About Us

Debby, a native of Needham, Massachusetts, is President of D. L. Newslow & Associates, Inc. located in Orlando, Florida. Debby is the author of The ISO 9000 Quality System: Applications in Food and Technology released by John Wiley & Sons Publishing in February 2001. Debby is also the author of a HACCP-based chapter included in the 2003 John Wiley & Sons release of the Food Safety Compendium.

After earning a Food Science & Technology degree from the University of Florida, her career began as a Quality Control Manager with T.G. Lee Foods, a division of Dean Foods. In 1985, Debby joined The Coca-Cola Company in its Minute Maid Division (CCF) as a Research & Development Food Scientist.

In 1987, Debby joined the Quality Assurance group as a Corporate Auditor and Project Specialist, where she was instrumental in developing a GMP audit program, creation of a company standard Quality Assurance Manual, and assisting with ISO 9002, 1994 certification of three different process operations.

In 1995, Debby joined Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance as a certified Quality Assurance Lead Auditor. Debby has been involved with the ISO 9000 certification activities of more than 200 different companies, including the following certified companies: M & M Mars, Ethel M. Chocolate, Key Ingredients, Charleston Packaging, New Zealand Milk, Nielsen-Massey Vanillas, Domino Sugar, Uncle Ben's Rice, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, AGA Gases, Barton Solvents, Hiram Walker, Mead Johnson, Campbell's Soup, Tropicana, Reckitt Benckiser, Louis Dreyfus Corporation, Wixon Fontarome, Consolidated Paper, Pepperidge Farm Inc., Southern Gardens Citrus, Bacardi, Minute Maid, Cargill, and Devro-Teepak.

Currently Debby subcontracts with LRQA as an ISO 9001 lead auditor and also with NSF and SGS performing ISO 9001, HACCP and ISO 22000 lead audits. Debby's main interests is assisting food, chemical, and various other industries with their quality system development and maintenance activities, which include ISO 9000 compliance, HACCP, GMP, Food Hygiene, HACCP Prerequisite Programs, Crisis Management, and other related systems and processes. When not assisting companies on their development and maintenance activities, Debby is teaching workshops both public and company based on these topics.

Debby has published numerous articles in such trade journals as Cultured Dairy Products Journal; Dairy, Food, and Environmental Sanitation; and Food Quality related to sanitation, GMP, HACCP, and ISO. She has presented many of these same topics for meetings and short courses sponsored by such organizations as University of Florida, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Citrus Engineers, Agricultural Consultants, Food Safety Summit, Food Quality, and the American Spice Trade Association.

Debby has served on the Executive Board of Florida IFT; and currently on the Editorial Board of the Food Protection. She previously served on the Executive Boards of the "Citrus Division" and "Quality Assurance Division" of IFT and Cultured Dairy Products Association and was a member of the development team for the ASQ-HACCP certification exam.

Debby is an IRCA Certified Quality Assurance Lead Assessor, an American Society of Quality (ASQ) Certified Quality Auditor, Certified HACCP Auditor, Certified Quality Manager, and ISO 22000 Auditor/SQL Expert (pending). She is active in IFT, FLA IFT, International Association for Food Protection, and the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

Bill is an energetic technical and operations manager with vast experience in the beverage industry. He is noted for 25 years of team driven process management/root cause skills and knowledge of the food and beverage industry. His career experiences span quality assurance, plant management, division QA management, citrus/juice processing, juice packaging, quality systems, teams (internal and customer), technical management of citrus essential oils, citrus and apple essential oils/flavors processing, supply chain, product management, and sales.

For the past 13 years at Kerry (SunPure) Ingredients and Flavors, he was on the “ground floor” of a start-up company that purchased and processed citrus and essential oils. He was a key member developing a state of the art essential oil manufacturing site, building sales from $0 to $35M in seven years. The business evolved into a joint venture (Cargill CitroPure) that led to a successful buyout (Kerry).

At Kerry (SunPure), Bill led the development of the technical and operations teams, supply chain of citrus essential oils/by-products, toll manufacturing, selective sales accounts, and product management of grapefruit oils and terpene by-products.

He has always had a passion for safety and customer service. Through his leadership of multiple teams, they achieved 1 million man-hours of no lost workday injuries in seven years. In addition, he initiated a root cause customer service measurement system that increased on-time sales delivery by 70%. The on-time customer delivery system currently exceeds 95%.

Previously, Bill was Citrus & Beverage Operations QA Manager for Coca-Cola Foods. Bill managed eight U.S. sites, two international locations, and multiple contract packers. This included citrus processing (Florida and Brazil), all forms of juice packaging, and their quality systems.

In addition, Bill led an aseptic juice contract packaging start-up, developed technical support of the California citrus industry supply chain, and managed a citrus processing plant in Florida.

An accomplished, versatile, analytical and creative achiever with 25 years of comprehensive Quality Assurance, TQA/TQM and Training management experience, marked by enhanced productivity and profitability and reinforced by a background in Industrial Arts instruction. Currently serving in the role of Operations Manager for a global packaging company facility in upstate New York, Alan is known for strong visioning, problem solving, technical, interpersonal, and motivational skills. He enjoys a proven record of reducing overhead while boosting profits, enhanced by entrepreneurial business ownership, and the successful implementation of ISO 9000 registration at two facilities. Alan’s areas of knowledge include: Personnel Management, Training & Development, Quality Assurance/Control, TQM, TQA, & ISO-9000, Operations Management, Lean/6 Sigma, Inventory Control and Problem Solving.

Alan is a Certified 6 Sigma Green Belt and holds a Masters of Engineering/Quality from Kennedy/Western University. He earned his B.S. in Industrial Arts Education from the State University of New York at Oswego. He is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

Mr. Lynch is a food safety consultant specializing in food law and organizational systems. He received his Masters of Law degree at DeMontfort University (UK) School of Law specializing in food law. Additionally, he holds a MS degree from Florida International University and BS degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Currently he is completing his Doctorate in Organizational Leadership. Mr. Lynch is an NSF Certified HACCP Trainer and Food Safety Auditor and initiated the Florida Food Manager Certification Program as a Food Safety Specialist with the University of Florida.

He has authored HACCP: A Chefs Perspective, A Chef's Guide to Food Manager Certification, and the Certified Food Executive Review (Pearson Custom Publishing). Additionally, he has been a featured author in the NSF International conference proceedings on food safety (1998, 2000), Food and Beverage News (Florida) Food Safety Editor 1996-2001, Las Vegas Food Service Magazine Featured Writer, Food Safety and Food Law, September 2002-2004. Mr. Lynch has conducted HACCP Training Seminars in Barcelona, Spain; London, England; Cancun, Mexico; and throughout the United States. He is currently a culinary management instructor with the Art Institute of Tampa, a branch of the Miami International University of Art and Design.

Dennis Sasseville is a recognized expert in environmental management systems and sustainability consulting with PRIZIM Inc. Since 1995, he has served on ISO/TC 207, the international committee that developed the ISO 14000 series of environmental standards and registered over 50 facilities to ISO 14001 while employed by a third-party registrar. Mr. Sasseville was a Senior Manager in the Environmental Advisory Practice of KPMG LLP, a global Big Four consulting firm. While at KPMG, he also served as a member of the firm's 26-country International Sustainability Network. Mr. Sasseville is the author or coauthor of several books Best Business Practices from Industry Leaders, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and ISO 14000 Answer Book: Environmental Management For The World Market, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. He is also a member of the American Society for Quality.

For more about Nancy E. McDonald, president of M&M Consulting and Laboratory Inc, see her biography on the mmconsultingandlab website.

Knowledge Architect
APLOMET/Applied Logical Methods

Dr. Schmidt has been an integral part of the food industry, working hard as an extension professor for the University of Florida since the mid 1970’s. Ron’s expertise knows no boundaries in all the areas of the food industry including dairy, citrus, poultry, fruits, vegetables, meat, and seafood. He is an IFT Fellow and has been recognized by his fellow professionals in many areas of the food industry including the following:

International Association of Milk, Food & Environmental Sanitarians, Certificate of Merit (1987), Special Recognition (1992), Educator Award (1998); Southern Assoc. of Agricultural Scientists, Certificate of Appreciation (1988); Southeastern Food Processor's Assoc. Scholarship honoring Dr. Ronald Schmidt (1996-present); Newberry High School Science Dept., Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Contributions to Innovative Microbiology Workshops (1997); University of Florida, Professional Excellence Program Award (1999); IFT Fellow (1999); South Florida Dairy Industry Association, Honorary Member (2000).

His IFT Fellow announcement read as follows:

Ronald H. Schmidt, Ph.D., professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition Department, University of Florida (Gainesville), will be honored for promoting an understanding of food chemistry and microbiology to undergraduate and graduate students, industry professionals, and government agencies. In addition, he will be commended for his outstanding service to IFT.

Ron has also authored and co-authored several textbooks and articles on numerous topics related to the food industry.

Ron has accomplished much in his 20 plus years in the industry. Information on this bio was sourced from the Internet -- personally, I have known him for most of my many years in food science. He is an excellent mentor and a good friend. We are honored to have his assistance with our HACCP Plan Development and Advanced HACCP workshops.

(Respectfully created by Debby Newslow)

Charlie is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia, with a BS in Animal Husbandry and an MS in Reproductive Physiology.

Charlie, a Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) from the American Society for Quality and a senior member of the American Society for Quality, is also certified as a QMS auditor by RAB. Charlie is an FPA-SAFE auditor, has qualified for ISO 22000 through SGS and is an instructor for International HACCP Alliance approved courses in HACCP Plan Development and Advanced HACCP. Charlie has contributed to the text ISO 9000 Quality Systems: Application in Food and Technology and in several Food Quality magazine articles focusing on an effective Quality Management System. Charlie is also trained as a representative of MasterControl; a leading software program for FDA based industries.

His work experience has been in research, with various quality positions in pharmaceutical manufacturing and medical devices. Charlie spent 25 years as a Quality Assurance Manager for a global manufacturer of one of the largest household products companies in the world. He was also responsible for regulatory, environmental, and safety at the St. Peters location of Reckitt Benckiser in Missouri. During his tenure at Reckitt Benckiser, he coordinated and implemented effective defect prevention programs based on quality engineering systems, techniques and tools, resulting in continuous improvement in suppliers, processes, and products in support of the Global Quality Strategy.

Charlie has been working with quality systems, more specifically ISO 9000 (since 1997), extensively for several years. He successfully led and maintained ISO 9002:1994 and later through transition, ISO 9001:2000 at the Reckitt Benckiser plant in St. Peters, Missouri. In addition, he assisted other Reckitt Benckiser facilities in the development, maintenance, and on-going compliance to the ISO 9000 standard. These facilities include those that produce food and chemical products. Special focus included the development of internal quality auditing programs that concentrate on the process audit concept, effective management review process, and corrective/preventive action programs which link continuous improvement to the entire business system.

Additional experience includes the application of SPC tools which focus on reducing costs and improving yields, the development and implementation of several internal programs that concentrate on continuous improvement such as a supplier corrective action program, customer satisfaction rating program, reduced micro testing, and lot identification/traceability.

D L Newslow & Associates, Inc.

Jade began her food industry career in 1989 with The Minute Maid Company as a staff assistant for Corporate Quality Assurance based at the Chilled Juice facility in Plymouth, Florida later joining Base Place USA. Jade retired from the Coca- Cola Company in 2003 and joined D L Newslow & Associates, Inc. as Program Director and Operations Manager. Jade’s responsibilities include coordinating training workshops and providing administrative management assistance for our external client programs.

Jade received her International HACCP Alliance Training in 2003. Jade is also a trained QMS auditor and Sensory Analyst.

D L Newslow & Associates, Inc.

Laura is a native of Macon, Georgia. She began her journey in the food industry several years ago focusing on food service as a server and restaurant manager. In 2005, she joined D L Newslow & Associates, Inc. as a process assistant, learning quickly and moving into her current position. Recent assignments have included managing quality and process development at a small, independent beverage manufacturer, HACCP and GMP on-site training, HACCP Plan development for retail organizations, and co-packer approval and setup.

Laura has successfully completed workshops in Quality Management Development, Internal Quality Auditing, HACCP Plan Development, Advanced HACCP, HACCP Prerequisite Programs, and ISO 22000.

Adjunct Professor, University of Arkansas, Center of Excellence

Education: BA; Park College, Philosophy,1959; M.Ed. Drury College,1965

Jon G. Porter had over forty years in the food industry. His HACCP experience was gained from in-plant development and implementation since 1988 and attending education programs conducted by Kenneth E. Stevenson, Ph.D. and Dane T. Bernard as well as other industry leaders. Jon was an Adjunct Professor in the Center of Excellence at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Jon worked within the food industry in all aspects of processing and sanitation. He developed all education programs in-house for customers Bonewitz Chemicals, Henkel Food Division, and Ecolab. He continually developed and taught precursory HACCP and all food safety programs. While many programs were developed in conjunction with universities, product safety education, sanitation education, and OSHA compliance programs have been developed for individual customers. Several workshops and seminars were developed and conducted on the campuses of many universities such as Purdue University and the University of Arkansas. Workshop topics ranged from HACCP, prerequisite programs such as Chemistry in Cleaning, Chemistry of Sanitizers, Methods to Cause/Effect Identification, and Problem Solving Methods.

Jon's experience transcended all segments of the food industry including poultry, juice, bakeries, candy packaging, and dairies.

Jon Porter passed away in November 2007, but his memory is still celebrated by his many friends and colleagues.