Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Fellowship Program

Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Fellowship Program
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) is a U.S.Department of Energy (DOE) institute focusing on scientific initiatives. The main offices of ORISE located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In direct support of DOE’s national agenda, ORISE’s mission is to advance science education and research programs, and to create opportunities for collaboration between universities, DOE facilities, other federal agencies and industries.

Lisa Benjamin, D.V.M., MPhil Ph.D.

Dr. Lisa Benjamin joined the WCFS as an ORISE Fellow in October 2009. She works with Dr. Rob Atwill using hierarchical (mixed effects) regression models to analyze data from projects aimed at identifying mitigation strategies for E. coli contamination of leafy vegetables. She recently graduated from Texas A&M University with a Ph.D. in Veterinary Public Health. Her dissertation addressed the challenges of the control of Johne’s disease (JD) in cattle and spanned the fields of epidemiology, risk analysis and spatial sciences. She surveyed the attitudes of potential and actual stakeholders, producers and veterinarians, towards biosecurity practices recommended for the control of JD in the United States of America. In addition, she compared alternative disease control options for JD using Markov Chain Analysis. It is expected that the attitudes of producers to the biosecurity practices included in these disease control options will help to determine which control options are considered optimal. She is also a veterinarian and has a Masters of Philosophy in Epidemiology. Whilst reading for a degree in Veterinary Medicine, she conducted a HACCP project on small-scale producers of a Trinidadian (West Indian) delicacy in a local abattoir. In her Masters thesis she analyzed risk factors for mastitis in 2 major dairy areas in Trinidad. She is interested in using techniques from epidemiology, decision making and spatial analysis to model diseases of agricultural and zoonotic significance in the future. She is located at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security and can be reached at labenjamin@wifss.ucdavis.edu.

Tyann Blessington, M.S., Ph.D.

Dr. Tyann Blessington joined the WCFS as an ORISE Fellow in January 2011.  She works with Dr. Linda Harris on characterizing the influence of inoculation-method, environmental, and plant-specific factors on the behavior of Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli O157:H7 on lettuce, cilantro, and parsley.  Tyann completed her Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. Linda Harris and Dr. Elizabeth Mitcham at the University of California, Davis; for her dissertation she completed a bacterial foodborne microbiological hazard analysis of California walnut production and handling.  Research studies were conducted to determine how foodborne pathogens, Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes, behave on walnuts throughout production and processing.  Tyann completed her M.S. in Horticulture at Texas A&M University under the guidance of J. Creighton Miller, Jr.; where she studied the influence of domestic cooking, storage, and the exposure of irradiation to the antioxidant, phenolic, and carotenoid contents of potatoes.  She is located at the Robert Mondavi Institute of Food Science and Technology on the UC Davis campus (Room 3221) and can be reached at tyblessington@ucdavis.edu.