Susie Craig

Vita (pdf)

B. Susie Craig is a professor with Washington State University Extension in Seattle, WA. She specializes in food safety, STEM food science education, and health. Since completion of undergraduate and graduate studies at Purdue University, she has worked as an Assistant Professor teaching undergraduate courses in Food Science and Nutrition for West Virginia University, West Virginia State University, and the University of Charleston. She served as a Program Leader in Nutrition and Health for Cornell University Extension and was the field liaison for a qualitative/quantitative study on Plant Food Consumption conducted randomly with 650 families in Rochester, NY.

Her university Extension outreach has focused on:

• STEM Food Science Education for Youth with the National 4-H Council,
• Consumer Food Safety including digital platform outreach, publications, and presentations
• Program development, implementation, evaluation of the Germ City: Clean Hands, Healthy People Program with to 39 states,
• Successful Youth and Adult Education,
• FDA/USDA Good Agricultural Practices National Team: Worker Health and Hygiene, and Selected Research and Extension projects

Before joining Washington State University Extension and Cornell, she specialized in cognitive restructuring and behavior intervention assisting individuals in making lasting and beneficial changes in their lives for eight years. As a cognitive behaviorist for Overlake Hospital in Bellevue Washington, she conducted more than 2,500 hours of closed-group facilitation for a hospital-based lifestyle change program. As a private consultant, she worked successfully with businesses, city governments, universities, non-profit organizations, and health care facilities conducting seminars, workshops, and presentations on quality of life and quality of work life issues.

Susie was a founding member of the national FDA/USDA Good Agriculture Practices Team focusing on the microbial safety of fresh produce with specialization in worker health and hygiene. She was a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Clean Hands Coalition, the Washington State Health Department Partners in Food Safety, and served as the faculty liaison for a metro county SNAP-Education program.

As the Director of the Germ City Program, she expanded the program from a locally based community education project to a nationally recognized program. The Germ City Program is offered 39 states associated with land-grant universities and Cooperative Extension, regionaland state fairs and expositions, state departments of agriculture, hospitals, medical schools, the Mayo Clinic, and Food and Drug Administration offices. With $500,000 from the USDA National Integrated Food Safety Initiative, this research, education, and community outreach program has reached nearly a million participants in Washington State. Germ City: Clean Hands, Healthy People Program received the national Florence Hall Program Award and the national Excellence in Program Research Award from the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. In 2006, the multi-state program was recognized with the Western Dean’s and Directors Award, representing fourteen western land-grant universities. She has appeared on the NBC Today Show and the program has been cited in USA Today Health columns.

Susie has given presentations, participated in panel discussions, workshops, and posters at the National Science Teachers Association, Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health Promotion Conference, National Environmental Health Association, International Association of Fairs and Exposition, National Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, National Association of 4-H Extension Agents, and national USDA Food Safety Conferences. She has also been an invited speaker conducting workshops on cognitive-behavioral change and Good Agriculture Practices – Food Safety Begins on the Farm.

With a grant from the National 4-H Council, she served as the project director and primary author of “What’s On Your Plate – Exploring Food Science. The middle and high school STEM curriculum includes student science journals and facilitator guides. The curriculum includes 12 food science activities (90 minutes each) ranging from gluten development and leavening agents, protein coagulation, designing and marketing healthy beverages, to sugar crystallization. The program was introduced May 2014. In 2022, it was translated into Georgian and introduced through the national school system.

Her current research includes a usability study in King County/Seattle on the use of food safety restaurant scoring systems for consumers working with undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Washington. She continues to work on a successful series of weekly podcasts called Food Safety in a Minute focused on consumer food safety (2019-current).