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UTSCOE Co-Director Named Director of National Alliance of Food Safety Center

KNOXVILLE, August 14, 2003 — Dr. Ann Draughon, Co-Director of the UT Food Safety Center of Excellence and professor in the Department of Food Science & Technology, was named Director of the Center for Microbial Ecology, National Alliance for Food Safety (NAFS).

NAFS consists of a network of 19 universities and the USDA Agriculture Research Service. NAFS provides the mechanism to enable participating universities to focus their collective scientific expertise and resources on all aspects of food safety. Frequent consultation with partners at government regulatory agencies is a major element of NAFS activities. Collaboration within the NAFS occurs among its partner members, government agencies, producer associations, private industry and consumer organizations.

Within the Alliance there are 12 Centers of Excellence that focus on a specific area of research regarding food safety. Each center has a Center Director and includes members with complimentary areas of specialty from the NAFS universities. The centers provide a mechanism to promote inter-institutional and interdisciplinary problem solving research.