I lead the CQA Supply Chain team who supports our internal business partners with supplier review, product review, label review, and selection of co-manufacturers for our Publix store brand products. I also maintain the majority of the activities from my previous role as the Produce Food Safety Coordinator.

♦ Support Fresh Foods Manufacturing (3 locations) as the CQA-QA Manager and GFSI-SQF Practitioner, developing and implementing the food safety and quality assurance compliance programs, and internal audit inspections♦ Provide food safety support to the Produce Retail Business Unit (RBU) by improving and strengthening the Produce Good Agricultural Practices programs with suppliers of fresh fruits and vegetables♦ Act as the CQA Stakeholder and Project Manager in Private Label Fresh Produce Speed to Market process by: approving the supplier production facilities from a QA and food safety perspective, and approving the final product and verifying “first-run samples” of the product.♦ Work in collaboration with the Produce RBU serving as the subject matter expert on food safety and regulatory compliance for category reviews and line extension/reformulation approvals♦ Work in collaboration with the Produce RBU by conducting risk-based food safety second-party audits for high-risk fresh fruits and vegetable suppliers♦ Continuously improve food safety programs associated with fresh fruits and vegetables♦ Act as Publix’s advocate during Publix’s interaction with regulatory agencies and trade associations involving matters with fresh fruits and vegetables♦ Collect, review, and evaluate scientific data associated with the produce industry to make recommendations for food safety process improvements at Publix

♦ Updated training materials for educational programs and drafted technical reports and correspondence to various industry personnel♦ Participated in the Silliker's collaborative produce testing initiative♦ Assisted and tailored Silliker's customized courses for food industry clients♦ Supported special studies and projects for different industry sectors at the food science center from method validation to development in food microbiology

Supervised by Dr. Richard Linton♦ Developed and implemented a computer-based simulation for the food industry, regulatory agencies, and food defense related groups to determine the potential magnitude of economic and public health impacts during a virtual attack on the food supply. ♦ Developed, validated, and facilitated bioterrorism scenarios modeled through the simulation system as training exercises for the food industry, regulatory agencies, and other food defense related stakeholders.

Supervised by Dr. Shu-I-Tu♦ Performed Time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay (TRF) that was used to detect Salmonella spp., to compliment my research thesis.

Supervised by Dr. Steven Thomas ♦ Learn operation, experimental design, and multivariate analysis for pyrolysis Molecular Beam Mass Spectroscopy (py-MBMS) experimentation and NIR Spectroscopy. Performed py-MBMS and chemometric analyses on samples selected from a primary genetic screen of mutant corn plants using NIR completed