Cary Frye leads the association's regulatory team covering the areas of food safety, food defense, federal standards of identity, labeling, international Codex Alimentarius standards, nutrition policy, environmental and worker safety. With extensive experience in dairy product processing and quality assurance, Frye has served IDFA member companies for almost 20 years, representing member companies on food labeling and standards of identity, ingredient technologies, nutrition and health issues, and product safety.

She is active on domestic and international regulatory issues. As an active participant of the International Dairy Federation, Frye chairs the United States affiliate to IDF and is a member of the IDF Standing Committee on Standards of Identity and Labeling. She has been active in international standard-setting, advising U.S. delegations on Codex standards and has served as the head delegate for IDF at the Codex Committee on Food Labeling. She has also served on the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments’ Executive Board and Liaison Committee, and chairs the Conference’s Program Committee.

Her work has been published in professional journals and textbooks, including "Dairy Processing and Quality Assurance" and "Manufacturing Yogurt and Fermented Milks," published by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing and “Beverage Impacts on Health and Nutrition,” published by Humana Press.

John Allan directs all aspects of IDFA's food safety training initiatives, leads efforts related to product safety issues and has responsibilities in federal and state regulatory affairs. He engages on behalf of IDFA members with 3-A Sanitary Standards, Inc., and the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS). Allan also helps represent IDFA’s international trade interests through his seat on the U.S. Department of Agriculture/U.S. Trade Representative Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC) for Trade of Processed Foods, as well as through engagement with the International Dairy Federation and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex).

Prior to joining IDFA, Allan was the director of regulatory and international affairs for the National Yogurt Association, the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) and AFFI’s affiliated associations: the National Frozen Pizza Institute, Frozen Potato Products Institute and the Frozen Food Foundation.

Allan also has regulatory and technical affairs experience in the infant formula industry and has worked for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization helping develop Codex international food standards. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science in microbiology and a Master of Science in food science and technology.

Michelle Albee Matto is a registered dietitian with expertise in the areas of dairy food labeling, food regulation and nutrition policy. Her work focuses on dairy product standards of identity, food labeling, the federal nutrition programs, food allergens, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. In 2010, she started her own consulting business, AM Food & Nutrition.

Before 2012, Matto worked for the International Dairy Foods Association for eight years, most recently serving as the assistant director of nutrition and regulatory affairs. She has also worked at that Food Research and Action Center in Washington, D.C. She received her bachelor of science in nutrition at Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y. and her master of public health degree in Nutrition from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Matto is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Institute of Food Technologists and is a past board member of the Washington D.C. chapters of the Institute of Food Technologists and the Society for Nutrition Education.

Donna Berry is the owner of Dairy & Food Communications, a company that specializes in business-to-business writing, speaking and consulting projects in the dairy, beverage and food industries. She has a Bachelors Degree in Food Science from the University of Illinois and product development industry experience with Kraft Foods. She has been writing for the dairy trade since 1993; she opened her own business in 2000.

Donna has been tracking consumer behaviors and food trends, with an emphasis on dairy, for nearly 25 years. She currently writes for numerous trade publications, including Dairy Business News, Food Business News, Meat & Poultry, Baking & Snack and Culinology. Until February 2012, she had been the ingredient technology editor and new products trend tracker for Dairy Foods magazine.

After 18 years on Dairy Foods, she decided it was time to share her knowledge via other publications and media channels. Almost immediately she started her own website, aptly named BerryOnDairy.com, which includes an email newsletter called Daily Dose of Dairy that focuses on innovations in dairy products and related beverages.

Donna is a native of Chicago, where she currently resides with her husband, two sons and dog. Donna enjoys traveling, both domestically and abroad, and makes grocery store visits a priority in every city she visits, which enables her to be an authority on ingredient technology and new product trends.

Daniel Reese is the supervisor of the product evaluation and labeling team in the Office of Nutrition and Food Labeling at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Amy Vodraska is Associate Publisher of Dairy Foods Magazine.

Vikrant joined Biomérieux Industry over 3 years ago. He came to BioMérieux from the CDC, Atlanta, GA, where he was employed as a Senior Microbiologist. He earned his doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from MAFSU, India, and then his PhD in Microbiology from NC State University, Raleigh, NC. Vikrant has over 14 years of experience in various aspects of food safety with specific expertise in molecular assay development and commercialization. He has authored or co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles/book chapters and has been awarded a number of times for his contributions towards food safety.

Dr. Mirjana Curic-Bawden is a Principal scientist at Chr. Hansen Inc. in Milwaukee.

Mirjana has more than 30 years of experience, of which 25 years as a scientist is with Chr. Hansen in Denmark and US. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology from the Danish Technical University, with emphasis on microbial physiology and metabolism of lactic acid bacteria. She has global perspective and extensive experience in development and application of thermophilic, mesophilic cultures, and probiotics in fermented dairy and plant-based products.

Mirjana has been regular speaker at the Cultured Dairy Short courses at CDR Madison, Penn State University, and Cornell University, as well as at the IDFA Cultured Dairy Conferences from 2006-2016. She is also a frequent contributor to trade magazines on topics related to yogurt cultures and probiotics.

As Vice President of Product Research at Dairy Management Inc., Hari leads various product research programs in cheese , fermented products and dairy beverages. Hari also coordinates activities across the different dairy centers and application labs that are a part of the nationally coordinated network of technical centers to drive dairy innovation and sales on behalf of America’s dairy farmers.

Hari has more than 16 years of experience in academia and industry, most recently at PepsiCo leading beverage innovation efforts. He also has experiences with Nestle and the National Dairy Development Board in India.

Hari received his B.S. in dairy technology followed by his M.S in Dairy chemistry from National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India. He has a Ph.D. in dairy manufacturing from South Dakota State University.

Dr. Sherwin is Technical Services Manager at Novozymes, leading business, research and strategy for North America in dairy and protein enzyme applications. Prior, he led applications research at Agropur and at General Mills. He studied Food Science at N.C. State University and University of Minnesota, and post-doctorate at the University of Wisconsin for Kellogg. He has pursued numerous volunteer leadership activities including the US-International Dairy Federation and the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Board of Directors. In his career, he has been an active promoter of open innovation and collaboration as well as food science education.

Dr. Stancik leads Technology Development for Noluma in the Newark, Delaware research center. Over her career in chemical innovation, her roles have allowed her to address technical challenges in a range of consumer and industrial products including cosmetics, personal care products, dielectric materials, engineering polymers, automotive coatings, titanium dioxide pigments, architectural coatings, and food packaging materials. In addition to her current position, Stancik has held positions in technology development DuPont Titanium Technologies (DeLisle, MS), DuPont Performance Polymers (Wilmington, DE), DuPont Central Research (Wilmington, DE), Procter & Gamble Skin Care Division (Cincinnati, OH), and Procter & Gamble Cosmetics Division (Hunt Valley, MD). Through her experiences, Stancik has built a diverse skill set including innovation portfolio development, intellectual property strategy design, data visualization & analysis, project management, and quality control assurance for chemical manufacturing. Stancik earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois (Urbana Champaign, IL) and M.S. & Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University (Stanford, CA). She is six sigma black belt certified, a named inventor on numerous patents, and has authored several scientific papers.

CPG sales and business development executive focused on nutritional products and go to market strategies.

At ISAPP, Dr. Sanders works to advance the science of probiotics and prebiotics. She also consults (www.mesanders.com) on scientific substantiation of probiotic claims, product development and safety of probiotics, and works with several non-profit organizations (including the FAO/WHO, USP, ILSI-North America and World Gastroenterology Organisation) to provide objective, evidence-based information on probiotics for consumers and professionals. She has published over 110 peer reviewed publications.

Elena Vinay, Ph.D. Elena earned her Ph.D. in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dissertation worked focused on cell physiology of lactic acid bacteria. She studied genetic diversity, and central metabolism in Lactobacillus casei. After graduation, she joined DuPont-Nutrition & Bioscience’s Culture Development Team as a Research Scientist. In her role, Elena, leads efforts for the improvement of dairy starter cultures, such as Lactoccocus lactis and Streptococcus thermophilus strains. Her goal is to deliver robust cultures for the dairy industry, design of new product lines to meet customer needs and application of innovative technology for the study of starter cultures.

Dr. Réglat obtained a Ph. D. in chemical engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal (Canada), in 1997, where he contributed to the development of new technologies for process viscosity measurement.

During 17 years, Dr. Réglat participated in numerous projects in wide variety of industries (dairy, beer, cosmetics, oils …). Passionate about fluid mechanics, he used his knowledge and know-how to provide innovative solutions for the in-line viscosity measurement.

He joined KROHNE Inc. in 2013, and now acts as Food and Beverage Industry Manager, to provide with his team creative and progressive instrumentation solutions to the food and beverage industry.

In his role as Manager of Hixson’s Automation Department, Mitch Vanover leads a team of professionals in the design and management of electronic control systems and operations. With more than 35 years of experience, including 25 serving the food and beverage industry, Mitch has in-depth knowledge of the automation field, including the application of programmable controllers, data collection systems, and Human Machine Interfaces in industrial control systems; development of front end engineering documents, creating operation manuals, troubleshooting and training course materials, and conducting training for such systems; and detailed project execution including project checkout and startup experience. Mitch holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology from the University of Southern Indiana.