IAFNS Announces Winners of Emerging Leaders Awards for Food Safety and Nutrition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences (IAFNS) announced the winners of its 2026 Emerging Leaders Awards. The awards, according to the organization, promote excellence in food safety and nutritional sciences as evidenced by research, leadership, initiative, collaboration and communication. 

The two awards — one for food safety and one for nutritional science — are geared toward those whose primary role is as a researcher from academia, industry or government.

The recognition includes travel expenses to Washington D.C. for the IAFNS Annual Summer Science Symposium to be held June 24-25. The winners will have a speaking slot at the symposium to share their research and receive commemorative plaques recognizing their award.

Applicants were judged on their research, communication, leadership and collaboration skills, and accomplishments by the IAFNS Award Committee through an evaluation criteria and rating system.

Carla L. Schwan, Ph.D., assistant professor and extension food safety specialist, University of Georgia, and director, National Center for Home Food Preservation, received the 2026 Emerging Leaders Award for Food Safety. Schwan's research centers on safe home food preservation methods where she focuses on microbial validation, pathogen behavior and consumer food safety. With extensive international experience, she leads training and outreach programs to help Extension professionals, scientists and the public apply safe food practices. 

"Receiving the IAFNS Emerging Leader Award is truly humbling, as it recognizes work that brings research and Extension together to address real-world food safety challenges," Schwan said. "Our program focuses on home food preservation and microbial validation to better understand how risks occur in practice and to turn that science into guidance people can rely on. Ultimately, the goal is to reduce foodborne illness by helping people make safer choices when preparing and preserving food."

Lauren O'Connor, Ph.D., nutrition and health program lead, Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Evidence Center, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, received the 2026 Emerging Leaders Award for Nutrition Science. O'Connor is a nutrition scientist and epidemiologist whose expertise includes randomized controlled feeding trials, dietary assessment methods, national nutrition surveillance and evidence synthesis. 

As the nutrition and health program lead at the Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Evidence Center of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, she heads evidence synthesis projects that inform public health initiatives. One of these initiatives includes the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) work to reduce childhood exposure to contaminants from foods and infant formula. O'Connor also has previously worked at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) where she served on the 2020-25 Dietary Guidelines for Americans data analysis team, helped make advancements to the NCI's dietary assessment tools and more. 

“I am honored to receive the IAFNS Emerging Leader in Nutritional Sciences Award," O'Connor said. "This recognition motivates me to continue advancing rigorous, standardized and transparent scientific practices that elevate the quality of nutrition research used to inform decision-makers of policies, programs and regulations in the United States and globally."