The Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences Board of Trustees is responsible for managing the organization’s activities, which are administered by an executive staff, to support and advance nutrition and food safety.

Board of Trustees

The management of IAFNS is set forth in our Bylaws and requires a Board of Trustees comprised with at least half of its members representing public sector organizations. The 27-member Board of Trustees is comprised of 14 public sector scientists, 11 industry scientists, and 2 Government Liaisons.

Scientific Leadership Council

Additionally, IAFNS Board and staff work closely with other scientific committees including the IAFNS Scientific Leadership Council. The Scientific Leadership Council provides guidance related to the scientific content of the Annual Meeting, the Emerging Science program and related initiatives, and the summer research opportunity fellowship program.

Staff

Caitlin Karolenko, PhD
Scientific Program Manager
Caitlin leads various food safety initiatives including our Food Microbiology Committee. She has direct experience with process validation including pathogen inhibition and microbiome analysis.  Caitlin was a Graduate Research Fellow with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

2025 Summer Researchers

Praveen Kosuri
University of Connecticut

Project: Translation of Microbial Food Safety Research

Estee Ngew
McGill University

Project: Science Communication of Trending Topics in Food Safety and Nutrition Sciences

Yihang Feng
University of Connecticut

Project: Development of RAG-LLM Food Additive Education System

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Dylan Davis
Northwestern University

Project: Pilot Examination of Cognitive Tests Included in the 2025 DGAC Systematic Review Focused on Dietary Patterns and Neurocognitive Outcomes

Want to learn more about past students? Learn more here