2005 Walter Barnard Hill Distinguished Public Service Fellow

Elizabeth L. Andress

Elizabeth L. Andress serves as an associate professor and Extension food safety specialist with the Department of Foods and Nutrition. She is recognized as the foremost expert on home food preservation in the United States and Canada. Andress is responsible for several publications that are definitive works in home food preservation and food safety.

In recent years, Andress has been instrumental in coordinating the delivery of the ServSafe® program of the National Restaurant Association throughout the state. This widely recognized certification program for foodservice managers is used by the Cooperative Extension Service to reach the foodservice industry in inspected establishments. More than 93 county Extension agents and county environmental health specialists in Georgia have received food-handling training and certification.

Andress also works closely with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ensure that home economists working with the Meat and Poultry Hotline in the Food Safety and Inspection Service are up-to-date. She is the con-author of the Complete Guide to Home Canning, a bulletin published by the Cooperative Extension Service and the USDA, and she serves as project director for a National Center for Home Food Processing and Preservation. The Center is researching new home-canning and home-freezing recommendations for the USDA database and is analyzing risk factors and recommendations for other types of home food preservation.

She recently edited major sections of So Easy to Preserve, which serves as the definitive source of information on home food preservation and is used as a primary reference in more than 30 states. Thousands of copies of both publications have been distributed. She has also served as a technical consultant in home food preservation for the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S. Justice Department, and private law firms.

In the past six years, Andress has obtained $1,413,592 in external funding to support her food-safety program, covering topics of home food preservation, food-handler education, and cancer education programs,

She is assigned .12EDT (equivalent full-time) to teaching, student evaluations of her teaching are among the highest in the Department of Foods and Nutrition. Since 1997, she has served as thesis advisor to four M.S. graduate students. Through working with Andress, these students have explored career opportunities in the Cooperative Extension Service and have gained extensive experience in applied research and public service education. One of her students received “First Prize” in the student research poster competition sponsored by the Georgia Dietetic Association in 1998.

Andress is a recipient of a “D.W. Brooks Faculty Award for Excellence in Extension,” the highest award in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, reserved only for outstanding professionals in the College. She is also a recipient of the “State Epsilon Sigma Phi Mid-Career Service Award,” and the “National Epsilon Sigma Phi Mid-Career Service Award for the Southern Region.”