Lori Ernst joined FSNS in late 2007 as an Audit Specialist. She has over 23 years of experience in the food industry including 19 years working in a variety of meat plants. Various sectors in the meat industry are included in her work history including beef slaughter and fabrication, ground beef, steak portioning, marinating, injecting, breaded items, and fully cooked meat products

Lori obtained her Masters of Business Administration from Colorado State University and her undergraduate degree from Teikyo-Westmar University which included a teaching endorsement. A compliment to her teaching education is to teach BRC courses for FSNS. She took over as Director of Auditing Services in early 2010. Currently residing in Colorado, Lori enjoys the mountains and riding her Harley. more

Justin Derington joined Food Safety Net Services in February 2009 after finishing graduate school at Texas Tech University. Justin received his Master of Science in Meat Science from Texas Tech University after completing his Bachelors of Science in Animal Science. He worked as a research and teaching assistant while in graduate school and worked at a small slaughter house for two years prior to joining FSNS. His teaching experience included classes and labs involving animal slaughter and further processed meats.

Justin lives in San Antonio with his wife Melanie and enjoys golf and hunting in his free time. more

Dan Smiley joined FSNS in May 2010. Dan has over 12 years of experience in the food industry including 7 years working in poultry plants, and 5 years of experience as a Technical Service Coordinator for antimicrobial applications serving the poultry and red meat industries. He has work experience in red meat slaughter and processing and poultry slaughter and processing operations. Dan has held management positions in the meat industry, including Production and Quality Assurance Management. His experience includes slaughter operations, second processing, fabrication, breaded products, marination, and RTE products.

Dan obtained a Bachelors of Science in Animal and Poultry Science and a Bachelors of Science in Food Science and Technology from Virginia Tech. He currently resides in Staunton, VA, located in the Shenandoah Valley, with his wife, son, and daughter. He enjoys spending time with his family and outdoor activities, including hunting, fishing, boating, camping, and motorcycle riding. Dan also enjoys the kid's sports activities. more

Cheyenne Dixon joined FSNS in early 2011 as an Audit Specialist. Cheyenne began her experience in the meat industry when her family acquired their first custom meat processing plant. Over the next 17 years, her family continued to expand their business by processing beef, pork, buffalo, lamb, goat, and the occasional llama at their meat market in northeastern New Mexico. During her employment at the processing plant, Cheyenne learned how to slaughter, fabricate, and process specialty sausages, cured products, smoked roasts, and jerky. Other jobs tasks during her employment including developing a HACCP plan to gain state and federal inspection and redesigning the holding pens, crowd pen, and stun box to gain animal welfare certification.

Cheyenne attained her Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science and her Master of Science degree in Meat Science from Colorado State University. During her schooling, Cheyenne participated on the collegiate meat judging team and coached the county's 4-H youth meat judging teams for four years. During graduate school, Cheyenne worked on an international pork willingness-to-pay study that took her to Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, and China to meet with over a hundred red meat importers, restaurant owners, and commodity traders. Upon completion of her thesis work on tenderness and nutritional aspects of value cuts of the beef round, Cheyenne began working for FSNS as an audit specialist. Cheyenne currently resides in Colorado and enjoys snowboarding, kayaking, and eating strange foods in foreign countries.more

Jerome Pieniazek became employed by FSNS in 2010. Jerome also worked at FSNS as an audit specialist from 2006 to 2007. He has over 28 years of food industry experience. Most of this experience has been in the meat industry including beef, pork and lamb slaughter and fabrication; further processing, marinating, fully cooked and shelf stable meat products.

Jerome obtained his Bachelors of Science degree in Animal Science from Texas A&M University. Jerome lives in Texas where he likes going to the beaches and fishing the gulf coast. He also enjoys raising livestock and hunting with his two sons.more

Food Safety Net Services named Patricia Wester, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs. Ms. Wester is a veteran of food safety in both Domestic and International firms. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Poultry Science from the University of Florida. She began her career in food safety at ABC Research Corp., Gainesville, Florida, where she worked on emerging issues such as Listeria detection and control of RTE Meat and Poultry plants. Recently, she has focused on the further development of global, third party certification auditing programs and their use under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
Ms. Wester has a wealth of experience she brings including leadership roles as Chair of Food Safety Services Providers; a U.S. based Trade Association of Accredited Third Party Certification Bodies, a member of Global Food Safety Initiative's (GFSI) Technical Working Group on Auditor Competencies, as well as a 10+ year member of IAFP and current IAFP Vice Chair of the Meat & Poultry Professional Development Group. Additionally, she is on the Advisory Council for the Institute of Food Safety at Florida State College at Jacksonville and is a past member of the American Meat Institute's Scientific Affairs and Inspection Committees, as well as a past board member of the Florida Association for Food Protection.more