Michele Humiston

Michele has been employed by Cornell University for more than 20 years, serving in a variety of roles. The majority of Michele's years of service were as a Research Support Specialist for the IR-4 Project, a national program that facilitates regulatory approval of sustainable pest management technology for specialty crops and specialty uses to promote public well-being. As an Analytical Chemist for the IR-4 Project, Michele extracted and analyzed pesticide residues from varying crop matrices using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Gas Chromatography (GC) or Liquid Chromatograph Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) instrumentation following EPA Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) standards. The data collected and reported supported new EPA tolerances and labeled product uses for specialty crop growers. Michele has also worked as a Quality Assurance Auditor for IR-4, monitoring compliance of USDA IR-4 agrochemical residue studies at field research facilities located across the Northeast Region through on site critical phase audits, facility audits, and field data reviews. Michele, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Keuka College, joined the Produce Safety Alliance in July 2015.

Michele plays a crucial role in many of the PSA's behind-the scenes administrative tasks, training organization, review and production of educational materials, and answers questions related to the PSA's training courses.