TNFood.SafetyCoE@tn.gov
TNFood.SafetyCoE@tn.gov
The Southeast Peer‑to‑Peer (P2P) Symposium is designed to foster meaningful connections among foodborne and enteric disease epidemiologists across Southeastern states and territories. Its purpose is to strengthen collaboration, build community, and support the ongoing development of public health programs throughout the region.
The Symposium’s goal is to cultivate supportive partnerships among state‑level public health staff and to create a collaborative learning environment where participants can exchange best practices, share creative approaches to disease surveillance and investigation, and discuss lessons learned—particularly in the face of resource constraints. It also serves as a space to brainstorm new or innovative strategies that advance our collective work in foodborne and enteric disease response.
Each year, state‑level epidemiologists responsible for foodborne and enteric disease surveillance and response work together to identify topics of shared interest across the Southeast. Using these priorities, we collaboratively develop an agenda that reflects the region’s evolving needs. Through this forum, states have the opportunity to highlight their successes, learn from one another, and work together to overcome common challenges.
Our state health departments bring a wide range of expertise to this work, and we recognize the strength that comes from sharing that knowledge across regions. We remain committed to creating spaces where this collective experience can be exchanged, elevated, and used to support one another.
Each Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence (Food Safety CoE) is a collaboration between a state health department and an academic institution. Through these partnerships, the Food Safety CoEs are uniquely positioned to help grow the future public health workforce.
The Tennessee Food Safety CoE hosts one to two graduate-level interns each semester, with many students completing their Applied Practice Experience (APEx) as part of their placement. Our center primarily recruits students from the University of Tennessee’s Master of Public Health program, most of whom are pursuing the Epidemiology track.
Interns play a key role in supporting TN Food Safey CoE’s mission by evaluating and analyzing the center’s training activities, as well as, gain hands-on experience with real-world public health projects. Recent internship work includes:
Through engaging in projects highlighting applied epidemiology, data analysis, public health communication, and program evaluation our interns are building multidisciplinary skills that will prepare them for careers in food safety and public health