Meet the Executive Board

Veronica Bryant serves as the Emergency Preparedness and Outbreak Coordinator for the Environmental Health Section at the North Carolina Division of Public Health. She brings more than 15 years of experience in local and state food safety regulatory programs.

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She has been actively involved in several food safety organizations and has held leadership roles within the Conference for Food Protection and the Retail Food Safety Advisory Group. She currently serves as a co-lead for the AFDO Healthy People 2030 Norovirus at Retail workgroup.

Through these efforts, she has collaborated with food safety professionals across the country and looks forward to engaging with CAFP to build connections and strengthen work at the regional level.

Dr. Ellen Shumaker is the Director of Outreach for the Safe Plates program, NC State Extension’s evidence-based food safety programming. In this role, she develops programs and resources for retail, community and consumer food safety. She also designs, implements, and evaluates a variety of food safety messages throughout the farm to fork continuum to impact food handling behavior for both retail and consumers.

Dr. Shumaker is particularly interested in the intersection between communication, microbiology, and human behavior. She is active in the International Association for Food Protection and the Conference for Food Protection.

bio

Charisse Bautista is a Ph.D student in Food Science at NC State University. Her current research investigates milk spoilage and cold chain management practices. After graduating with a B.S. in Food Science from Rutgers University, she spent 5 years working in industry with experience in QA/QC. Then, she returned to academia and received her M.S. in Food Science from NC State, where she developed food safety training programs for frontline employees.

She has been a member of IAFP since returning to her graduate studies and looks forward to helping CAFP serve other students. 

Dr. Savana Everhart Nunn is a Retail Food Safety Extension Associate at NC State University. She received her PhD from Texas Tech University in One Health Sciences. She also holds a MSc in Food Science and BScs in Food Science and Animal Science from NC State. 

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Currently, her focus involves bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and practical application, particularly in areas related to retail food safety, effective food safety communication, and One Health.

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Savana has been a longtime member of IAFP and is looking forward to the revitalization of the CAFP.

Dr. Fernanda Santos is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at NC State University. A Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Brazil with a Ph.D. in Poultry and Animal Sciences from NC State, her expertise spans the entire food system, from pre-harvest systems to post-harvest control.

Currently, her focus is on finding solutions for the food industry in areas related to food safety, food product development, and food packaging, as well as developing new food science courses. She is the graduate food safety minor and certificate coordinator, co-director of the undergraduate program for Food Science, and director of the undergraduate program for Bioprocessing Science. She has been a dedicated member of the IAFP since 2004.

Robert Price is the Food Safety Manager at the North Carolina Food Innovation Lab (NCFIL). In this role, he is responsible for overseeing all aspects of food safety and regulatory compliance for NCFIL and its clients, including developing and implementing food safety policies and procedures, performing microbial testing on products, evaluating product development and scale-up processes, and educating clients on current regulations related to their products. He is an NC State University alumnus, earning his BS and MS degrees in Food Science, with a focus on food microbiology and food safety. 

Currently, his focus is on developing food safety training programs for entrepreneurs and small business owners, as well as finding product development and food safety solutions for novel food ingredients and products. He has been a member of IAFP for years and serves on the IAFP Welcome Committee.

Anjali Davé is a senior at Clemson University studying Food Science and Human Nutrition, with a Chemistry minor. She’s especially interested in how science can help keep our food safe, which is why she’s planning to pursue a master’s degree in food microbiology with a focus on food safety.

Anjali enjoys digging into how microbes affect the food we eat and exploring ways to prevent contamination before it happens. With a solid background in both nutrition and chemistry, she’s excited to keep learning, grow her skills, and eventually help make our food systems safer and more reliable.