Division of Environmental Health Food Safety and Sanitation Program

Speaker Biographies

Return to April, 2022 FPTF Agenda

Kimberly Stryker

Program Manager, Food Safety and Sanitation Program, Division of Environmental Health

Kimberly Stryker is the manager for the Alaska Food Safety & Sanitation program. Alaska’s program is responsible for food safety and sanitation oversight for a wide range of activities, including molluscan shellfish, retail and food service, manufactured food, pools and spas, and body art shops. Kim has been with the program for the past 22 years, managing it for the past 10.

Contact: kimberly.stryker@alaska.gov

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Miriam Burbach

District Director Seattle District and Program Division Director of the Office of Human and Animal Foods- Division 6 West U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Miriam R. Burbach is the Director, FDA’s Seattle District Office, in charge of field operations. Her responsibilities include providing executive leadership, and implementing, managing and evaluating FDA's regulatory operations within the District which is comprised of the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington; and providing the Executive leadership and technical direction to staff in the execution of investigations, inspections, enforcement and compliance programs. Since the implementation of the Office of Regulatory Affairs’ Program Alignment initiative on May 15, 2017, she is also the Program Division Director where she oversees direction and coordination of FDA investigational and compliance activities for the Human and Animal Food Programs. There are 13 FDA offices and one FDA Laboratory located in the five-state area. Prior to these appointments she was the Compliance Director, in FDA’s Seattle District Office from 2009-2014, where her responsibilities included providing leadership to the global operations compliance staff. Ms. Burbach implemented, managed and evaluated FDA's compliance operations. She provided leadership and technical assistance to compliance staff in the execution of enforcement and compliance programs. Prior to obtaining her position as the Seattle District Compliance Director, Ms. Burbach was the Federal-State Program Director for Seattle District, from 2004 – 2009, coordinating state work and emergency response work in the five state area. She was also a Compliance Officer with the FDA Office of Enforcement, Division of Case Management From 2000 – 2004, providing compliance and regulatory guidance to Team Biologics investigators, reviewing inspectional casework of vaccine, allergenic, therapeutic drug, viral marker test kits, plasma derivatives manufacturers. She was also a supervisor in the Seattle Distinct Investigations Branch from 1990 – 2000, and an investigator in San Francisco District and Seattle District from 1983 – 1988. Ms. Burbach has served on several committees within FDA including the Center for Veterinary Medicine field committee, Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) working groups, the Pacific Region import work group, the FSMA Preventive Controls for Food and Feeds work group, the Program Alignment food/feed Action Plan Negotiation Team and the Advisory Council for FDA State Liaisons. She is the recipient of the 2019 Orien J. Wiermann Award for her dedicated service and enduring support to the Western Association of Food and Drug Officials. Ms. Burbach holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Contact: miriam.burbach@fda.hhs.gov

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Katey Kennedy

FDA Retail Food Specialist

Ms. Kennedy began her career in FDA as a microbiologist in the lab in Boston at the Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center. She then worked for eight years as a Training Officer for the FDA State Training Branch in Rockville, MD, where she designed, developed and delivered a wide range of national technical training programs on various aspects of food safety.

Ms. Kennedy currently works as a FDA Retail Food Specialist, providing technical assistance, training and code interpretations to State and local food programs as part of FDA’s Cooperative Programs. She serves as the lead for the states of HI, OR and Alaska.

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Adam Kramer

Environmental Health Officer

Dr. Adam Kramer is an Environmental Health Officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health’s food safety team. He has a Doctorate from Tulane University and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Arizona. He has certifications as both a Registered Sanitarian and Certified Food Scientist. Adam has over 25 years’ experience in environmental health, starting out at the local level for eight years, and then moving to the National Park Service Office of Public Health, where his duties included evaluating food, water, wastewater, and any other issues of public health concern. He has been with CDC for 5 years primarily working with the Environmental Health Specialists Network and the National Environmental Assessment Reporting System, examining the role of restaurant characteristics and practices on food safety practices.

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Lee-Ann Jaykus

Professor

Dr. Lee-Ann Jaykus is a William Neal Reynolds Professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her formal training is in Food Safety/Food Microbiology (Purdue University) and Environmental Sciences/Public Health (the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Dr. Jaykus is probably best known for her efforts in food virology, having served as the scientific director of the USDA-NIFA Food Virology Collaborative (NoroCORE project) for over seven years. She has 30 years of experience training undergraduate and graduate students in food microbiology; leading food safety research projects; and working with external stakeholders in the food and beverage industry, sanitation and hygiene sector, and with cruise lines. Having authored or co-authored over 200 scientific publications, Dr. Jaykus’ other professional activities have included membership on the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF); participation in several National Academies consensus studies and as a member of the Food and Nutrition Board; and as a member of the executive board of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), for which she served as president in 2010-2011. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Jaykus stepped in to work with the food industry, focusing on controlling disease transmission in the essential workforce.

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Angela Fraser

Professor

Angela Fraser is a professor in the Department of Food, Nutrition, and Packaging Sciences. Her primary research and scholarly activities focus on the development and evaluation of infection control interventions in food and healthcare settings. At present, Angela is the PI of an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality grant aimed to establish the evidence base for vomit clean up. Angela also teaches nutrition and food science courses, such as Evidence-based Nutrition, Community Nutrition, and the Evidence-Base of the FDA Food Code.

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Claudia Coles

President, Seafood Products Association

Claudia Coles is President of the Seafood Products Association (SPA) located in Seattle, Washington. SPA provides regulatory and scientific technical assistance to the Seafood and Food Processing Industry.

Claudia retired from the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) after 35 years of public service in 2018. During her time with WSDA she served as the Policy & External Affairs Advisor, Compliance Officer, Food Safety Program Manager, Field Inspector and Food Microbiologist . Claudia was responsible for bringing several FDA cooperative agreement projects to WSDA such as the Produce Safety Cooperative Agreement, the Rapid Response Team Cooperative Agreement, the Manufactured Foods Regulatory Program Cooperative Agreement, Recall Coordinator Cooperative Agreement as well as a variety of USDA grant projects.

Claudia is a member of several National Food Safety Committees such as the Association of Food and Drug Officials where she was the 2012-2013 President, the Food Safety Preventive Control Alliance (FSPCA) where she is part of the Trainer of Trainer Workgroup and the Seafood HACCP Alliance (SHA) Executive Board. As a State Regulator she participated on the Partnership for Food Protection (PFP) Governance Council, the National Conference of Interstate Milk Shippers and held a variety of board positions on Regional and National Food Safety Associations. Claudia is also a Past President of Western Association of Food and Drug Officials (WAFDO) the National Association of Dairy Regulatory Officials (NADRO) and the Puget Sound Institute of Food Technologists (PSIFT).

Claudia received five awards from the Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration for her consistent leadership in food safety, Seafood HACCP, Botulism Recall Team, Interstate Milk Shippers Conference committees such as Dairy HACCP and the International Certification Pilot Program, training teams, and promoting state and federal partnerships.

Claudia earned her Bachelor of Science in Food Science from North Dakota State University and she is a Class 14 graduate of the Washington Agriculture and Forestry Leadership Program.

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Virginia Ng

Director of Regulations and Food Processing, Seafood Products Association

Virginia Ng is the Director of Regulations and Food Processing at the Seafood Products Association (SPA) where she provides support to the seafood industry in regulatory compliance, training support, audit assistance, and sensory analysis. Prior to her position at SPA, Virginia did her graduate studies at California State Polytechnic University – Pomona, where she researched toxin production of Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium commonly found in canned products. With her background in microbiology, Virginia is always on the look-out for new technologies and practices to minimize and control pathogens in food. Virginia is part of the Institute of Food Technologists’ 2021 Emerging Leaders Network and looks forward to providing mentorship and collaboration wherever possible. She is an avid cook, enjoys the extra dose of cosmic radiation that comes with flying, and loves cats (even though she’s allergic to them).

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Jovana Kovacevic

Professor, Oregon State University

Dr. Jovana Kovacevic is an Assistant Professor and Food Safety Extension Specialist at the Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center (FIC) in Portland. In her current role, Dr. Kovacevic directs the food safety program at the FIC and the USDA-funded Western Regional Center to Enhance Food Safety. Her research uses molecular methods and whole genome sequencing to trace, better understand and prevent contamination events in the food chain, with particular focus on Listeria monocytogenes. Through her work with the Western Regional Center, she supports the Western U.S. region in Food Safety Modernization Act-related food safety training, education and outreach activities.

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Deb DeVlieger

National Food Expert, FDA

Debra DeVlieger is a National Food Expert in FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs and has been with the agency for 30 years. She has assisted in the development and implementation of some of FDA’s most significant food safety initiatives including the Seafood and Juice HACCP regulations, and is currently serving as co-lead to implement the Preventive Controls for Human Food regulation. Ms. DeVlieger served a key role in the development of FDAs Systems Recognition Program, and continues to participate as a team member in assessing and auditing foreign countries' food safety systems.

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LE Hegge

Corporate Quality Assurance Manager, North Pacific Fisheries, Inc

LE Hegge is the Corporate QA Manager for North Pacific Seafoods. She started her career in Alaskan seafood by working on the line in a Bristol Bay Salmon Cannery and has been working in Food Safety and Quality Assurance for over 15 years.

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Ryan Wiswesser

Co-owner, Chugach Chocolates

Ryan is the co-owner (with his wife) of Chugach Chocolates, a craft chocolate maker based in Anchorage. Prior to running Chugach Chocolates, he co-owned and ran Alaska Artisanal, an e-commerce gift box company which focused on craft, small batch Alaskan foods. Ryan started his career at accounting firm Ernst & Young in Detroit. Then worked in regulatory compliance at Boston based State Street Global Advisers, the investment management arm of State Street Corporation. He attended the University of Michigan for undergraduate (Economics) and graduate school (Accounting).

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Girish Ganjyal

Associate Professor and Extension Processing Specialist, Washington State University

Girish M. Ganjyal, Ph.D., MBA, is an Associate Professor and Extension Food Processing Specialist at Washington State University in the School of Food Science. He has also been serving as the Interim Director of the School of Food Science since January of 2020. He is also an Adjunct Faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Kansas State University. From 2009 to 2013, Dr. Ganjyal worked as a Principal Engineer in the Advanced Research Team at PepsiCo, where he made significant contributions in extrusion processing and the frying process. He also served as Principal Scientist at MGP Ingredients, Inc., from 2004 to 2009, where he made considerable contributions in the areas of extrusion processing and protein ingredients. He obtained his Ph.D. in Food and Bioprocess Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2004. Dr. Ganjyal is one of the Trainer of Trainers for the FSCPCA training courses on FSMA Preventive Controls for Human Foods and the Foreign Suppliers Verification Program. Dr. Ganjyal provides extension services in the areas of food safety, food processing, and food quality for food businesses of all types and sizes.

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