Meet the 2024 Influencers

After making its debut last year, Food Technology’s “food system influencer” feature is back for year two. Its goal is simple: to tell the stories of individuals whose work is having a significant impact on the food system.

The influencers are problem solvers, ground breakers, game changers, innovators. Some have high profiles within the food and beverage realm, others less so. But what they all have in common is a passionate commitment to the work they are doing—work that is valuable, inspirational, and worthy of recognition. Here are their stories.

Brittany Towers Lewis: Food Science Influencer

When a lab-coated Brittany Towers Lewis slides into view from the left side of the screen, she’s on fire. Rapid fire, more precisely. In her popular, minute-long TikTok and Instagram videos, she delivers her signature intro at speed—“Science in sixty seconds, with me, Brittany the Black food scientist”—and it’s off to the races as she covers topics ranging from why popcorn pops to how to ensure leftover rice is held at the correct temperature for food safety. In the latter, just to drive home the concept, she’s dubbed in the Top Gun movie theme song, “Danger Zone” as background music for the video.

The 34-year-old food scientist’s personable delivery and knack for making food science relatable is resonating with a lot of social media users, and it’s an audience that continues to grow. With 145,000 followers on Instagram and more than 86,000 on TikTok, Towers Lewis says that part of her success is communicating credible food science basics quickly, which makes the knowledge more accessible to people who aren’t food scientists.

“When I had the idea to make these videos during the pandemic in 2020, I knew that they needed to be short, not only because TikTok limited videos to 60 seconds, but because people’s attention spans were shorter,” says Towers Lewis. “I knew it would be challenging to teach food science concepts, especially complex ones, in just 60 seconds but I learned from my grad school advisor that if you can explain concepts to anyone without a food science background that means you have true knowledge of the concept. I took on that challenge because I absolutely love food science, and I believe that science should be accessible for everyone.”

She’s achieving that handily, says Rachel Berk, a food science undergraduate at The Ohio State University, who nominated Towers Lewis for Food Technology’s food system influencer recognition. Berk says that she first came across the Science in Sixty Seconds clips while “in classic Gen Z mode, doom scrolling on Instagram.” The video was so engaging that @theBlackfoodscientist earned an enthusiastic follow.

“The reality is that not all information on the Internet is good information, so to have someone like Brittany cut through all the noise on social media is really great,” Berk says, noting that Towers Lewis’ energy and passion for the subject of food science is another reason that her videos are highly watchable. “She can break down solid science-based information and share it in a way that’s engaging and accessible to us [younger generations] who are on Instagram [and] TikTok all the time.”

Towers Lewis, who recently joined Kraft Heinz as innovation lead–sauces and condiments, has 10 years’ experience working primarily in product development, including positions with Vital Proteins and PepsiCo. She says that she will continue to make the videos under The Black Food Scientist handle as a creative outlet to communicate to people that “science isn’t boring.”

“Every company that I’ve worked for has been fully supportive of my social media,” Towers Lewis says. “They think it’s really cool and say, ‘That’s so fun. Do that.’ So, I will continue to make the videos as time allows and as long as I am making a difference and people are learning in a fun and engaging way about food science.”

I absolutely love food science, and I believe that science should be accessible for everyone.

B. Pam Ismail: Research Collaboration Advocate

As the founder and director of the only U.S. research consortium focused on plant proteins, the Plant Protein Innovation Center (PPIC) at the University of Minnesota, Pam Ismail gets to follow her passion for protein every day—just as she has since the very beginning of her career. Today, she brings together industry and researchers to innovate in the space of plant and alternative proteins.

Plant proteins are complex and challenging, she admits, and entirely different from animal proteins. “Whenever I’m presented with a challenge, I get intrigued to pursue and solve the challenge,” says Ismail, who is also a professor in the university’s Department of Food Science and Nutrition.

She fell in love with the classroom during her postdoc at Purdue University, when she co-taught a graduate-level food proteins class. Research for the sake of knowledge, not just for the sake of profit, is what drew her to the academic route. As she worked her way to becoming a tenured professor, she continued expanding her toolbox in food chemistry, analytical chemistry, and protein knowledge with research on soy and whey proteins, looking at enhancing functionality, reducing allergenicity, structure, and linking molecular structure to function.

But it was a sabbatical in R&D at Cargill in 2015 that was the impetus for founding PPIC. There, she led the effort to establish a new protein research group and was exposed to industry needs within the protein space.

“The more I interacted with Cargill and their customers, the more I realized the need for expanded plant protein research. It was a lightbulb moment when I realized that the tools and experiences I have would allow me to have an impact in this growing space,” she explains.

With the help of an industry-focused steering committee, she founded PPIC in 2018, and it now has 30 industry members from companies across the plant protein value chain. “PPIC is not a center with walls,” she says. “It is an open space where members gather their innovation efforts to benefit from basic research.”

In addition, PPIC supports individual member projects and offers knowledge dissemination platforms for its stakeholders. Bringing competitors together to the same table, they are able to talk at a high level about the knowledge they need to advance and achieve their goals in this space.

“They all come together,” she says, “on a precompetitive level. That is what is fundamentally exciting about what PPIC does.”

“Dr. Ismail has an eye for the benefits of collaboration and is gifted at identifying partnerships across the research realm that propel her projects to the next level,” reflects University of Minnesota PhD Student Brittany Kralik, who nominated Ismail for influencers’ recognition.

It was a lightbulb moment when I realized that the tools and experiences I have would allow me to have an impact.

Mukesh Kasargode: People-Focused R&D Leader

Minutes into a conversation with Mukesh Kasargode, vice president of R&D, PepsiCo Foods North America, his leadership style is apparent: It’s about prioritizing people and building trust within his teams. That’s the approach he takes daily in a role focused on delivering innovation, productivity, and stewardship for hundreds of well-known brands, working with teams in areas ranging from ingredient sourcing and engineering to marketing and sales.

“Trust is the word that I always use,” Kasargode reflects, “because that’s what binds everything. If you can’t extend trust from day one, it never comes together. So that’s why, for me, people have been a huge area of importance in my [professional] life, and they have given me a lot of learnings.”

“Mukesh is a people-oriented leader, and with his diverse expertise and global experience, he is an inspiration to emerging and accomplished professionals within and outside of PepsiCo,” says PepsiCo Senior Principal Scientist Nitin Joshi.

Kasargode’s career in the food and beverage space started when he was hired for an internship at a General Mills breakfast cereal production facility in Woodland, Calif., after completing his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Sacramento. Following his time at General Mills, Kasargode spent 11 years at Kraft Foods. Soon after that, he joined PepsiCo, embarking on a career that has taken him from Dubai, where he worked to build a technical organization to serve markets in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, to Barrington, Ill., where he led product development and commercialization for the Quaker brand.

He assumed the R&D vice president post based in Plano, Texas, in 2021. Kasargode says one of the most important things that the diversified geography of his career has taught him is how to function in both a culture of abundance and a culture of scarcity.

“I think you should be able to operate in both extremes because of how things are changing in the environment and the world we live in,” he says. “It’s so dynamic. So, if you [can] quickly pivot from one extreme to the other based on the situation, I think that’s been a formula for success … because sometimes you have to operate with a mindset of abundance, but there are days or even hours in the day where you have to operate with a scarcity mindset.”

Looking to the future, Kasargode counts climate change and its impact on the food system’s ability to sustainably meet the demands of a rapidly growing global population as top concerns. “How do we make our supply chain, our end-to-end system, more efficient, using less resources?” he asks.

Another priority is ensuring that the food and beverages PepsiCo produces are nutritious without compromising on taste. “I seriously believe that we can make great-tasting products with the right amount of nutrition that we need.”

Sometimes you have to operate with a mindset of abundance, but there are days or even hours in the day where you have to operate with a scarcity mindset.

KJ Burrington: Dairy Product Innovator

When it comes to developing new products, KJ Burrington, vice president of technical development at the American Dairy Products Institute, says she finds joy in innovating with familiar ingredients found in dairy.

“What I like is the ability to do new things with ingredients that have been around for a long time,” she says. “You’ve created a new application or a new food, or something that is completely different from what consumers can get.”

Burrington was introduced to the dairy industry early in her education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She spent some time as a student working for the Cheese Research Institute, which later became the Center for Dairy Research, on whey protein applications. After stepping into the bakery industry for 10 years, she came back to the Center for Dairy Research to help companies incorporate dairy ingredients into their products.

Burrington, who is a Certified Food Scientist, believes that dairy ingredients provide many benefits to the world of product development. “There’s a whole category of dairy ingredients that are used for functional purposes,” she explains. “It has proteins, carbohydrates, sometimes fat, and lots of vitamins and minerals. They are very multifunctional.”

She says that dairy ingredients are mostly used now in protein-enhanced foods, including beverages and bars. One of her most recent projects was with GoodSport Nutrition, a Chicago-based startup specializing in sports beverages with dairy ingredients. This product uses ultrafiltration to capture milk’s electrolytes, vitamins, and carbohydrates in a hydrating, clear beverage.

“From sports beverages and nutrition bars to baked goods, meals, and desserts, KJ has helped develop a myriad of dairy-based foods and drinks that have evolved with trends through the years,” says Food Technology Contributing Editor Linda Milo Ohr. “Her commitment to educating and promoting the use of dairy ingredients has influenced dairy processors, manufacturers, food scientists, and even consumers.”

In addition to her work in product development, Burrington has also taken an educational role within the American Dairy Products Institute. She helped develop its training program, which has recently partnered with Kansas State University to give students an expansive overview of the dairy industry. Burrington hopes that through this program, students will gain a better understanding of the dairy industry and why it’s so important to the American food system.

“Many of our young people are very far from where their food comes from,” Burrington explains. “I think it’s important for them to get an understanding of the agriculture where their food comes from. Younger people are given this idea that all animal agriculture is bad, and it’s destroying the planet, and I think it’s really important for them to understand what animal agriculture is, what dairy cows are, and how they’re raised.”

What I like is the ability to do new things with ingredients that have been around for a long time.

Taylor Quinn: Food Systems Changemaker

Taylor Quinn can tell you the exact date—March 23, 2016—when he knew where he wanted to take his career. While working to set up a charity as emerging markets director for the food company JUST in Liberia, Quinn met with a local pediatrician, who explained that he handed out food aid products like fortified peanut butter to his patients all day long, acknowledging that it wouldn’t eliminate the epidemic of malnutrition that he saw in the hospital where he worked.

Quinn recognized a need for a nutritious, low-cost food supply that would address the root causes of malnutrition. Just 23 at the time, and as he admits, not knowing how to build a food business in Liberia, Quinn still began to do just that. In his work with JUST, Quinn met with a small Liberian entrepreneur, Kawadah Farm. Together, they developed a product called Power Gari—a fermented, cassava-based porridge flavored with ingredients such as coconut and sesame seeds that included a customized vitamin and mineral blend specific to Liberian dietary needs.

Realizing that his learnings from Liberia could have broader implications for malnutrition globally, Quinn founded Tailored Food in 2019. Through collaborations with local small-scale entrepreneurs, Tailored Food helps design and sell food products that are “delicious, culturally relevant, nutritious, and locally produced.” The social enterprise consultancy continues to work with Kawadah Farm, which is now “the biggest provider of nutritious, low-cost food in the country,” says Quinn.

“Taylor is tackling malnutrition the right way, by leveraging small enterprises to make food local, affordable, desirable, and nutritious,” says Donna Rosa, founder and chief entrepreneurship officer, EFour Enterprises, a consultancy that helps support entrepreneurs in developing countries.

In addition, Tailored Food works to create food system change globally by partnering with large humanitarian organizations, including UNICEF, the United Nations World Food Programme, and the World Bank. “UNICEF is now our biggest partner,” says Quinn. “We are setting the food systems agenda for UNICEF in 15 countries simultaneously right now.”

But Quinn will be the first to tell you that he doesn’t think what they do is that unique or special. “There are a lot of great entrepreneurs working at the grassroots level,” says Quinn, “but there’s just not enough good, thoughtful food industry people who are really looking at how do you build thoughtful food systems in different geographies around the world.”

In fact, when asked where he sees Tailored Food five years from now, Quinn is quick to reply, “We will have failed if we don’t have 10–15 other organizations we’re competing with, so to speak.”

“I would love to see his approach replicated around the developing world, to become the standard to eliminate food and nutrition insecurity and not simply an innovation,” says Rosa.

We are setting the food systems agenda for UNICEF in 15 countries simultaneously right now.

Chris Vogliano: Sustainability Steward

What is the world eating, and is it sustainable?

That’s what Chris Vogliano strives to answer as director of research at Food + Planet. “Three crops make up about 60% of our calories: rice, corn, and wheat,” he says. “From a climate, nutritional, and cultural lens, that’s simply unsustainable.”

The food systems expert’s career has been devoted to understanding and educating others on how we can diversify and regionalize food globally to make it more nutritious, climate resilient, and representative of the people it serves. That means looking at underutilized species that may have been forgotten or are being ignored and seeking out win-win opportunities for people and our planet.

Throughout his career, connecting the dots between agriculture, nutrition, and health outcomes has been a guiding force. His eyes first opened to the concept of food systems at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, where he served as the nutrition manager, spending time with the community, understanding their stories and cultural preferences, and shifting the purchasing habits of the large nongovernmental organization to improve the quality of the food being offered.

Later, he became the first Agriculture and Nutrition Health Research Fellow at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, eventually shifting toward the public health space—where dietitians usually aren’t. For four years, he worked with Professor Barbara Burlingame, Massey University, New Zealand, on sustainable and biodiverse diets, researching how climate change and Westernization was impacting the diet quality of indigenous peoples of the Solomon Islands.

“Most information that exists for nutritional professionals on sustainable diets is not very evidence-based,” he says, which was the impetus for starting Food + Planet with three other dietitians of varied backgrounds. They came together to create a library of free, open-source information about sustainable food, including a four-part educational module that has been completed by nearly 10,000 dietitians, along with curriculums, tool kits, and white papers. Their “4D” framework for sustainable diets includes sociocultural, economic, planetary, and nutritional dimensions.

“Anything we do, we run it through this model to make sure we are providing a comprehensive view of a sustainable food system,” he explains. Organizations like the Monterey Bay Aquarium lean on Food + Planet as their nutrition consultants.

Last year, Food + Planet hosted experts from around the world to develop the Regenerative Aquatic Foods Roadmap. Alongside indigenous farmers from Hawaii and India as well as the director of fisheries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the group generated proactive strategies for scaling up win-win species such as seaweeds and bivalves. The road map includes top actions that technology and innovations can take to help advance these sustainable, nutrient-dense foods.

Vogliano is currently contributing to the Global Diet Quality Project at Harvard University, working alongside global health and population research associate Anna Herforth. This spring, he will begin his postdoc work in Amsterdam at Wageningen University and Research, where he will begin the biogeographic mapping of the most promising underutilized species globally.ft

Most information that exists for nutritional professionals on sustainable diets is not very evidence-based.