotechnology, Water, Climate, Natural Resource Management, Regional Economics.
Samuel Garcia

Samuel Garcia

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Assistant Professor of Practice
Manager, Food Product and Safety Laboratory

Research - Sustainable agriculture, beef production, making ruminant animals more efficient win less impact on the environment, palatability and food safety issues regarding meat animals.

Teaching - Beef Production, Meat Animal Production, Sustainable agriculture, Meat harvesting and processing and HACCP.

Dr. Charles Gerba

Charles Gerba

The University of Arizona
Environmental Science
Professor

Viruses and parasites in food and water; disinfectants, quantitative microbial risk assessment. Research projects include water quality of irrigation waters and development of microbial standards for irrigation waters.

Leila Hudson

The University of Arizona
Middle Eastern and North African Studies
Associate Professor

Murat Kacira

The University of Arizona
Agricultural-Biosystems Engineering
Professor

Teaching - Biosystems Thermal Engineering (Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics), Applied Instrumentation and Autonomous Data Acquisition.

Research - Phytomonitoring, machine vision for plant health and growth monitoring, resource use optimization in CEA systems, aerodynamics analysis of CEA systems using computational fluid dynamics, alternative energy integrated CEA systems.

Lindsay Kohler

The University of Arizona
College of Public Health
Assistant Professor of Practice
Bibiana Law

Bibiana Law

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Associate Research Professor

Vaccination of animals to reduce transmission of foodborne pathogens; Vaccination of animals against diseases; Campylobacter and Salmonella in the environment and foods.

Research Focus - Development of a vaccine to reduce Campylobacter in chickens; Development of a vaccine to prevent swine dysentery in pigs.

Jerry Lopez

Jerry Lopez

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Assistant Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development-STEM
Assistant Professor

Dr. Lopez’s current research focuses on food safety, water quality and transmission of pathogens in indoor environments. The detection of viruses and bacteria in environmental water samples (lakes and rivers used for recreation, agriculture irrigation systems, potable distribution systems) and fresh produce such as leafy greens is critical to reducing the risk to humans from contact with fresh produce and contaminated water.

Teressa Lopez

Arizona Department of Agriculture
Arizona Leafy Greens Food Safety Committee
Administrator
Roland Mader

Roland Mader

Arizona Department of Agriculture
Animal Services Division
Administrator Food Safety and Quality Assurance
Dairy and Egg Specialist

Tilak Mahato

The University of Arizona
Agricultural-Biosystems Engineering
Research Specialist

Rick Mann

Arizona Department of Agriculture
Animal Services Division
Program Manager Meat and Poultry Inspection
Jean McLain

Jean McLain

The University of Arizona
Environmental Science
Research Scientist
Assistant Dean, Faculty Advancement

Past FSC Chair

- Microbiological quality of irrigation water (cultural and molecular)
- Microbiology of soils (cultural and molecular)
- Antibiotic resistance (cultural and molecular)

Research - Pathogen transmission to crops from animals; Dredging influences on canal water quality; Guidelines for irrigation water sample collection; Assessment of Escherichia coli as an indicator.

Leatta McLaughlin

Leatta McLaughlin

Arizona Department of Agriculture
Commodity Development and Promotion
Assistant Director

Trudy Morrow

The University of Arizona
Nutritional Sciences
Administrative Associate
Ian Pepper

Ian Pepper

The University of Arizona
Environmental Science
Professor

Research:

- soils and human health

- potable water quality including real- time sensors for microbial and chemical contaminants

- fate of emerging microbial and biological contaminants

- water and wastewater reuse

Tedley Pihl

Tedley Pihl

The University of Arizona
Nutritional Sciences
Assistant Professor of Practice

Certified Food Scientist with expertise in food and beverage product development and innovation.

Teaching – Food Studies Lab, Fundamentals of Food Science and Safety.

U of A Food Science Club Advisor

Cactus Section IFT Board Member

Kristen Pogreba-Brown

Kristen Pogreba-Brown

The University of Arizona
College of Public Health
Assistant Professor

Food Safety Interest - How foodborne outbreaks are investigated and incorporating new methods to detect and respond in a more efficient and timely manner. I am also interested in the risk factors associated with Campylobacter infections.

Research Focus - long-term Campylobacter surveillance, risk assessment using epidemiologic data.

Walter Ram

The Giumarra Companies
Vice President of Food Safety

Ariel Ramirez Valencia

Pima Community College
Adult Education
Kelly Reynolds

Kelly Reynolds

The University of Arizona
College of Public Health
Professor

Food Safety Interest - Farm to table risk assessment and microbial monitoring.

Research Focus - Bacterial and virus culture, Electron microscopy, water quality monitoring, food testing, public health messaging.

Channah Rock

Channah Rock

The University of Arizona
Environmental Science
Associate Specialist, Soil/Water and Environmental Science

Food Safety Interest - Water and Environmental related food safety issues including survival, fate and transport of pathogens to leafy green produce.

Research and Extension projects include Microbial Source Tracking in irrigation waters used for produce, the impacts of canal maintenance on irrigation water quality, as well as the influence of risk based sampling strategies for growers in Arizona and California.

Candy Rodriguez

The University of Arizona
Pinal County Cooperative Extension
Extension Program Assistant
Donato Romagnolo

Donato Romagnolo

The University of Arizona
Nutritional Sciences
Professor

Charles Sanchez

The University of Arizona
Environmental Science
Research Scientist

Research Focus

- plant nutrient utilization

- soil and water management

- salinity, and fate and transport of agriculturally derived chemicals and environmental toxins

Jonathan Sexton

Jonathan Sexton

The University of Arizona
Community Environment and Policy
Research Specialist, Senior

The applied use of disinfectants and sanitizers on porous and non-porous surfaces in the healthcare arena.

Jennifer Stewart

Jennifer Stewart

Maricopa County Department of Public Health
Epidemiologist

Rosie Stewart

The University of Arizona
Cooperative Extension
Assistant Area Agent
Family, Consumer, and Health Sciences

My goal is to learn more about food safety and bring more food safety programming to Santa Cruz County.

Akrum Tamimi

Akrum Tamimi

The University of Arizona
Agricultural-Biosystems Engineering
Assistant Professor of Practice

Parasitic diseases

Research - Biology of Animal Parasites, Ecology of Infectious Diseases, This Wormy World/ transmission dynamics of protozoan and helminth parasites.

Gary Thompson

Gary Thompson

The University of Arizona
Agricultural and Resource Economics
Head
Russ Tronstrad

Russ Tronstrad

The University of Arizona
Agricultural and Resource Economics
Specialist

Dr. Tronstad’s research interests include agricultural marketing, risk management, international trade, and operations research methods. Fruit and vegetable commodities, range livestock, and field crops are a part of his research and extension activities. Much of his work focuses on decision tools and aids that jointly consider production, marketing, and risk factors.

Gayatri Vedantam

Gayatri Vedantam

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Professor

The goal of our research is to investigate the mechanism(s) of gut colonization by the diarrheic disease pathogen Clostridium difficileC. difficileis the etiologic agent of C. difficile infection (CDI), a leading cause of nosocomial disease world-wide. CDI causes a spectrum of disease manifestations that range from mild diarrhea to lethal pseudomembranous colitis. Over 400,000 cases of CDI occur annually in the USA, imposing a $3.2 billion excess burden on the healthcare system. Research in our laboratory is focused on the molecular characterization of non-toxin virulence factors of C. difficile, and is aimed at designing interventions to combat as well as prevent CDI. We are also involved in multiple surveillance studies in Tucson-area hospitals that quantitate the incidence of both nosocomial and community-acquired CDI, via direct bacterial culture of patient samples as well as recovery of spores from abiotic environments such as hospital surfaces.

Marc Verhougstraete

Marc Verhougstraete

The University of Arizona
Community Environment and Policy
Assistant Professor

Dr. Verhougstraete's primary research has focused on environmental microbiology and water quality. To this aspect, Marc's  focus is primarily on understanding the sources, occurrence, and transport of waterborne pathogens using fecal indicator organisms and molecular source tracking.  Marc's research interests also include the integration of microbial water quality with hydrological catchment dynamics, landscape patterns, and Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment to improve environmental management that protect human and ecosystem health. Recent efforts investigate the effects of intervention practices in the healthcare systems to reduce the transmission of pathogenic agents and associated healthcare infections.

Virinchipuram Viswanathan

VK Viswanathan

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Associate Professor

My laboratory is interested in the interactions between pathogenic bacteria and host cells. Specifically, we study the mechanisms by which enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (“spinach- or hamburger E. coli”) and related bacteria cause disease.

Hope Wilson

Hope Wilson

The University of Arizona
Cooperative Extension
Area Associate Agent
Family Consumer Health Sciences

Chair, Communications Committee

Oversees retail and consumer food safety outreach and education programs for families, older adults, childcare centers, restaurants and other licensed food establishments, farmers markets and local food microentrepreneurs. Retail and Consumer Food Safety Education Area responsibilities include Coconino, Maricopa, Mohave, Pima and Yavapai Counties.

Shari Yeatts

Shari Yeatts

Hickman Farms
Food Safety Coordinator
Dr. Margie Sánchez-Vega

Margie Sánchez-Vega

The University of Arizona
School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Assistant Professor of Practice

Food safety through training, Food microbiology, Functional foods