Catching up with Valerie Gamble

Valerie Gamble was a member of Cohort III.  

At that time, she was in her fourth year as a food inspector with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) evaluating retail, wholesale, and manufacturing operations in the Twin Cities metro area.

Since then, she moved to a food inspection supervisor position for several years, followed by an outreach and engagement coordination position, and in 2017 became the first Produce Safety Program Manager for the MDA. This was an exciting position because it afforded the opportunity to build a new regulatory program within the Food and Feed Safety Division, looking at on-farm produce safety practices. During this time, she was an active member of the Minnesota Environmental Health Association (MEHA), participating as a board member for four years and co-leading the Legislative Committee for MEHA until June 2021. Valerie was also a member of the AFDO Produce Safety Committee until a recent job transition away from food safety regulatory work.

Currently, she is the Director of Strategy and Special Projects for the MDA, working in the Commissioner’s Office. In this role, she focuses on engagement, evaluation, and strategic planning throughout the agency. Current projects include working with the new MDA Emerging Farmer’s Office to create long term strategic plans and assess infrastructure needs and closing out the four-year agency level strategic plan in preparation for development of the next one, in early 2023. Valerie is also the PI on a new USDA grant funding the MN Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, which provides funds to buy food from socially disadvantaged producers and donate that food to underserved communities in the state.

“As someone who values and thrives on input and connections, I loved that the IFPTI Fellowship program introduced me to so many important ideas, different approaches, and perspectives from all over the country. The camaraderie of our cohort made the experience fun and supportive, in addition to being guided by experienced mentors who could speak to management, supervisory, and administrative challenges as well as technical concerns.” - Valerie Gamble