Exploring Data Science Basics & Leveraging Your Data

William O'Sullivan, as the Head of Data Science at Creme Global, has made it his mission to protect the reputations of select clients using data, scientific methodology and artificial intelligence. His work has two main components - developing a deep understanding of the challenges that his clients face, and then providing services to best fit those identified needs all the way from building cultures of data collection to acting as a secure trustee between entities wishing to share data."

Claire Zoellner, Ph.D., is the Director of Data Science at iFoodDS, a provider of food safety, quality, and traceability software. In her role, she provides leadership and guidance on data strategy, leads exploration of new technologies and methods, and oversees data science projects. Prior to iFoodDS, Claire worked as a postdoc on estimating and mitigating the risk of Listeria in frozen foods. She remains active in research through service and collaborations. She was recognized as an emerging leader in food science by IFT in 2019. Claire earned her B.S. in Food Science from the University of Illinois and her Ph.D. in Food Science from Cornell University.

In 2000, Steve Brazeel founded SunTerra Produce, which has grown from a one-person produce brokerage firm into an industry-leading, full-service platform handling sales, marketing, farming, food safety, harvesting, storage, and distribution activities for specialty crop producers on over 10,000 acres throughout the US and Mexico. Born out of SunTerra‘s participation in the USDA’s ground-breaking Farmers to Families Food Box program, Project FoodBox was launched in 2020. Since the program’s inception, the SunTerra/Project FoodBox teams have delivered over 85 Million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to communities in need through its network of food banks, community organizations, and health care plans.

Elevated Foods, founded by Mr. Brazeel in 2020, was recently awarded a $20M grant as part of USDA’s Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities program. Elevated was formed to bring more profit to farmers by incentivizing the adoption of new technologies & practices and providing technical support to help make them more efficient and resilient.