CERSA Intern finishes position with USDA-FAS

Madeline Maynard is a recent graduate of NCSU’s Crop and Soil Sciences program at NCSU, and she just completed her internship with NCSU’s Center for Excellence in Regulatory Science in Agriculture (CERSA) and the USDA-FAS. Madeline’s experience at NCSU helped her prepare for this internship, especially by receiving her certificate in Regulatory Science in Agriculture through CERSA. She worked directly with the USDA, primarily in their Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) division. Her main focus was assessing risk communication strategies of member economies in the  Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), she also helped edit CERSA’s MRL 101 course and worked on updating/creating PowerPoints overviewing the FAS MRL work being done in each of the regional portfolios of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Madeline worked under Michelle Flavin, International Programs Specialist in the FAS. During her internship, she researched the  APEC member economies’ risk communication strategies to ascertain if they were effective/building capability in risk communication in their localities. She eventually transitioned into a longer-term project in this field. To wrap up her internship, she had the opportunity to present her research on risk communication to a group of professionals at CERSA. Madeline discussed how risk communication could affect all stakeholders, and how lack of communication results in the loss of valuable information and perspectives from those stakeholders. She has considered continuing her research on this topic, with the possibility of using this information in one of our future CERSA workshops. In June she participated in the CERSA-led Genome-Edited Microbial Workshop, giving her a firsthand look into how our organization supports collaboration between research, regulatory, and industry stakeholders. We enjoyed having Madeline as part of our program, and we look forward to seeing her succeed in the future!

If you are interested in reading more about previous interns’ experiences in CERSA, please go to our website. We will have new internship opportunities available to students from NCSU and LSU in the fall. For more information, please contact our Program Manager at Carrie_Rogers@ncsu.edu.