2019 The Business of Numbers and Nutrition
 
Coming Soon!
Nancy Barlow
Program Content Specialist
ESC Region 4
Nancy Barlow serves as Subject Matter Expert (SME) for School Meal Programs from Region 4 Education Service Center in Houston, Texas. She has worked with federal feeding programs for over 30 years. Nancy joined Region 4 in 2000 as a Child Nutrition Program Specialist providing training and technical assistance to CEs operating school meal programs. Prior to working at Region 4 she worked at Pinellas District Schools in Pinellas County Florida managing site operations, providing technical assistance and training to staff. She also worked for Pinellas County Juvenile Welfare Board Child and Adult Care Food Program overseeing day care feeding sites, providing technical assistance and training. She has developed and delivered training for state agencies, Texas Association for School Nutrition and the School Nutrition Association. Nancy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Home Economics from Indiana University.
 
Jaclyn Cantu
Director for USDA Foods
Texas Department of Agriculture
Jaclyn Cantu is the current Director for USDA Foods with the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) Food and Nutrition Division. Jackie has been with the agency for 12 years holding various positions such as monitoring the National School Lunch/School Breakfast Programs and overseeing 6 Cents Certification. Today, Jackie oversees the operations of USDA Foods for the National School Lunch Program, Summer Food Service Program, The Emergency Food Assistance Program, Commodity Supplemental Food Program, Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, Seniors Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program and Disaster Assistance. She received her bachelor’s degree in Dietetics from Bowling Green State University and is a native of Ohio. Jackie moved to central Texas in 2003 to complete her Dietetic Internship at Texas State University and now lives in Austin Texas.
 
0Sarah Carlson
Assistant Director, School Operations
Texas Department of Agriculture
Sarah Carlson is an Assistant Director for School Operations at the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) where Sarah is involved in all aspects of the School Nutrition Programs statewide, including coordinating, planning and evaluating activities of staff operations statewide, to include Administrative Reviews and Procurement Reviews.
 
Emilee Case
Farm Fresh Coordinator
Texas Department of Agriculture
As the Coordinator for Farm Fresh Projects for the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA), Emilee Case works directly with child care centers, schools, summer meal programs and local producers to facilitate strong purchasing relationships and robust Farm Fresh programs. She was a chef and wellness coordinator for four years in Austin, TX prior to her work with TDA.
 
Corey DeLeon
Food Distribution Specialist
Texas Department of Agriculture
Corey DeLeon joined the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) in March 2019 and is a Food Distribution Specialist. In this role, he manages USDA Food storage and delivery contracts and inventory level s of USDA Foods at contracted warehouses, food banks, and processors. Before joining TDA, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Nutrition from Texas State University and started his career in the food bank industry. He has garnered years of work experience managing USDA Food Distribution Programs at the local and State level.
 
Manuel Flores
Food Ordering Specialist
Texas Department of Agriculture
Manuel Flores is a Program Specialist with the USDA Foods programs with the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA), where Manuel processes food requests for the USDA Foods programs from Contracting Entities, including schools and food banks throughout Texas. Manuel has worked with TDA as a Commodity Specialist, a subject matter expert for further processed USDA Foods program, which has now transitioned into an Ordering Specialist for all the USDA Foods programs.
 
Mary Gomez-Kokkinos
Assistant Director, School Operations
Texas Department of Agriculture
Mary Gomez-Kokkinos is an Assistant Director at Texas Department of Agriculture, specifically for the School Operations Department. Mary is involved in all aspects of the Administrative Review for the School Nutrition Programs statewide, including coordinating, planning, and evaluating activities of staff operations that conduct the Administrative Review and Procurement/Financial Reviews. In addition, Mary is involved in the training and development of new administrative review specialists. Mary has over 17 years’ experience in operating, managing and directing child nutrition programs at various independent school districts in Central Texas. Mary helped ensure broader access to school meals by refining and developing Breakfast-in-the-Classroom programs as well as At-Risk Supper Programs in her roles as Food Service Director, Assistant Director and Director of Operations. In 2017, Mary brought her experience and specialized skills to Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) as an Administrative Review Specialist, then as a Senior Review Specialist and now as an Assistant Director. Mary is a graduate of Texas Woman’s University with Bachelor of Science in Dietetics and Institutional Administration. Mary’s passion is development of child nutrition professionals and to ensure broad access to nutritious meals to all students.
 
0Cory Green
Associate Commissioner for Contracts, Grants, and Financial Administration
Texas Education Agency
Cory Green has formerly served as state Title I Director for eight years and the Chief Grants Administrator for the state with oversight of over 200 state and federal grant programs. He currently serves as the TEA Associate Commissioner for the Department of Contracts, Grants, and Financial Administration and is also the State PNP Ombudsman.
 
Angela Hodapp
Food Ordering Specialist
Texas Department of Agriculture
Angela has been with USDA Foods since October 2010. Her initial assignments included assisting participants spend down entitlement through utilization of Regular, USDA Foods (brown box) for NSLP and Summer Feeding and assisting from start to finish DoD Fresh and Farm to School Programs. Over the past 2 years, the responsibilities expanded into ordering USDA Foods for further processing and bringing in food for the two household programs. Angela has a double major Bachelor’s degree in Communications and English from Texas State University. Prior to TDA, Angela was well versed in coordination and distribution of surgical medical instrumentation and coordination of equipment for orthopedic trade shows.
 
Lisa Hoyt
Lead Assistant General Counsel for Food & Nutrition
Texas Department of Agriculture
Lisa Hoyt is the Lead Assistant General Counsel for Food and Nutrition at TDA, where she oversees all litigation, contracts, and general legal services for the F&N Division, including NSLP, CACFP and SFSP. Ms. Hoyt has worked with the food programs for nine years and leads a team of three attorneys and one legal assistant who are assigned to the F&N Division. She is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin (BA, Government) and Texas Tech School of Law (JD).
 
Jocelyn Karbo
Child Nutrition Specialist
ESC Region 11
Jocelyn Karbo is the NSLP Content Specialist and Team Lead at ESC Region 11 in Fort Worth, TX. Jocelyn creates and reviews NSLP training materials in conjunction with TDA. She enjoys supporting Child Nutrition Programs by connecting CEs to tools and resources available, understanding the uniqueness of each CE individually, all while maximizing their ability to serve delicious healthy meals to kids! Upholding food safety as a ServSafe instructor/proctor while making connections to local food sources keeps Jocelyn energized in our industry. Jocelyn’s MBA and RDN perspectives have allowed her to merge the role of business into the world of Child Nutrition. She serves on the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetic’s School Nutrition Services Dietetic Practice Group’s executive committee as the Awards and Scholarship Chair. She supports RDN School Foodservice internships and has been a preceptor for Baylor University Medical Center and TCU dietetic students. Jocelyn serves on her local SHAC committee, enjoys gardening, and spending time outside with her family in her free time.
 
Estella Martinez-Perrin
Food and Nutrition Systems Support
Texas Department of Agriculture
Estella Martinez-Perrin joined the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) as the System Support Specialist where she manages system security accounts, analysis and modifications aimed to improve business efficiency and productivity of the system. Estella began her state career with Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts as a Program Specialist and then as a System Analyst where she was involved in implementing a new payroll system. She continued her career in payroll as a liaison between a private entity and the state, but returned to the state as a Lead Accountant for the Texas Department of Aging and Disability. She then became a Manager overseeing payment processing, vendor maintenance, program improvement, data management, and system modifications. Estella enjoys spending time traveling with her husband, being blessed by her grandchildren, and watching college baseball.
 
Gwendolyn McDade
Administrator, Food and Nutrition
Texas Department of Agriculture
Gwendolyn D. McDade is a Certified Public Accountant. As the Food and Nutrition Administrator, she oversees budget, claims and administrative expenditures of $5 billion biennially of federal funding for twelve Texas nutrition programs. Gwen has extensive audit and financial management experience in the private, nonprofit and governmental sectors. Her roles have included performing internal and external audits; implementing audit preparation and readiness; launching and sustaining internal controls; establishing finance and internal audit departments; implementing accounting and audit systems; developing and documenting policies and procedures; and delivering operational results and training classes. As America’s Regional Internal Audit Manager at Motorola, she worked to implement global controls for $1 billion of inventory. In her four years as a Deputy Inspector General of Compliance at the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, she oversaw a budget of $10 million and led 200 auditors and nurses in ensuring that state and federal funds were used in accordance with applicable law. She oversaw $100 million in revenue and $300 million in assets for a governmental risk pool, earning unqualified opinions of the annual financial statements for eight years while ensuring the existence of effective internal controls and implementing an accounting system. Gwen thrives on conveying her knowledge to individuals and national audiences. She trained agency auditors to audit multi-fund college and university financial statements, delivered training to the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association and governmental risk pools on internal controls and compliance, and she continues to serve as a mentor to aspiring leaders.
 
0La Shonte McKinney
Administrative Financial Review Specialist
Texas Department of Agriculture
 
0Carmen Ocanas-Lerma
Director of Food and Nutrition
ESC Region 1
Carmen Ocanas-Lerma is the Director for Food and Nutrition at Region One Education Service Center, where she coordinates the availability of technical assistance and training for Region One area contracting entities that include Public, private and Charter schools along with the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Mrs. Lerma is from McAllen, Texas. She holds a BBA in Management from the University of Texas – Pan American and has been employed by Region One for over 5 years. As a former Child Nutrition Professional and Director of Food Services for 25 years at various Districts in the Region One area, Mrs. Lerma oversaw the operation of over 200+ staff and a 13 Million Dollar budget. She led the transition of converting 2 districts from traditional to Provision 2 status, eliminating the processing of lunch applications. She also implemented various initiatives under Provision 2 to bolster the federal reimbursement by increasing breakfast participation by 400%, lunch by 150%, and a la carte sales by 225% in the first year of Provision 2 operations. She also holds the nationally recognized School Nutrition Specialist (SNS) credential.
 
Angela Olige
Assistant Commissioner
Texas Department of Agriculture
As Assistant Commissioner for the Texas Department of Agriculture, Angela Olige is part of Commissioner Miller’s executive team. She oversees the Food and Nutrition Division and has administrative oversight for the operations, policy development, strategic planning and financial management of 12 federal nutrition programs with a budget of more than $2.8 billion in Texas. These programs have an impact on the state’s public, private-nonprofit and charter schools as well as numerous residential child care institutions, food banks, and other community and faith-based organizations. This position affords Angela the opportunity to engage in the endeavors she finds most rewarding — instituting and managing the kinds of effective change and transitions that not only help those in need but also lead people to discover their hidden talents, abilities and skills. Angela received her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Houston-Clear Lake Angela first ventured into the public sector at the local level in 1984. She honed her accounting and managerial skills in accounting offices of Texas school districts in La Marque and Houston adding food and nutrition to the mix while working in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Clark County School District. Angela started her state service in 2005 with the Texas Department of Agriculture. Angela resides in Georgetown, Texas. She is the proud wife of Rick Olige, a distinguished army veteran and ministering elder and has been blessed to mother three daughters and two sons. She is an extremely proud grandmother of five grandsons and five granddaughters. Angela finds joy in children’s laughter, the chime of a grandfather clock, martial arts movies, and a good book. She utilizes available time on the things she values most — treasuring her husband, mentoring women, inspiring others, caring for her grandchildren, spending time with her extended family, and serving as Ministering Elder at Celebration Church.
 
Michael Olivas
Senior Administrative Reviewer
Texas Department of Agriculture
Michael Olivas is a Senior Administrative Review Specialists at Texas Department of Agriculture, where Michael reviews, assess, verifies and ensures the completeness, timeliness and quality of Administrative Reviews, corrective action plans and the Administrative Review close-out process. Michael also develops the 3 year Administrative Review cycle, maintains TX-UNPS, creates all TX-UNPS enhancements, reports all review findings to squaremeals.org, develops tools to increase reviewer efficiency and sits as the subject matter expert for School Operation staff.
 
Tina Parks
Administrative Financial Review Specialist
Texas Department of Agriculture
 
Alex Saenz
Food Distribution Specialist
Texas Department of Agriculture
Alex Saenz has been the USDA Foods Distribution Specialist with the Texas Department of Agriculture for the last four years. He is a liaison between USDA, the TDA-contracted warehouses and CEs; and also manages the USDA Foods inventories for NSLP, SFSP, CSFP, and TEFAP. Prior to coming to TDA, Alex served for over ten years as a Program Specialist at the General Land Office, where he supervised the monitoring and inspection of Oil and Gas Leases owned by the State of Texas, which deposits millions of dollars into the Permanent School Fund. Alex is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications.
 
Beverly Shaw
Program Content Specialist
ESC Region 13
Beverly is the Program Manager for the Child Nutrition Programs at Educational Service Center Region 13 in Austin. Previous to coming to ESC 13, Beverly was an Education Specialist at ESC 20 in San Antonio where she lead various roles with several organizations, such as the City of San Antonio’s Mayors Fitness Council, San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo and the Bexar County Texas AgriLife Extension Service. Beverly also spent several years with the Texas Department of Agriculture as a Compliance Monitor for Food and Nutrition as well as a State Marketing Specialist promoting Texas Agriculture all over the state of Texas. Beverly is proud to be an alumnus of the Texas A&M Lifetime Leadership Program. A little known fact about Beverly is that she is a cattle rancher and works hard on a cow calf operation outside of Bastrop with her family. She holds a BS in Agriculture and Marketing/Animal Science from Texas State University in San Marcos and loves working in Child Nutrition Programs where sharing knowledge is her passion.
 
Nicole Sierra-Notarianni
Director of School Operations
Texas Department of Agriculture
Mrs. Sierra-Notarianni is a graduate of Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She received her Bachelor degree in Dietetics and Exercise Physiology and her Masters Degree in Public Health, Health Promotion and Health Education. After moving to Austin, Texas, Mrs. Sierra-Notarianni worked at the Texas Education Agency as a Compliance Monitor. Mrs. Sierra-Notarianni expanded her opportunities by working for ARAMARK at Pflugerville ISD as the Assistant Director of Operations. In 2005, Ms. Sierra-Notarianni returned to the Texas Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Division. Currently, she works as the Director of School Operations where she oversees 50 staff and approximately 850 Administrative Reviews, Procurement Reviews, and Financial Reviews per year. The School Operations Section oversees public schools; charter schools; private schools and residential child care institutions for the National School Lunch and Special Milk Programs. When Mrs. Sierra-Notarianni is not at work she is a doting mother of six year old twin girls, loves watching and playing sports (Go Buckeyes!) and cooking for family and friends.
 
0Laurie Stamper
Child Nutrition Specialist
ESC Region 7
Laurie Stamper has been working as a Child Nutrition Specialist at Region 7 Education Service Center in Kilgore, Texas since 2011. She has created several nonconventional trainings including this financial report class, an Excel class developed for child nutrition directors, and basic computer classes for directors and their staff. Her previous employment includes 14 years as a Child Nutrition Director for Alvarado ISD and Lindale ISD. Laurie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition from Stephen F. Austin University and a Master of Science in Institutional Administration from Texas Woman’s University. She is currently helping the 105 districts of Region 7 to understand the rules, regulations, and intricacies of their financial business. She loves data. Come watch her analyze your financial report as only a data nerd could do!
 
Beth Thorson
Assistant Director for Program Improvement Nutrition & Education
Texas Department of Agriculture
Beth has 25 years of food service management experience in 3 large school districts in Florida and Texas. Currently she works in the Texas Department of Agriculture as the Assistant Director of Program Improvement, Nutrition and Education in the Food and Nutrition Division. She has taught certification classes for the Texas Association of School Business Officials (TASBO), and has served on their School Nutrition Committee. A registered dietitian and nutritionist, Beth completed her internship at Oklahoma State University and earned her master’s degree at the University of Nebraska.
 
Glenda Wernli
USDA Food Data Specialist
Texas Department of Agriculture
Glenda Wernli is a Program Specialist with the USDA Foods further processing program for the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA), where Glenda monitors inventory levels for the USDA Foods NSLP program for Processors and Contracting Entities. Glenda has worked with TDA as a Data Reporting Specialist for three years as a subject matter expert and has been with the State of Texas for over 10 years specializing in data and record management.
 
Catherine Wright Steele
Administrator, Food and Nutrition
Texas Department of Agriculture
Catherine Wright Steele serves as an Administrator for the Texas Department of Agriculture’s (TDA) Food and Nutrition Division (FND). The division oversees TDA’s administration of 12 federal nutrition programs in the Lone Star State. TDA FND supports its nutrition program partners and ensures efficiency and accountability in the use of taxpayer dollars to nourish Texans in need. TDA FND also promotes nutritious habits for Texans of every age and works to help them build a bridge to good health and success. Catherine’s responsibilities include oversight of policy and nutrition guidance; training development; program evaluation and improvement; data management; outreach; and special initiatives. Catherine also oversees TDA’s Farm Fresh Initiative which includes the Farm Fresh Challenge and Farm Fresh Fridays. These activities help connect Texans to agriculture, increase community collaborations, promote healthy lifestyles and improve local Texas economies. She is focused on enhancing collaboration among staff and stakeholders and fostering innovation in program delivery and accountability. Catherine brings a public policy perspective to the FND team. She joined the agency in 2004 as a member of the Governmental Affairs Division. She served as Director of this division with responsibilities such as promoting and executing the agency’s state and federal legislative and appropriation priorities and intergovernmental relations. Before beginning her state service, Catherine worked at the South Plains Association of Governments dedicated to supporting needs of city and county government with emphasis on rural Texas. Preceding her time in local government she served at the federal level in Congressmen Larry Combest’s Washington D.C. office. Catherine is a Lubbock native and graduate of Texas Tech University. She currently resides in Pflugerville with her husband and children.