Dr. Leili Afsah-Hejri, is the Program Director of Food Safety & Quality at Lakeland University where she also serves as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Food Safety & Quality. With more than 27 years of experience spanning academia, research, agriculture, and the food industry, she has deep expertise and a strong commitment to advancing food safety and public health. She has a Ph.D. in Food Safety and her research focus on foodborne pathogens and strategies to prevent their transmission during food handling and the effectiveness of postharvest technologies in improving food safety. Her work has centered on innovative approaches, including nondestructive detection methods (e.g., terahertz imaging), non-invasive identification and quantification tools (e.g., electronic nose technology), and environmentally friendly decontamination methods such as ozonation. Her current projects focus on thermal process validation, the application of sensors in food safety, robotic feeding systems, and haptic modeling for the handling of soft food materials.Throughout her career, Dr. Afsah-Hejri has served as a Co-PI on more than a dozen governmentand industry-funded research and educational projects and has authored numerous peer-reviewed
journal articles and book chapters. She has a strong emphasis on translating research into practical applications that support regulators, industry professionals, entrepreneurs, and educators