2007-2008 AFDO Award Winners
Achievement Award - Associate Award - Scholarship Awards
Achievement Award
The AFDO Achievement award is given to an individual who must be in his or hers first five years of service as a sanitarian, inspector, investigator, milk specialist, food specialist, radiological health inspector, consumer product safety inspector, or a similar regulatory position. He or she must be a field person that is, one who goes out of the office to make inspections a significant portion of his or her day. The winner must be employed by a federal, state, county, or municipal regulatory agency which has at least one employee as a member of AFDO. The candidate need not be a member of AFDO.
Our recipient has worked for the NYS Dept of Agriculture and Markets for the past four years and plans and executes daily inspection activities, performs food safety inspections of assigned establishments and communicates sanitary requirements and acceptable methods of compliance. Selects and submits samples of food and /or feed to the appropriate laboratories for analysis, prepares and submits required reports. Participates in pre-hearing inspections, industry compliance conferences, and other complex and difficult investigations and evaluates and develops trainees as directed.
Although I do not have time to mention all his accomplishments and his high level of performance I would like to briefly point out a few.
Our recipient has been a conscientious, thorough, and valuable inspector with the division of food safety and inspection. His commitment to his work has prompted his supervisors to select him as an imported food specialist. In this capacity he has played a vital role in Division investigations, surveillance sampling, recalls and in joint investigations with FDA, USDA, USDA-SITC, and State Environmental Investigators. His import work is in addition to his normal yearly inspection workload conducting more than 430 inspections and investigating numerous consumer complaints in Brooklyn NY. His knowledge of the Chinese language has been instrumental in uncovering violations and in educating industry.
In addition to his inspection duties, in his role as an imported food specialist in 2007 he has accomplished the following: 57 imported food investigations; 176 product investigations; 15 food seizures totaling 33,981 pounds of food; 37 surveillance samples; and 6 Class II and 4 Class III recalls resulting for his surveillance sampling. He was an integral part of the investigation of the knock-off candies imported from China and the fishballs containing meat also imported from China.
Our recipient has been an asset to this Division, Department, and to the Protection of Consumers in New York State He has shown that education is a large part of attaining regulatory goals. At this time I take great pleasure in presenting to you the AFDO 2007-2008 Achievement Award Winner Mr. Sam Lee.
Associate Award
The Associate Member Award was presented to Sarah Geisert, Senior Director, Global Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs of General Mills, Inc. The AFDO Associate Award is awarded annually to an associate member based on long term active membership in the Association, active involvement in committee work, development of model codes, and promoting the objectives of AFDO.
Scholarship Awards
In 1981 AFDO established a Scholarship fund with the excess funds from the 75th anniversary of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic act celebration. The George M Burditt scholarship and the Betsy B Woodward scholarship both in the amount of $1,500.00 each will be awarded to a worthy recipient in their third or fourth year of college and have demonstrated a desire to serve in a career of research, regulatory work, quality control, or teaching in an area related to some aspect of foods, drugs, or consumer product safety, should have demonstrated leadership capabilities, and must have at least a 3.0 Grade Point Average during the first two years of undergraduate study on a scale of 4.0.
For the first time, we have three scholarship award winners each in the amount of $1,500.00 and are being presented tonight in no special order:
Our first winner attends the University of Mississippi in University, MS, with a Bachelor of Science in Family & Consumer Sciences, Dietetics and Nutrition. She is a member of the Phi kappa Phi National Honor society, the Kappa Omicron Nu National Family and Consumer Sciences Honor Society, the Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society, the Gamma Beta Phi National Honor Society, and she received the Dept of Modern languages Award for outstanding student in Spanish.
Her Extracurricular activities include, Phi Delta Chi Professional Pharmacy Fraternity, University of MS Student Dietetics Association, the March of Dimes Teenage Mothers Nutrition Program, and is a Certified Nutrition Data System Technician and also volunteers for the American Red Cross. She has a GPA of 3.90.
It is my pleasure to present the 2008 George M Burditt/ Betsy B Woodward Scholarship Award to Katherine J Sullivan.
Our next winner attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nutritional Sciences, in Madison Wisconsin with an expected degree and major with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics. Her Academic Awards and Honors are as follows. NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface Trainee, a Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellow, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention, the American institute of Chemists Student Award, Phi Beta Kappa Goldwater Scholarship Nominee.
She is a member of the Dietetics and Nutrition Club, the Graduate Women in Science/ Sigma Delta Epsilon, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and the American Dietetic Association/ Wisconsin Dietetic Association. She has GPA of 3.93.
It is my pleasure to present the George M Burditt/Betsy B Woodward 2008 Scholarship Award to Claire Poope.
Our Final winner Attends Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs, CO Transferring to Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS with an expected Degree and Major with a Bachelor of Science in Food Science and Industry.
She is a member of Phi Theta Kappa, on the Dean’s list for three semesters and was recognized at the 2006 CMC Achievement banquet. She is a member of the Student Government Association of which she is the Treasurer and Delegate to the national Convention. She was the 2006-2007 Colorado State FFA Officer which was a year of education and community service representing and serving FFA members, she is also a member of the Colorado FFA Foundation, a church member and Youth leader. She is a proven leader as a chapter and district FFA president and then a Colorado State FFA officer.
After writing her term paper on Bioterrorism in the food supply she was convinced that she wanted to contribute to this emerging area of importance for American safety. She is now planning to work in the field of Food Science in the specialty area of national and international food security and in the prevention of Bioterrorism (FDA and USDA take notice). She has a GPA of 3.53.
It is always very special when a recipient is here with us to accept their award and tonight it gives me the distinct pleasure to present the George M Burditt/Betsy B Woodward 2008 Scholarship Award and a check for $1,500 to Julie A Chelewski.