2006-2007 AFDO Award Winners
Achievement Award - Associate Award - Scholarship Award
Achievement Award
The AFDO Achievement Award is given to an individual who is in his or her first five years of service as an Inspector, Investigator, Milk Specialist, Radiological Health Inspector, Food Specialist, Consumer Protection Inspector, or similar regulatory position. He or she must be a field person; that is; a person who goes out of the office to make inspections a significant portion of his or her working time.
The award recipient must be employed by a Federal, State, County, or Municipal Regulatory Agency, which has at least one employee as a member of AFDO. The recipient does not have to be a member of AFDO.
Rupa Laverdiere was standardized in inspection work within 6 months of hire. She also became a Foodborne Disease and Food Emergency expert and took courses in Emergency Response to Biological Incidents, Public Safety and Weapons of Mass Destruction Response-Sampling Techniques: Epi-Ready Team Training in Foodborne Illness Response Strategies, NIMS and ICS. She is also ServeSafe certified at the instructor level. She is now assisting her administrator in developing NH’s Food Emergency Response Plan. Rupa originally comes from Nepal.
She received her bachelor’s degree from Punjab University in Chandigarh, India. She received her masters of Science in Environmental Management from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. She has done postgraduate studies in Environmental Science and Engineering at the University of Texas and plans to enter into a Masters of Public Health Program in NH very soon.
Rupa’s skills, accomplishments and responsibilities are too numerous to mention at this time and are recognized not only by her supervisor and Bureau Chief Joyce Welch who also nominated Rupa but also by the State of NH and the towns and cities in NH that Rupa works with on a regular basis.
Associate Award
The AFDO Associate Award (Associate Member of the Year) is given each year at the annual conference to an Associate Member who through their support and long- term active membership in the Association, has been actively involved in committee work, development of model codes, and the promotion of the objectives of AFDO.
This year’s recipient began life in Philadelphia, but spent most of their childhood just outside Atlantic City, New Jersey in a town called, Margate. Year-round life in this summer-resort community was a bit out of the ordinary. For example, they attended Cub Scout meetings held in the back of a local bar. (OK, first clue, it’s a male!). At the age of 13 they rented their first apartment that they and their friends used for parties until the local police put a stop to it. Apparently landlords in this summer-resort community would rent to just about anybody in order to get a little income during the off-season! Home was with their parents, an older sister, and a grandmother whose favorite pastime, outside of spoiling our recipient, was watching boxing matches on TV. Their father was a pharmacist who owned a drugstore in the nearby town of Egg Harbor, an establishment he hoped that our recipient would one day operate after attending pharmacy school themselves. Instead however, in high school our recipient began what was to be a life-long career in the food industry when they got their first job working at the local Casel’s Market and Delicatessen. The money saved from this and other part-time jobs, enabled our recipient to buy a highly-prized bright green Camaro – nicknamed the Green Slime.
After graduating from Atlantic City High School, they attended University of Cincinnati for a BS in Business Administration. Some real adventure began for him on graduation day when their beloved Green Slime was stolen. Being reimbursed for the car, he now had money to seek true adventure hitch-hiking through Europe and Africa, even living in the Canary Islands in a small hut with no electricity or running water, and crossing the Moroccan-Spanish Saharan border with smugglers. Smuggling mostly appliances, radios, TVs, fridges, washers, etc. History has it, at that time there was a war going on between the two countries and commerce and exchange of goods was restricted. The border was closed and our recipient couldn’t exit the country other than by taking this route deep through the Sahara desert with the smugglers, who agreed to let him ride for a price.
After returning to the U.S. our recipient moved around the country in a series of jobs which included working at a small winery in Ohio. Here is where he became enamored with the art of wine-making and decided to pursue a graduate degree at Cal State University in Fresno, in Food Science with emphasis in Enology. For those of you like me who didn’t know this word! It’s the science of wine making. Also, an interesting fact that many of you might not know is while in grad school, he played the flute in a jazz band. A band with a fairly famous member, Mr. Billy Wadhams, who went on to be a recognized member of the group, Animotion, that would be a band in the 80s and known for its hit song “OBSESSION”. From this chapter of adventure it was time to face reality and begin working.
His first job after graduate school was running the production line at a winery in California. Having successfully mastered the art of bottling beverages, he moved from the wine industry to the dairy industry where they ran two different fluid milk plants, one in Pennsylvania and the other in VA. For you non-dairy folks, this is where they bottle the milk, not milk the cows! From here he moved into the regulatory world, working first at the dairy-industry trade association, IDFA, and later moving to AFFI where he currently represents the frozen food industry. The recipient met their spouse in Fresno where both were students at Fresno State. Never to be known as a dull date, we need to mention that on one date they went to a Halloween costume party and our recipient opted to go as (what else?) “a bunch of grapes”. Their date (and eventually spouse) spent hours sticking purple balloons onto their date’s entire torso; the rest of the attire consisted of a purple T-shirt, a pair of purple tights (from their date!), and green-stem head. The date had to drive, since with our recipient’s bloated form couldn’t even hold the steering wheel. Most of the balloons on his rear-end didn’t survive the trip, leaving them sporting a bald back side in thin purple tights. So, they ended up repeating the whole balloon-stick-on process for this particular part of the anatomy in the parking lot in front of the host’s apartment – drawing lots of comments from passers-by. Obviously this didn’t run off the date and they married in 1981 in a very small ceremony at the spouse’s parent’s house in Maryland.
Now the proud parents of two beautiful children they adopted from Viet Nam, Nina, age 11 and Alec age 7. By now you might be starting to get an idea of who this is. He began his interactions and service to AFDO in 1991 while working at IDFA (International Dairy Foods Association) as the Director of Technical Affairs. He moved to American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) in 1992 as a Director of Technical and Regulatory Affairs and not surprising, is now the Senior Vice President. He too has missed many a Father’s Day thanks to his commitment and service to AFDO! Mr. Bob Garfield, 2007 Associate Award winner!
Scholarship Awards
In 1981, AFDO established a scholarship fund withthe excess funds from the 75th Anniversary of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The "George M. Burditt Scholarship" and the "Betsy B. Woodward Scholarship", both in the amount of $1,500.00 each will be awarded annually to a worthy recipient who is in their third or fourth year of college. The recipients should have demonstrated a desire to serve in a career of research, related to some aspect of foods, drugs, or consumer protection; shoudl have demonstrated leadership capabilities; and must have at least a grade point average of 3.0 during the first two years of undergraduate study on a scale of 4.0.
Our first recipient is Caitlin Hickey who is attending the University of Maryland in College Park. Caitlin's expected degree and major are a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Food Science. Caitlin has worked at Prime Label Consultants, Inc. in Washington, DC editing and expediting labels to USDA. She has also written ingredients statements and formulated labels and nutrition facts panels. Catlin has a GPA of 3.29.
Our second recipient is Angela Wintle who is attending the University of Maine at Orono. Angela's expected degree and major is a Master's in Food Science and Human Nutrition. Angela was on the Dean's list spring, summer and fall, 2006 and she has worked doing laboratory research from August, 2006 to present conducting chemical, microbiological and nutritioinal analysis on the levels of antioxidants in blueberries. Angela has a GPA of 3.55.
