Frank Yiannas is a food safety culture expert and advocate, having advanced global thinking on the subject with his pivotal 2008 book, Food Safety Culture: Creating a Behavior-Based Food Safety Management System. He is also the former Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response at FDA, having resigned from the agency in 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. Mr. Yiannas has also held leadership roles with Walmart and the Walt Disney Company. He has long been recognized for his role in elevating food safety standards and building food safety management systems based on science and risk.

Vinetta Howard-King is the Director of the Office of Human and Animal Food Operations – East, a program within the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this role, Ms. Howard-King is responsible for overseeing operational functions (such as inspections/investigations, sample collections, compliance and enforcement activities) in six HAF field divisions and the HAF foreign inspection program. She works directly with senior management in headquarters and in the field, using strategic, risk-based approaches toward compliance and enforcement that focuses on impact and results. A few of her previous positions include Senior Advisor to the Assistant Commissioner for Operations in ORA, Deputy Director and Staff Manager in FDA’s Office of Emergency Operations, Compliance Officer in FDA’s Baltimore District, and Chemist in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. She has served as acting manager in numerous leadership positions in FDA, including lab supervisor, district director, deputy office director, office director, and regional food and drug director. Ms. Howard-King holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology with a minor in chemistry.

Roberta Wagner spent 33 years in public service, most recently as the Assistant Administrator of the Office of Policy and Program Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the agency’s lead policy position. Just prior to this she served as the Deputy Administrator of the Office of Field Operations at USDA’s FSIS where she assisted with providing leadership to a workforce of 7,800 inspection program personnel, including consumer safety officers and inspectors, public health veterinarians and food inspectors. Wagner began her regulatory career at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the Office of Regulatory Affairs’ (ORA) Baltimore District Office in 1987, where she worked for nearly 20 years. Wagner also held the position of Assistant Commissioner for Operations in the ORA for two years, providing leadership to ORA’s field force, including investigators, compliance officers, laboratory staff and the ORA headquarters components that supported and interfaced with the field organization. Previously, Wagner served as a Director of the Office of Compliance in FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). Wagner later served as the CFSAN Deputy Director for Regulatory Affairs and Associate Director for Food Safety Modernization Act Operations. Wagner holds a Bachelor of Science in biological science with a minor in environmental science from Hiram College. She also holds a Master of Science in biochemistry from Bowling Green State University.

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.