Food Protection Trends - May/June 2023 - 202

COMMENTARY
FROM YOUR PRESIDENT | Michelle D. Danyluk
May is probably my favorite
month of the year. Growing up
it meant my birthday, Mother's
Day (in Canada and the U.S.),
Victoria Day (or the May-long as
we commonly called the weekend)
and the proper start of spring. May
Day trees, lilacs, daffodils, and
lily of the valley would (usually)
bloom, and we could start to
put out the garden and bedding plants after May-long.
The end of the school year was in sight, and it felt like new
opportunities were just around the corner.
I have the same feeling right now with IAFP.
We can look back at David Tharp's tenure as the IAFP
Executive Director as a period of tremendous stability and
strengthening of the association. IAFP is what it is today
because of him and his tireless efforts. I hope you will join
me in celebrating his retirement at the Annual Meeting
during the lunch hour on Wednesday; there is much to
celebrate.
There have been many unprecedented events at IAFP
this year.
I want to thank Isabel Walls for standing in the
President-Elect election; her dedication and belief in IAFP
and its mission never fail to impress me. I am pleased to
welcome Tim Jackson back onto the IAFP Board in the role
of President-Elect.
JFP's transition to Open Access is mostly complete; the
archived versions back to 1937 are online, 2023 publications
are populating the newest edition, and I'm hearing much less
grumbling from my academic colleagues about it.
The transition from David to Lisa is also complete.
I thank them both and all the IAFP staff for their efforts
during this period. Change is never easy. One of Lisa's first
moves was to promote Tamara Ford, who has been working
for years with the Program Committee to the position of
Assistant Director.
Looking forward, I'm excited for the IAFP European
Symposium in Aberdeen - the educational program
looks fantastic, congratulations to Luca Cocolin and the
Organizing Committee for their efforts. Congratulations
to all the 2023 IAFP Award winners - thank you for your
ongoing involvement in the association! Please consider
serving as a mentor in IAFP's Mentor-Match program, to
help guide the next generation of IAFP professionals. I'm
thrilled to welcome Manan Sharma to the IAFP Board
as secretary at the conclusion of this year's IAFP Annual
Meeting. I also appreciate Yuhuan Chen for her willingness
to stand for election - an active IAFP Member she's sure to
lead us in the future.
(Continued on page 283)
FROM YOUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | Lisa K. Hovey
PANIC! That is what hit me
when David Tharp announced
his retirement. It was more than
26 years ago that David hired me
as the Director of Finance. My
background is in accounting. I
graduated from the University of
Northern Iowa with my Bachelor's
in Accounting and earned my CPA
designation. After graduation,
I worked as an auditor for Deloitte & Touche. In that role,
I was introduced to the International Association of Milk,
Food and Environmental Sanitarians (IAMFES). As an
auditor, most companies did not look forward to my visit
and were anxious for my work to be done. Going to the
IAMFES office was enjoyable because we were welcomed
with smiling faces. David and the Staff had all documents
ready for our review. When I saw the ad in the local paper
for the Director of Finance for IAMFES, I sent my resume.
And that has been one of the best decisions of my life.
The year was 1997, and Michael Brodsky was President.
The Association had 2,777 Members. The Annual Meeting
was held in Orlando, Florida, and we celebrated a record202
Food Protection Trends May/June
breaking attendance of just over 1,000 attendees. Today we
have 4,382 Members and are expecting over 3,500 attendees
at IAFP 2023 in Toronto - it could quite possibly be another
record-setting year!
Now back to PANIC! What does the Association
look like without David? How do we make this work? And
then I thought about what originally attracted me to the
Association - the dedicated staff and Members. Our staff
has an average of 20 years working for IAFP! This is led by
Julie Cattanach who will celebrate her 38-year anniversary at
IAFP in August! She is followed by Pam Wanninger, Donna
Bahun, myself, Farrah Benge, Tamara Ford, Susan Smith,
Jen Feeney and Dina Siedenburg. In March we welcomed
Andrea De Bruin! As I like to tell people - we are small but
MIGHTY! As Phil Jackson, famous basketball player and
coach, said " The strength of the team is each individual
member. The strength of each member is the team. "
So once the panic attack had subsided, I updated my
resume and sent it to the search committee. My sincere
thanks to the search committee for selecting me and for all
those who have reached out and offered their support! I am
excited to lead IAFP into the next chapter of Advancing Food
Safety Worldwide®
.
Food Protection Trends - May/June 2023

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