2004 Walter Barnard Hill Awards for Distinguished Achievement in University Public Service & Outreach

Judy A. Harrison

Judy A. Harrison began her work at the University of Georgia in 1992 as an extension foods specialist for the Cooperative Extension Service, but within the year, she also acquired the title of assistant professor and extension foods specialist in the Department of Foods and Nutrition. Now a tenured faculty member, Harrison’s title remains the same but her work focuses on serving beyond the classroom.

Harrison has been instrumental in creating a variety of programs to educate adults and children on the issue of food-borne illness in Georgians. “Smart Kids Fight BAC!”®, a curriculum for kindergarten through third grade, and “Fight BAC! With Allen and Bernie”®, for adults, are two concepts Harrison has developed to address this issue. Components of the curriculum include an animated video for children, a storybook, workbooks, teaching guides, a live-action video for consumer audiences, and activities to reinforce food-safety messages. She is also principal investigator and project director for two multi-state grants from the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service at the United States Department of Agriculture totaling $788,551, to develop, implement, and evaluate these curricula and to create interactive computer games based on “Smart Kids Fight BAC!”®.

More than 3,300 elementary school children in Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina have been reached with “Smart Kids Fight BAC!”®. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman and Undersecretary Elsa Murano have joined Miss America Heather Whitestone McCallum, Wynonna Judd, and Olivia Newton-John in reading the curriculum’s accompanying storybook at educational events in Atlanta, Nashville and Las Vegas.

In the last six years, Harrison has been the principal investigator on more than $1 million in grant projects that target children, child care, and personal care issues. She has been the co investigator on a $2.3 million grant from CSREER-USDA for food preservation and produce biosecurity, and received a gift of $10,000 from Publix Supermarkets to support “Smart Kids Fight BAC!”®. Harrison has also edited 2 books, 13 lesson guides, 8 videos, and 12 manuals.

She is also involved in the training of County Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Agents from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Texas in food preservation, as well as home food preservation industry professionals from the United States and Canada.