Ruth Petran, PhD, CFS, is senior advisor, Food Safety for The Acheson Group. She is principal and founder of Ruth Petran Consulting, LLC in Minneapolis. Before starting her own business, Dr. Petran held technical food safety and public health leadership roles at Ecolab, Pillsbury, and General Mills. She is president of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) and served two terms on the US National Advisory Committee for Microbiological Criteria for Foods. Her bachelor’s degree is in consumer food science from Cornell University, and she holds an MS in Food Science and a PhD in Public Health, both from the University of Minnesota.