ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS:
International Association for Food Protection (IAFP),Des Moines, Iowa Dr. Mickey Parish assumed the role of president. Parish has been a senior science advisor in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (U.S. FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) since 2009, where he maintained oversight responsibilities for the CFSAN research enterprise and addressed issues related to science policy. He was also involved in the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). He has been an IAFP member since 1984, and has served on several committees, including as an editorial board member for the Journal of Food Protection since 2003 and on the Program Committee from 2011-2014. He also served as co-chair of the Microbial Modelling and Risk Assessment Professional Development Group (PDG) and as vice chair of the Food Law PDG. In addition, Parish has organized and/or convened several IAFP symposia on topics such as food safety risk ranking, pathogen data sharing and safe food handling.
The National Grocers Association (NGA), Arlington, Va. Laura Strange was promoted to vice president of industry relations, communications and marketing, responsible for developing and implementing NGA’s strategy on a broad range of industry relations initiatives; she will also continue her role as senior director of industry relations, communications and marketing. Strange joined NGA in fall 2013, coming from Capitol Hill, where she served as communications director for Representative Bob Latta (OH-5), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Prior to working on Capitol Hill, she held positions in the government affairs department for Yahoo! Inc. and in the communications and marketing division for a state taxpayer trade association.