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FIC has built a unique team of industry veterans whose experience spans a broad array of disciplines. These include innovation, culinary, insights, business analysis, strategy, business development, research & development, operations, manufacturing, food safety, quality assurance, marketing, sales, and sales strategy. Their experience reaches across multiple channels: retail, foodservice, food trucks, catering and business start-ups.
Nolan Lewin
Executive Director
Nolan is currently responsible for managing both the FIC South and North facilities and staff as the Executive Director. He is also responsible for oversight of manufacturing operations at both locations, ensuring that the production of products meets all regulatory requirements and the facilities are maintained to meet USDA standards.
Julie Elmer
Associate Director, Food Technology
In her role as Associate Director of Food Technology, Julie leads the R&D and Culinary Innovation team responsible for product development, process testing and validation, ingredient and packaging selection and specification, nutrition analysis and labeling consultation, and the entire technical process from concept to commercialization.
Regina Plaire
Assistant Director, Finance and Administration
Joyce Friedberg
Marketing Specialist
Joyce’s role is to provide insights, strategic analysis and marketing expertise to help support FIC and their clients in identifying new opportunities for growth.
Dot Hall
R&D Specialist
As a member of the R&D and Culinary Innovation Team, Dot provides technical guidance in areas such as ingredient sourcing, product development and process development and validation.
Dr. Thomas G. Hartman
Director Mass Spectrometry Operations
Dr. Hartman serves as Director of FIC-Chem’s Mass Spectrometry facility. He and his team provide analytical services in food chemistry, flavors, packaging, polymers, natural products, and pharmaceuticals, as well as expertise in instrumentation design & development and analytical toxicology with a focus on mass spectrometry and chromatography analytical techniques.
Bin Khoo
Assistant Mass Spectrometrist
Bin prepares samples for all of the analytical testing at the Mass Spec facility.
Zuri Masud
Food Technology Associate
Zuri is part of the product development team and assists with all aspects of development through scale up and provides technical support for client projects.
Mellonie O’Neill
Senior Manager – QA Compliance and Training
Mellonie provides QA testing and oversight for all products manufactured at the center. She is a member of Food Safety Training Team and teaches a variety of food safety courses
Craig Peck
Senior Manager of Business Development
Craig Peck is currently the Senior Manager of Business Development at the Food Innovation Center at Rutgers.
Pauline Pepper
Administrative Assistant
As Assistant Administrator, Pauline is responsible for purchasing, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, expense reports, reception, and event coordination, as well as supporting the administrative needs of the training programs.
Corrado Piccioni
Senior Manager of Production Planning and Facilities
George Sansiveri
Plant and Process Engineering Specialist
George is an expert in food process engineering and designing food production plants. He utilizes his extensive experience to provide engineering support to FIC and its clients.
Joe Scarsella
Mass Spectrometry Laboratory Manager
As a food scientist and chemist, his responsibilities include conducting analytical tests for clients spanning from food packaging migration testing to flavor deformulation and beyond. He is responsible for interacting with customers and ensuring that their projects are completed accurately and in
a timely fashion.Eva Szewczyk
Food Safety / HACCP Trainer & Auditor
Eva is a member of the food safety training team, providing courses in Spanish. She also assists companies in preparing for food safety audits.
Audrey Wiggins
Marketing Specialist
Audrey’s role is to provide insights, strategic analysis and marketing expertise to help support FIC and their clients in identifying new opportunities for growth.