Principle Investigator
Joy Waite-Cusic, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Food Safety Systems
Joy was born and raised on the Oregon Coast in Florence. She graduated from OSU with a B.S. in Food Science in 2002 and M.S. in Microbiology in 2004. She earned her Ph.D. in Food Science with a specialization in food microbiology from The Ohio State University in 2007. Since 2012, Joy has been back at OSU working on food safety, quality, and spoilage microbiology to support public health and the food industry. Joy supports a strong research team in her own lab as well as facilitating the OSU-BUILD Dairy Program. She is also actively involved in extension efforts as part of Oregon’s Farm Food Safety Team, a member of the Western Regional Center to Enhance Food Safety, and serves as the Statewide Specialist for the Master Food Preserver Program.
Graduate Students
Jared Johnson, PhD student (co-advised by Chris Curtin)
Jared is a Food Science Ph.D. student working on characterizing the cheese facility microbiome. He started working with Joy and Chris Curtin immediately following his master’s degree, which explored the role of ‘wild yeast’ during the early stages of winemaking. His interests are primarily in the microbiology of fermented foods and beverages. Jared also earned his bachelor’s degree from OSU studying food science with a focus on fermentation. When he’s not in the lab, he spends most of his time exploring the Oregon outdoors with his family. Some of Jared’s favorite pastimes are fishing, rockhounding, and cooking. He also enjoys writing and playing music, and spent several years as a touring musician before starting his college education.
Brandon Selover, MS student
Brandon arrived in Joy’s lab in an unconventional path. He lived in Seattle most of his life, and throughout his 20’s and early 30’s he had a variety of jobs (including none;) and eventually decided to go to college. He got an AS degree from Seattle Central College and a BS in molecular and cellular biology from Western Washington University. He focused on microbiology toward the end of his undergrad and got a job after graduation working for a food science company where he did microbiology related process validations for food industry clients.
Brandon joined Joy’s lab as part of the MS program through the Western Dairy BUILD program in fall 2018. His graduate work is finding solutions for reducing biofilms in dairy processing and cheddar cheese production. This research is partnered with a large cheese producer in Oregon, which gives the research more relevance because he gets to work on solutions to problems happening in real-time.
In his free time Brandon likes outdoorsy stuff, gardening, and obsessively following European football (soccer). He and his wife have 2 dogs and grown kids who live in Seattle.
Immanuel Rodriguez, MS student
Immanuel was born and raised in Riverside, California. He received a BS in Microbiology from Weber State University, in Ogden, Utah. He is pursing an MS in Food Science and Technology at OSU. Immanuel has a wonderful wife and 4 children. He loves to mountain bike, hike, and cook.
Casey Rush, MS student (co-advised by Lisbeth Goddik)
Carson Davis, MS student
Rebecca Bland, MS student (co-advised by Jovana Kovacevic)
Rebecca is a Food Science Masters student studying Listeria spp. in food processing environments with interest specifically in produce safety. Following her first year at the Corvallis campus of OSU, Rebecca will continue her research at the Food Innovation Center in Portland under Dr. Jovana Kovacevic.
Originally from San Diego, CA Rebecca received her bachelor’s degree in Food Science from Cal Poly in 2019.
Undergraduate Students
Nicole Berg, BS student, Food Science and Technology
Nicole is a Food Science and Technology undergraduate, getting a minor in Chemistry. She grew up in Salem, Oregon before moving to Sublimity, Oregon her last two years of high school. Her hobbies include hiking, reading, camping, and watching movies. She’s worked at this lab since June 2018. She became interested in food safety after taking a food safety and sanitation class at OSU. That class taught her how important food safety is and how essential that area of food science is to the industry and the public.
Calvin Tharp-Jackson, BS student, Biological Sciences
Post-Doctoral Scholar
Hussein Mohamed, Ph.D.
Lab Manager
Sam Burroughs
Sam was born and raised in Lebanon, Oregon and received her bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Technology from Oregon State. She worked on a plant research farm for 6 years throughout high school and most of college. She started working in Joy’s lab in September 2018 at the beginning of her senior year and decided to keep working there after graduation. Sam has mostly been working on process validations for food companies and has really enjoyed learning about food safety. Her hobbies include watching football, hiking and traveling.
