Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center, Oklahoma State University
Andrea is a Business Planning & Marketing Specialist at the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Responsibilities in the last 16 years include the initiation, management, and successful timely conclusion of client projects brought in through FAPC. She provides leadership for scores of rather diverse projects each year, including those from the Oklahoma baking, food processing, pet food, beverage, processed meats, poultry, confections, seasonings, and other specialty products businesses.
Andrea works closely with all sizes of food manufacturing companies, from entrepreneurs to large sized businesses. She assists and manages projects for all stages of a food business and works to understand their needs and expected outcomes while assembling a technical and business team as needed.
Client projects vary from logo design to product development to food safety and third-party audit systems. Andrea also reviews business plans and food labels for FDA compliance, assists with marketing strategies, branding, packaging, social media, and coordination of specialty services of FAPC.
Additionally, Andrea coordinates and helps teach many of the over 70 educational and technical trainings offered to food processors each year at FAPC.
Andrea serves on the on the Board of Directors for both the Oklahoma Local Agricultural Collaborative and the Made in Oklahoma (MIO) Coalition. She is the Chair of the Member Outreach and Education committee for the Coalition. The MIO Coalition program has over 95 members representing food processors that collectively work together to market and demonstrate the value of buying local products.
Andrea specializes in helping lead beginning gourmet food companies to take the next steps for national sales and recognition through participation at events such as the Dallas Gourmet Market in Dallas, Texas and the annual Fancy Food Show in New York, New York.
Prior to the FAPC, Andrea was an account executive for Shamrock Foods Company in the southern Arizona region for more than six years and assisted food service clients in opening new restaurants, managing food costs, introducing new products, and designing menus. At the same time Andrea was the assistant manager for a catering business in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Andrea has also served as the General Manager for several full-service restaurants in Arizona, Oklahoma, and Colorado.
Andrea received her bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University. She is a member of the Institute of Food Technologists, the Research Chef’s Association, and the Oklahoma Restaurant Association. In her spare time Andrea enjoys her dog, DIY projects and trying out new food products and cooking methods with friends and family.