I’ll start by answering my own question with another question: what connects all the different elements of food science? What solves problems, saves money, and is proactive? Food science is not a monolith, nor is it homogeneous. It is a multidisciplinary field comprising more specialized areas of focus, including but not limited to microbiology, agriculture & animal science, psychology, nutrition, and physical chemistry. That’s some of what I learned from my B.S. from Ohio State & M.S. from Penn State. But what did I learn from my time at Abbott, Nestlé, NotCo, and others? What industry cares about and how to create value from research. Applied research is how I create value using anything and everything I have learned.

I have a diversity of experience that is quite rare. Not only did I learn best practices from the industries’ biggest, but I also learned how to scale it down for the startup. Unlike your typical food scientist, I did not focus only on one narrow role. At Nestlé, I worked as a contractor, fulfilling all my projects' needs. In addition to serving as a project manager (this was what I was initially hired for), I worked in the pilot plant making food, in the lab testing various functional properties, and the kitchen developing new recipes. I did almost every type of role that there was to do. I know I did a good job because my contract was renewed every 3 months for the 4 years that I worked there. In other words, I get shit done!

I’m a creative person with a strong interest in trying new things and a drive for continuous improvement. During the pandemic, I moved from Pennsylvania to join NotCo as a Food Scientist on the AI team. I was already well-versed in wearing multiple hats and used to working with different disciplines. However, explaining food science to machine learning engineers while codifying academic-level knowledge into algorithms and developing plant-based products was an actual test of my abilities.

Humility is not one of my virtues, but please don’t take this as mere puffery. I have more experience than most 30-year veterans. I won’t claim to be an expert in the sense that they are. However, when you need to move fast and get results, when you need a plan that can handle changes and someone who can lead a pivot, and you can’t just sacrifice quality, you should talk to me.