CDC FoodCORE Team

Congratulations to FoodCORE, the 2012 Winner of the CDC & ATSDR Honor Award for Excellence in Program Delivery—Domestic

What does the CDC FoodCORE team do?

• Promote successful models and methods developed within FoodCORE for evaluating and improving outbreak response capabilities
• Manage ongoing project activities, including routine communications and conference calls with all FoodCORE centers and organizing and facilitating in-person meetings with FoodCORE centers (site visits and annual vision meetings)
• Find and promote opportunities for collaborations between FoodCORE centers and other public health programs, such as PulseNet, FoodNet, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Rapid Response Teams (FDA-RRTs), and the Environmental Health Specialists Network (EHS-Net)
• Create and manage tools and resources for FoodCORE participants and partners

Staff Information

• Ian Williams, PhD, MS
  Dr. Ian Williams is the Chief of the Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch (ORPB) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. ORPB helps coordinate the national network of epidemiologists and other public health officials who investigate outbreaks of foodborne, waterborne, and other enteric illnesses in the United States. Dr. Williams is a graduate of CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service Program. He received a PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and has a Masters of Science degree in Preventive Medicine from the Ohio State University. He has worked at the CDC since 1994 and has been involved in a number of multistate outbreak investigations leading to the identification and recall of food products.
• Gwen Biggerstaff, MSPH
  Gwen Biggerstaff is an epidemiologist in the Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Gwen received a Masters of Science degree in Public Health from the Emory University Rollins School Public Health in 2005. She has worked as a foodborne disease epidemiologist at the CDC since 2006 and has been involved in a helping to coordinate numerous multistate foodborne outbreak investigations. Gwen coordinates FoodCORE, the Foodborne Diseases Centers for Outbreak Response Enhancement program. She provides technical, scientific, epidemiologic, and logistic support for program participants and partners.
• Jennifer Mitchell, MPH, CHES
  Jennifer Mitchell the Public Health Advisor in the Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Jennifer joined CDC in 2009 as a contractor and has extensive experience coordinating, designing, implementing, and managing prevention health communication programs for foodborne and zoonotic illnesses, including development of educational materials in multiple languages and formats. Jennifer starting working with the FoodCORE program in 2011, which enhances foodborne outbreak response and prevention in state and local health departments. As a part of FoodCORE, Jennifer manages all communication and marketing materials and messages.

Contact Information

Phone: (404) 639-1214
Email: FoodCORE@cdc.gov