Dr. Lily Yang, Senior Manager of Food Safety, is an enthusiastic and collaborative science communicator. Her work focuses on the impacts of stakeholder attitudes, behaviors, and technological utilization within the food system to address and mitigate operational risks. Her food safety approach is through scientific and cultural inclusivity, literacy, accessibility, and capacity-building to nurture trust and bridge knowledge gaps with the Extension mindset to “meet people where they are”.

Lily earned her B.S in Food Science at UC Davis. She then worked for the USDA developing biochemical techniques for toxin detection within common food matrices. Lily completed her M.S., Ph.D., and post-doc in Food Science with an emphasis on Food Microbiology and Safety at Virginia Tech. Her research and work encompassed the produce industry, the meat industry, and consumer behaviors and perceptions.

Lily has +10 years of experience in developing, implementing, and evaluating adaptable educational toolkits, social marketing campaigns, and social media campaigns for diversified communities, food service industries, small- and mid-size producers, and food entrepreneurs to meet knowledge, policy, language, and technological needs. Her passion and public service coalesces in online science communication through consumer-facing and industry-facing initiatives and discussions. She has previously worked as a science communicator for the International Food Information Council (IFIC).

Within her current work at TAG, she supports clients with risky operations and crisis situations (including developing crisis and food safety incidence playbooks and social/traditional media management), food traceability (FSMA 204),  data management, supplier approval programs, food safety plan development, and exploring food safety culture analysis & implementation. She also specializes in Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) work to support companies in “the deep dive” to support operational risk mitigation. Additionally, her work also explores the impacts and intersections of changing global, environmental, and regulatory impacts on the food, cannabis, and beverage industries while exploring supports to diverse workforces.

Lily is a Lead Instructor for the Preventive Controls for Human Foods Rule (v2.0) & for HACCP courses. She also is an active member with leadership roles of the Conference for Food Protection (CFP), International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), Phi Tau Sigma, and Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers. She is certified in Juice and Meat & Poultry HACCPs, and Better Process Control School, Acidified Foods. She is also a Produce Safety Alliance Trainer, and both an English and Chinese Servsafe Instructor and Proctor.