Food Protection Trends - September/October 2023 - 420

BEYOND the BIO
BEYOND the BIO
Name: Tori Stivers
Employment: UGA Public Service Associate - Seafood Safety
Location: Athens, Georgia
Stivers' career casts a wide net onto seafood
safety education, awareness
Title
Tori Stivers dreamed of a career as a veterinarian. When she enrolled in the
pre-veterinarian program at the University of Georgia as an undergraduate student,
she was sure of a future helping animals and their owners. That is, until she realized
there was quite a bit of blood involved in certain procedures and operations.
" The sight of blood made me faint, so
I realized that was not a realistic career
choice, " Stivers said. " But I liked science
and the outdoors, so I explored the field of
agronomy. From there, a friend suggested
I check out a small department on campus
called food science. "
Stivers would later find out many of her
classmates discovered the food science
department by chance or through a recommendation,
much like she did. She took
some courses and attended a social gathering
with other students in the program.
" One of the first times we were all hanging
out at a restaurant, we started reading
labels on condiment bottles and musing
about the different ingredients and their
functions, " Stivers said. " At that point, I felt
like I had found my tribe. "
Growing up in the Atlanta area, Stivers
loved the logic of science and math. While
there weren't heavy science influences from
her family, she often watched Star Trek and
found one of main characters, Spock, to
approach problems with a non-emotional,
objective point of view. It was something
she gravitated toward as she completed
both her undergraduate and master's
degrees in food science and technology
at the University of Georgia (UGA).
" After a four-year stint with a dairy supplier
in St. Louis, I started working for the
University of Georgia Marine Extension
and Georgia Sea Grant as their first seafood
specialist, " Stivers said. " So, I had to define
what my role would be. Food microbiology
wasn't one of my favorite courses in
college, so I had to seek out resources that
applied to what I was doing. "
Stivers credits the International Association
for Food Protection (IAFP) for
helping shape her career in extension. She
joined IAFP in 1993 and was immediately
drawn to the seafood safety and quality
420 Food Protection Trends September/October
420 Food Protection Trends September/October
professional development group. She met
others in similar roles and started to orient
her job duties to be more focused on seafood
safety outreach and training. Today, in her role
as a UGA Public Service Associate - Seafood
Safety, she promotes safe consumption and
processing of seafood through a variety
of extension programs and campaigns as
well as promotes and supports the Georgia
seafood industry. In her role as a seafood
HACCP instructor, she has trained more
than 600 people.
One of Stivers' major projects was an
outreach effort funded by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) on the subject of Vibrio vulnificus,
a marine bacterium that occurs naturally
in marine or brackish water environments
such as estuaries or coastal areas, especially
in the south Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of
Mexico. Given Georgia's location and her
work with the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation
Conference, Stivers was in a prime
spot to lead this work.
" Consumption of raw oysters, clams or
mussels or occupational or recreational
exposure to warm marine waters puts
Name: Tori Stivers
Employment: University of Georgia
Location: Peachtree City, Georgia
Food Protection Trends - September/October 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Food Protection Trends - September/October 2023
