Andre C. Pierce, M.P.A., REHS joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2022, serving as the Retail Food Protection Division Director in the Office of State Cooperative Programs (OSCP). He came to the position with 34 years of experience at a local health department in building relationships, sharing knowledge, and promoting quality improvement through the Voluntary Retail Program Standards. Andre earned his B.Sc. degree in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his M.P.A. degree from North Carolina State University.

Ben Chapman, Ph.D. is Head of the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences, Professor, and Director of the Safe Plates Food Safety Extension and Research Program at North Carolina State University. With the goal of reducing foodborne illness, his group researches food handling and food safety systems, designs and implements food safety strategies, and evaluates messages and media from farm-to-fork. Since February 2020, Dr. Chapman has been providing guidance to the food sector on issues related to food safety and COVID-19. He is the Co-Chair of the STOP Foodborne Illness Board of Directors, an advocacy group for individuals affected by foodborne pathogens. Dr. Chapman also co-hosts two podcasts, Food Safety Talk and Risky or Not, and is active on social media (@benjaminchapman on Twitter).

John Zimmermann is the Vice President of Quality Assurance and Food Safety with First Watch restaurants. John has over 35 years of experience in the quality assurance and food safety field within the food processing, distribution, and foodservice industry. He serves as brand protector and ambassador at First Watch by creating, implementing, and maintaining a world-class, end-to-end quality assurance and food safety philosophy that ensures that only high-quality and safe food is served to all First Watch customers. He is responsible for establishing food safety and quality standards and developing, implementing, and leading programs and practices that will have direct impact on food safety, quality, customer satisfaction, and innovation.

Miguel Ramirez is a seasoned food manufacturing executive with more than three decades of operational leadership experience in the food industry. He currently serves as Vice President of Operations at Fresca Foods Inc. in Louisville, Colorado, where he has held progressive leadership roles over the past 13 years including Plant Manager, Director of Operations, and his current VP role. Prior to Fresca Foods, Miguel spent over 24 years with Butterball LLC, where he managed more than 12 production lines across a two-shift operation with a workforce of 350 employees.

Madisen Hodgson, M.S. is a food safety and quality assurance professional with nearly a decade of progressive experience spanning food manufacturing, retail bakery, beverage, and airline catering environments. She currently serves as a Quality Assurance Manager for a protein and nutritional bar manufacturer in Denver, Colorado, where she oversees the full food safety management system and leads a multi-shift quality assurance team across multiple production lines.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to WHO’s Dr. Elaine Borghi about the new global foodborne disease burden estimates, updates to the methodology, key insights from the data, and the importance of using data to target food safety interventions, aligning with the WFSD theme “From Burden to Solutions—Safe Food Everywhere.”

Alissa Welsher, Ph.D. is a Senior Consultant at Elanco Poultry Food Safety. Dr. Welsher received her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, a master's degree in poultry science, and a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from the University of Arkansas. Her area of expertise is in meat and poultry food safety, and she specializes in integrated pest management (IPM). 

Brady Carter, Ph.D. is the Chief Scientific Officer at Carter Scientific Solutions. He specializes in water activity, moisture sorption, shelf-life stability, plant science, and wheat production and quality. He has 23 years of experience in research and development and previously was a Research Professor at Washington State University focusing on wheat end-use quality. Dr. Carter has pioneered work in using dynamic isotherms to investigate product stability and establish critical water activities for optimal shelf life. He also specializes in shelf-life loss and effective utilization of instrumentation to address product safety and quality issues. Dr. Carter holds a Ph.D. in Crop Science and Food Engineering and an M.S degree in Cereal Chemistry and Crop Science from Washington State University, as well as a B.A. degree in Botany from Weber State University.

To get a taste of the discussions that were happening at the 2026 Food Safety Summit, we spoke face-to-face with Roberta Wagner, M.Sc., Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs for the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA); Steven Mandernach, J.D., Executive Director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) and Sandra Eskin, J.D., CEO of STOP Foodborne Illness; Jacob Nelson, Asset Protection Sales Manager at the Sherwin-Williams Company and Feraas Aiameh, Food and Beverage Marketing Manager at the Sherwin-Williams Company; Conrad Choiniere, Ph.D., Director of  the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA's) Office of Microbiological Food Safety, Vanessa Coffman, Ph.D., Director of the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness, and Lone Jespersen, Ph.D., Founder and Principal of Cultivate SA; and Cindy Jiang, Senior Director, Global Food Safety Risk Management, Global Supply Chain at McDonald's (retired).

To get a taste of the discussions that were happening at the 2026 Food Safety Summit, we spoke face-to-face with Jeremy Zenlea, M.B.A., Vice President and Head of Health and Safety for EG America and Laurie Farmer, Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Office of Retail Food Protection; David Clifford, M.B.A., Director of Food Safety at Nestlé USA and Sara Mortimore, M.Sc., Founder of Sara Mortimore LLC and formerly Vice President for Food Safety at Walmart; Frank Curto, Ph.D., Vice President of Operations at Ecowize North America; and Drew McDonald, Senior Vice President of Quality, Food Safety, and Regulatory Affairs for Taylor Fresh Foods and Conrad Choiniere, Ph.D., Director of FDA’s Office of Microbiological Food Safety.