About Us

 | Principals | Consultants | Graduate Students | Advisory Boards |
  

Jeffrey J. Sholl, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer, BT Safety LLC

Dr. Jeff Sholl has had over 34 years of experience in the processed food and fresh produce industries.  He has held senior management positions in Research and Development, Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing and Quality Control, and Plant Breeding.  He currently serves as Managing Director of Potandon Produce LLC and as Owner and President of The Sholl Group II, which markets branded fresh produce under the Green Giant label. Jeff works closely with numerous trade associations representing the fresh produce industry including United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, Western Grower’s Association, International Fresh Cut Vegetable Association, and the Produce Marketing Association.  He also works closely with several grower/shippers of fresh produce, some of which provided the data necessary to build Food Incident Profiles discussed previously. Through his experience in various food companies, Jeff has had hands-on experience in several trace and recall incidents.  He has a thorough understanding of the distribution chain for highly perishable fresh produce and the logistical issues that arise during a recall event.  In collaboration with USDA, FDA and Pillsbury R&D, Green Giant developed guidelines for the sprout industry on safe handling procedures for sprouts and initiated the first hold and release program for broccoli sprouts. 

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Susan K. Harlander, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President Government and Industry Relations, BT Safety LLC

Dr. Susan Harlander has worked with the food industry for over 20 years and for 9 of those years held senior research and development management positions in the food industry where she was involved in several trace recall incidents involving dairy and processed food products.  She served as her company’s representative on numerous dairy and food industry trade association committees (Grocery Manufacturers of America, National Food Processors Association, International Dairy Foods Association, etc.) and has maintained contact with these organizations since establishing her consulting company in 2000.  Susan currently serves as a consultant to farm organizations, grain processors, food manufacturing companies, trade associations, and biotechnology providers, and has been active in domestic and international issues related to traceability and identity preservation of genetically modified foods.  Susan was the principal investigator on numerous grants and has published over 110 referred papers, book chapters and monographs.  She has edited 2 books and has made over 400 presentations to scientific and lay audiences. She has served on FDA’s Science Board, FDA’s Food Advisory Committee, USDA’s National Agricultural Research, Education, Extension and Economics Advisory Board, and the NRC’s Board on Agriculture and Food Chemicals Codex Committees, so she has an understanding of the issues facing food regulatory agencies.  As a former Associate Professor of Food Microbiology and Biotechnology, Susan brings extensive experience in food microbiology and an understanding of biological and chemical agents that could be used in food bioterrorism, as well as naturally occurring pathogens that contaminate the food supply. 

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Andrew M. Jaine, Ph.D.

Chief Technology Officer, Food Security Systems, LLC

Dr. Andrew Jaine is a seasoned technology executive with over thirty years experience in all facets of technology and information processing.  Andy has spent his entire career building computer-based systems that simplify and automate complex processes.  He combines proven abilities as a leader of technology development teams, proven success in managing technology businesses, and an in-depth understanding of all aspects of computer system development.  Andy is experienced in conceptualizing, designing, developing and implementing innovative, effective solutions to complex technology problems and has successfully developed a wide range of technology products, from computer operating systems and language processors to expert systems.  The range of domains that Andy has explored is very wide, spanning from underwriting insurance policies to making recommendations for personal wellness and building advertising campaigns.  The primary skill Andy has brought to these domains is the ability to bring scientific methods to bear to discern the real (rather than perceived) factors affecting an outcome, to identify the relative importance of these factors, and then to use all this information to build powerful, easy-to-use computer systems that collect the required data to render accurate decisions and recommendations.  Andy developed a business from startup to dominant vendor of on-line, integrated banking systems in its market segment.  These banking systems, which Andy designed, implemented and maintained, spanned the total retail operations of a bank, from accepting customer transactions through teller terminals and ATMs, posting those to customer accounts, assessing interest on those accounts, posting the General Ledger, and generating customer statements.  The system was required to have the highest level of accuracy, reliability, and security, a fact that was validated by regular audits by external authorities.

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Consultants

Kristin Colony conducts literature searches on agents and food categories, participates in distribution data collection, develops agent and food profiles, drafts scenario descriptions and manages quality control testing of software systems.  Kris has previous experience with data collection and beta-testing of software systems during her tenure at Data Recognition Corporation.  Kristin has a BA in physics with minors in history, mathematics, and Russian Studies.

Jennifer Greshowak has 14 years of experience in media relations and communications, crisis communication, public relations, market research, and strategic planning.  She served as the Public Information Officer for the Hospital Emergency Incident Command System and U.S. Department of Homeland Security FEMA IS-00700 National Incident Management System Coordinator at Lakeview Medical Center.  Her media relations career includes experience at Padilla Speer Beardsley; Media Relations, Inc.; Pitch Right Communications; and Medallion Laboratories of General Mills Inc.  Jennifer is responsible for literature reviews and agent and disease profiles for all bioterrorism agents of interest to NBACC.  She is also participating in interviews of medical doctors on recognition and response. 

Dr. Joellen Feirtag is an Associate Professor of Food Safety in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota who is spending a 6 month sabbatical working with BTSafety.  Joellen has extensive experience in industry (Chr. Hansen Laboratories, Anheuser-Busch, FreshCheck) and academia (UW-LaCrosse, Acadia University, Technical University of Nova Scotia) where her research and extension activities have focused on food microbiology and food safety.  Joellen consults with a number of companies that process foods on FDA and NBACC’s high priority list and assists in distribution data collection from these companies.  In addition, she advises one of the students working on NBACC projects.   

 Dr. Richard Fischer has over 37 years of experience in the food industry (Continental Grain Company and The Pillsbury Company) and was the co-founder and president of Advanced Microbial Systems, Inc., a manufacturer of biological products for agriculture and waste remediation.  Rick has an MS in organic chemistry, a PhD in food science and an MBA.   Rick’s network in the microbiology community has been instrumental in helping us determine masses of bioterrorism agents that could be manufactured and added to foods, and has contributed to determining the processing and storage stability of various bioterrorism agents.  He has also collected category information for various foods and has participated in distribution data collection. 

 Tamarind Keating spent several years as an epidemiologist and surveillance coordinator at the Washington State Department of Health, as an epidemiology consultant to The Simi Group and a disease intervention specialist for Seattle and King County.  Tamarind provides subject matter expertise in epidemiology, disease etiology, foodborne illness outbreak investigations and data management.  She is currently pursuing an MS degree in the Infectious Disease Adult Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Washington School of Nursing. 

 Dr. Judy Ohannesian is an accomplished senior supply chain logistics executive with experience in several major corporations including Land O’Lakes, The Pillsbury Company and Arden Industrial Products.  She currently consults with several Fortune 500 companies on supply chain strategic planning and execution and serves as an adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota where she teaches courses in Supply Chain Logistics and International Operations Management.

Mr. Gary Sprung brings over 35 years of practical software development, hardware, operating system, and programming experience to BTSafety.  Most recently he held the position of  senior programmer analyst for Computer Sciences Corporation where he developed a chem./bio tracing application to input data from weather models. DOD Secret Security Clearance was granted in February 2006.  Gary is proficient with Design Patterns, C, C++, Java, JSP, servlets, JavaScript, XML, XSLT, CSS, tcl/tk, shell scripts, FORTRAN, Open Firmware, Forth, BASIC, and assembler on many operating systems (Windows, DOS, Linux, AIX, OS/2, polyFORTH).

Keri Schwartz is a registered nurse who is pursuing an MS degree in the Infectious Disease Adult Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Washington School of Nursing.  Keri has had extensive laboratory experience at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals, at the UC Berkeley Molecular Biology Department, SFSU Biology Department, Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc, and NIH.  Keri assists in epidemiology data collection at law firms.   

Mr. Jim Tchobanoff previously served as manager of the Technology Knowledge Center at the Pillsbury Company where he was responsible for all aspects of library operations, delivering high-quality information services and products to Pillsbury’s worldwide R&D community.  He developed simple end-user computer systems to collect, organize, and make R&D reports, researched documents and made other intellectual property readily accessible to R&D staff.  He has extensive experience and proven leadership in the library and information field in the food industry.  The current project requires comprehensive literature searches in a variety of areas to provide input to the models and to identify data requirement gaps.  Mr. Tchobanoff serves as the library and information management consultant for the project.

 Julie Wicklund is an experienced epidemiology who is adept at initiating and conducting surveillance and foodborne illness outbreak investigations.  She has served an a foodborne disease epidemiologist in the States of Minnesota and Washington for over 10 years.   Julie spent four years as the Bioterrorism Program Coordinator during her tenure at Washington State Department of Health, Communicable Disease Epidemiology where she coordinated bioterrorism preparedness and response plan assessment and development.   She served as an epidemiologist for the Infection Control Advisory Network.  Julie is well networked into the epidemiology and public health department communities and has been instrumental in collecting and interpreting data from State and local public health departments and from CDC.    

Carol Windfeldt brings over 25 years of experience in the food industry (The Pillsbury Company) and the over-the-counter drug industry (CNS, Inc., The BreatheRight Company) where her focus has been in providing insight on consumer trends to guide corporate growth strategy and leading new business and new product development initiatives from a consumer-based perspective. Carol has a successful consulting business in the area of marketing research and has worked extensively with market research firms such as NPD and Nielsen.  Carol manages all of the consumption data collection and in-home handling custom research studies for BTSafety.

Graduate Students

Katherine Grimm has a BS in Biology and an MPH in Epidemiology and is pursuing a PhD in Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Minnesota.  Katherine currently serves as the System Director for Emergency Preparedness at HealthEast Care System where she chairs HealthEast’s Disaster and Safety and Security Task Forces and designs, controls and evaluates internal and community-wide emergency exercises.  She is the vice chair of the Metropolitan Hospital Compact, a DHS site assessor, and has served as hospital exercise controllers in Michigan and Alaska.  She has also had experience at the Marshfield Clinic.  Katherine is interested in exploring the impact of a bioterrorist attack in the food supply on the public health infrastructure of a major metropolitan area.  She has participated in interviews of medical doctors and clinical laboratories.  

 Lily Guimond has a BS degree in geology from the University of Minnesota and will enroll in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota in the fall.  She was previously employed as a quality engineer and chemical analyst for Webasto Sunroof Systems and the National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics.  Lily is responsible for distribution data collection for dairy products (fluid milk and ice cream), preparation of food profiles and category descriptions, and distribution data entry into databases. 

 Ben Miller has a BA in Biology from Macalester College, an MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Minnesota and is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Health at the University of Minnesota.  Ben also works full time as a Senior Project Consultant in the Dairy and Food Inspection Division of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and has previously served as an epidemiology in the Acute Disease Investigation and Control Section of the Minnesota Department of Health.  Ben has been working closely with CDC to design web-based expert elicitation questionnaires on a variety of agents including Clostridium botulinum toxin, E. coli 0157:H7 and anthrax.  This process will be used for the variety of agents of interest to NBACC and FDA. 

 Jessica Saylor has BS degrees in Biotechnology and Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and is currently pursuing an MS degree in Food Science in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota under the direction of Joellen Feirtag.  Jessica’s previous experience includes several years as a research scientist at Paradigm Diagnostics where she was responsible for testing incoming environmental samples for Listeria spp. and for researching new rapid detection methods.  She also has laboratory experience at Deli Express, Upsher-Smith Laboratories and Koch Materials, Inc.  Jessica has been working directly with food industries to determine standard food testing methods for foods of interest to NBACC and determining whether or not bioterrorism agents would be detected using these methods.  She is also working with clinical laboratories to determine methods and timing for detection of NBACC’s list of bioterrorism agents.     

Scientific Advisory Board 

BT Safety has enlisted the service of a number of highly experienced experts to serve on their Scientific Advisory Board:    

• Dr. Jeff Bender, Assistant Professor, Center for Animal Health and Food Safety, Department of Veterinary Public Health, University of Minnesota
  Dr. Bender’s areas of research interest include food safety, zoonoses, and emerging diseases. 
  

• Dr. Frank Busta, Professor Emeritus, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota
  
  Dr. Busta specializes in the microbiology of foodborne diseases.  He has served on numerous advisory committees for USDA, FDA and IFT. 
  

• Dr. Craig Hedberg, Associate Professor, Environment and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota
  
  Dr. Hedberg is an epidemiologist and former Director of the Minnesota Department of Public Health where he was in charge of foodborne illness outbreak investigations. 
  

• Dr. Will Hueston, Professor and Director, Center for Animal Health and Food Safety, University of Minnesota
  
  Dr. Hueston is a leading authority in the area of risk communication and has personal experience in incident management at both USDA and FDA. 
  

• Dr. David Kendall, Professor of Economics, University of Virginia’s College at Wise
  
  Dr. Kendall has extensive experience conducting applied economic analysis, statistical analysis, quantitative market modeling, and survey research.  He has designed and developed a variety of simulation models for use in regulatory and market analysis, and currently leads a project to model the effects of food handling practices on the incidence of foodborne illness.
  

• Dr. Shaun Kennedy, Associate Director, Center for Animal Health and Food Safety, University of Minnesota
  
  Dr. Kennedy will assist in the areas of administration, budget management and facilitation of reporting requirements to the Agency.
  

• Dr. Ted Labuza, Professor, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota
  
  Dr. Labuza has been a consultant to most major food companies and an advisor to regulatory agencies. 
  

• Ms. Judy Ohannesian, Supply Chain and Logistics Consultant
  
  Ms. Ohannesian has extensive experience in logistics, transportation and supply chain management for Land O’Lakes and The Pillsbury Company, and as a consultant for numerous firms in the upper Midwest. She currently teaches supply chain logistics at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.
  
  

• Dr. Mike Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, UMN

Industrial Advisory Board 

·         Harry Balzer BP National Product Diary Group

·         Scott Brooks, DVM, Sr Director Quality Assurance, E&J Gallo; former Director of Food Safety Programs for the U.S. Air Force

·         Bruce Cords, Ph.D., VP Environment, Food Safety & Public Health, Ecolab

·         Dr. Ted Cronk, Target Corporation

·         Art Davis, Ph.D., VP Operations, Green Giant Fresh

·         Richard Fischer, Ph.D., CEO, Advanced Microbial Systems, Inc.

·         Judy Ohannesian, former VP Logistics, Pillsbury and Land O’Lakes, Carlson School of Management, UMN

·         Cliff Pappas, Ph.D., former VP Frito Lay, American Institute of Banking

·         Mike Paxton, Chairman/CEO, American Freightways (Transport Corporation of America)

·         Leah Peters, M.S., VP R&D Pizza Hut

·         William Pursley, M.S., VP Food Safety Education and International Development, American Institute of Baking

·         Dennis Smith, former Sr Quality Systems Auditor, Kraft Foods

·         Katherine Swanson, Ph.D., VP Food Safety, Ecolab

·         Mary Wagner, Ph.D., CTO, E&J Gallo; former CTO, Taco Bell

·       Carol Watzke, VP, CNS (The BreatheRight Company)