Final Meeting Agenda

8:00 – 8:30 Registration

8:30 – 8:55

Welcome and Introductions 
Mr. Al Almanza, Deputy Under Secretary, Office of Food Safety,
Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
Moderator: Greg DiNapoli, MA (FSIS)

Purpose of Meeting 
David Goldman, MD, MPH (FSIS)

History and Overview of IFSAC 
Christopher Alvares, MS, BA (FSIS)

8:55 – 9:55

Overview of Projects: Progress, Accomplishments, and Next Steps
Cary Chen Parker, MPH (U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA))
Kristin Holt, DVM, MPH (FSIS)

Question and Answer Period

9:55 – 10:10 Break

10:10 – 11:05

Estimating Foodborne Illness Source Attribution for Illnesses Caused by Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157 (E. coli O157), Listeria monocytogenes (Lm), and Campylobacter: Part 1

• Overview of Project Approach
  Joanna Zablotsky Kufel, PhD, MPH (FSIS) 
• Exploratory Analyses
  Dana Cole, PhD, DVM (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))

Question and Answer Period

11:05 – 12:05

Estimating Foodborne Illness Source Attribution for Illnesses Caused by Salmonella, E. coli O157, Lm, and Campylobacter: Part 2

• Methods and Model Results
  Dana Cole, PhD, DVM (CDC)
• Assumptions, Strengths, Limitations, and Conclusions
  Michael Bazaco, PhD, MS (FDA)

Question and Answer Period

12:05 – 1:05 Lunch

1:05 – 2:05

Use and Application of Attribution Estimates by U.S. Federal Regulatory Agencies 
Christopher Alvares, MS, BA (FSIS) | Slides
Sherri McGarry, MS (FDA) | Slides

IFSAC Strategic Vision and Directions for Future
Patricia Griffin, MD (CDC)

Question and Answer Period

2:05 – 2:20 Break

2:20 – 3:35

Discussion by Panel of Outside Experts

• Sandra Eskin, JD, Director of Food Safety, The Pew Charitable Trusts
• Arie Havelaar, PhD, Chair, Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group, World Health Organization (WHO); Professor, Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida; Member of the Biohazards Panel of the European Food Safety Authority
• Craig Hedberg, PhD, MS, Professor, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
• Scott Hood, PhD, Director of Global Food Safety and Regulatory Affairs, General Mills
• Christopher Waldrop, MPH, Director of the Food Policy Institute, Consumer Federation of America
• Shelley Zansky, PhD, Director of the Emerging Infections Program within the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, New York State Health Department

Question and Answer Period

3:35 – 4:45 Public Comment Period

4:45 – 5:00 Closing Remarks

Webcast Recording

• Listen to the Webcast

Disclaimer: This link contains a live recording of the IFSAC Public Meeting held in Washington, DC on February 24, 2015. In addition to holding the meeting in-person, the meeting was webcasted live to registered participants. As a part of the webcasting, closed captioning was provided in real-time, and given the difficulty of accurately capturing live discussions verbatim, viewers of the webcast will notice some errors in the transcription of the presentations, which is to be expected during a live event. IFSAC will work to ensure that the official written transcript of the public meeting (to be released at a later date) addresses any errors and accurately captures the meeting proceedings.

Speaker Biographies

Christopher Alvares, MS, BA (USDA Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS))
Mr. Christopher Alvares is the Director of the Data Analysis and Integration Staff (DAIS) in the Office of Data Integration and Food Protection (ODIFP) at the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS). Mr. Alvares leads a staff of analysts who provide data analysis and reporting support to FSIS. Prior to joining FSIS in 2008, Mr. Alvares worked for over 10 years in the generation and analysis of genetic data for a biotech company. Mr. Alvares holds a BA in biology and a Masters degree in biotechnology from the Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Alvares is the current Chair of the IFSAC Steering Committee.

Michael Bazaco, PhD, MS (U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA))
Dr. Michael Bazaco is currently an epidemiologist working in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Office of Analytics and Outreach (CFSAN‐OAO). Michael spent time as a researcher and teaching fellow at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health before coming to the FDA. He received a Bachelor of Science in 2001 and a Master of Science in Food Science and Technology in 2004 from Virginia Tech and his Doctorate in Epidemiology in 2012 from the University of Pittsburgh.

Cary Chen Parker, MPH (FDA)
Ms. Cary Chen Parker is currently an epidemiologist working in FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), Office of Analytics and Outreach (OAO). Prior to coming to FDA, Cary completed a fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she worked on surveillance of foodborne disease outbreaks. At FDA, she has previously worked on consumer studies research at CFSAN and also on post‐marketing pharmacoepidemiological reviews of adverse events related to new drug products at FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). She received a Bachelor of Science from Duke University and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from The George Washington University – Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Dana Cole, DVM, PhD (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))
Dr. Dana Cole is a large animal veterinarian and doctoral epidemiologist responsible for the direction of the Analytics Team within the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dana leads efforts to attribute enteric illnesses to their sources. Dana worked in the Georgia Division of Public Health and the University of Georgia, College of Veterinary Medicine before coming to CDC.

David Goldman, MD, MPH (FSIS)
Dr. David Goldman is currently the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Public Health Science (OPHS) at FSIS, in that position since 2004. He is a family medicine and preventive medicine/public health physician, and a Captain in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, assigned to FSIS since February 2002. He also is a tri‐lead for USDA’s One Health Joint Working Group, as well as Acting Chief Medical Officer of USDA.

He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia in 1979, a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Virginia in 1988, and his Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Washington in 1996.

He spent 10 years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, in both family practice and preventive medicine. He then spent 3 ½ years at the Virginia Department of Health, first as a District Health Director, then briefly as the Deputy State Epidemiologist, before joining the Public Health Service and FSIS.

Patricia M. Griffin, MD (CDC)
Dr. Patricia Griffin received an MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, trained in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, in gastroenterology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in mucosal immunology at the University of Pennsylvania,
and in epidemiology at CDC.

She is Chief of the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch at the CDC. The branch tracks changes in incidence and antibiotic resistance of gut infections and assesses the food and other sources of these infections.

Dr. Griffin has authored or co‐authored over 200 journal articles, book chapters, and other publications. She holds an adjunct appointment in the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health.

Kristin G. Holt, DVM, MPH (FSIS)
Dr. Kristin Holt serves as the FSIS liaison to the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia. While serving in this position, she facilitates communication between FSIS and CDC and provides scientific and technical input on public health and food safety issues related to FSIS‐regulated products. Kristin sits on the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) and the FoodNet and EHS‐Net Steering Committees. Before reporting to her current position in 2001, Kristin served in the FSIS Field Operations program area in Georgia in various roles, from Inspector‐in‐Charge at a poultry slaughter plant to Deputy District Manager. She holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Louisiana State University and a MPH degree with a focus in epidemiology from Emory University.

Sherri McGarry, MS (FDA)
Ms. Sherri McGarry is a Senior Advisor in FDA’s Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine in the Office of the Commissioner. She’s dedicated to policy development and implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, including serving as the Agency Lead for Product Tracing, and is involved in risk informed prioritization and strategic planning across FDA’s Foods and Veterinary Medicine program. Previously, Ms. McGarry served as Senior Advisor to the Director of the Coordination Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network in FDA. In this role, Ms. McGarry provided strategic direction, leadership, and policy guidance on preparedness, surveillance, response, and post‐response activities in national foodborne outbreaks and other major food contamination events. She has 20 years of experience working in the foods arena at FDA with more than half of those actively involved in emergency preparedness and response, and preventive produce safety activities.

Joanna Zablotsky Kufel, PhD, MPH (FSIS)
Dr. Joanna Zablotsky Kufel received her Masters in Public Health (MPH) in Environmental Public Health and Health Policy and Management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) in 2003 and her PhD from the JHSPH Department of Health Policy and Management in 2009. She also earned a Risk Sciences and Public Policy Certificate. Joanna started her career at FSIS as a Food Safety Fellow where she helped develop performance measures for FSIS' strategic planning activities and evaluate the effectiveness of Agency policy. After her fellowship ended, Joanna continued her strategic planning and policy evaluation work for the Agency, in addition to serving as the FSIS Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC) technical lead; working with our federal food safety partners to advance foodborne illness attribution efforts.