Frank Yiannas, M.P.H., is a food safety leader and food system futurist, author, professor, and former food safety executive at global brands. He also served as the Deputy Commissioner of Food Policy and Response at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2018 to February 2023. While at FDA, he was instrumental in creating the New Era for Smarter Food Safety blueprint and many other initiatives related to the implementation of FSMA. He has also held food safety leadership roles with Walmart and the Walt Disney Company. Additionally, he advanced global thinking on food safety culture with his pivotal 2008 book, Food Safety Culture: Creating a Behavior-Based Food Safety Management System. Mr. Yiannas has long been recognized for his role in elevating food safety standards and building food safety management systems based on science and risk.

Captain Kari Irvin is currently the Deputy Director of FDA’s Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation (CORE) Network in College Park, Maryland. She is a subject matter expert on traceback investigations and serves to coordinate FDA’s role in detecting, responding to, and learning from foodborne illness outbreaks. She also leads FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety Tech-Enabled Traceability Team. Captain Irvin joined FDA in 2008 as a microbiologist and has been a member of FDA CORE since 2011. Prior to joining FDA, she worked as a scientist for the Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS) and was an Association of Public Health Laboratories/Center for Disease Control and Prevention Emerging Infections Disease Fellow.

Katherine (Katie) Vierk is the Director for the Division of Public Health Informatics and Analytics in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As Division Director, Ms. Vierk oversees three branches dedicated to internal and external partnerships in epidemiologic research, data analytics, social science research, and hazard signal detection. She brings more than 20 years of experience working at FDA in the areas of foodborne outbreaks, traceability, epidemiology, consumer science, and data analytics. Ms. Vierk has served in multiple leadership positions at CFSAN, served as acting FDA liaison to CDC, and was part of the team that developed FDA’s Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network (CORE). She currently leads FDA’s Traceability Rule writing efforts. Ms. Vierk holds a master’s degree in Public Health with an emphasis in Epidemiology from George Washington University in Washington D.C.

Angela Fernandez is the Vice President of Community Engagement at GS1 U.S. and is responsible for driving broader adoption of GS1 Standards, the most widely used supply chain standards in the world, to help industry achieve their goals for improved product traceability, product information transparency, and data quality. Since joining GS1 U.S. more than 15 years ago, Ms. Fernandez has collaborated with industry stakeholders—manufacturers, distributors, retailers, foodservice operators, healthcare providers, government agencies, trade associations, and solution providers—to identify how the use of GS1 Standards can improve supply chain business processes and ecommerce operations, as well as address regulatory requirements to deliver safe products to patients and consumers. She is a frequent guest speaker at industry events, including the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Edge and the National Restaurant Association Show. She has been a traceability and recall resource for media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Food Logistics, and Packaging Digest magazines. Ms. Fernandez earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration from Drexel University.

Ed Treacy has over 39 years of senior management experience in logistics and supply chain management working with major Canadian retail chains, including Loblaw Companies Ltd., Shoppers Drug Mart, and Sobeys Inc. as the Senior Vice President of Logistics and Engineering. For the past 12 years, he has monitored and forecasted trends and designed related products, services, and educational events relating to sustainability and the fresh produce and floral supply chains for IFPA members. He serves as staff lead to the industry-wide Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) and leads all data, standards, and sustainability initiatives for IFPA. Ed is a citizen of the U.S., Canada, and Ireland. He holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto, as well as Professional Engineer and Professional Logistician designations.

Adrienne Blume is Editorial Director of Food Safety Magazine, a BNP Media brand. She has 18+ years of experience in B2B technical media, including the food safety and quality (FSQ) and energy technology sectors. She manages the editorial content for Food Safety Magazine and its podcast, Food Safety Matters, and also serves on the Educational Advisory Board for the annual Food Safety Summit. She keeps a pulse on trends, issues, and regulatory developments in FSQA by attending and moderating sessions at food industry and food safety conferences worldwide. Previously in her career, Ms. Blume launched and led two energy technology publications (H2Tech and Gas Processing & LNG) and a podcast (H2TechTalk) as Editor-in-Chief at Gulf Energy Information in Houston, Texas. She also worked as Managing Editor at Hydrocarbon Publishing Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She speaks and moderates at technical conferences around the world and is published in several industry journals. Ms. Blume holds an M.A. degree in English and Publishing from Rosemont College in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, as well as B.A. degrees (hons) in English and Anthropology from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri.