Wearing Multiple Hats and Staying on Mission with Dr. Darin Detwiler
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:24:19] And you mentioned the access that you had in the traveling and being able to be there. In the room when all of these decisions were being made or when these events were happening, how much of that access was because of your doctoral status, because you were only a student at that time? We don’t do that as well.
Dr. Darin Detwiler [00:24:41] None of it was because of my doctorial status. It was it was purely because of my role as a senior policy coordinator for a nonprofit organization. It was purely because of my history, having worked directly with the USDA, having served on the National Advisory Committee to appointments by the secretary of agriculture, my my work with with national organizations. I was I was well known as a participant, as a stakeholder and as a voice in this arena. And that’s what allowed me to gain access to these opportunities. It was just almost an anecdote that I was a doctoral candidate. What it did do, however, is it it forced me to think of what I’m doing, what I’m saying when I’m hearing what I’m reading, what I’m engaged in and these activities, I have to think of it like with different hats on the same time. How is this going to translate to what I write about? How is this going to translate to what I teach about? And again, I’m teaching like three courses per quarter. Right. And how is this going to impact me as a student currently at one level of elevation in the classroom? And how is it going to impact me in terms of my doctoral research? I’ve got to go through that. I will be I’ve got to treat this this way. I’ve got to think about this. How does this align? What can I do with this? How am I networking? How in my building of resources for quantitative and qualitative data and later analysis, how am I documenting these resources? I’m literally having to learn how to document resources. It’s like you can’t look it up because it was just said, you know, it was just spoken at this event, Washington, D.C., going into this as someone who had been teaching for 16 years did, I did have a bit of an advantage in terms of thinking like a student. It’s not as if it had been 16 years since I’ve been in a classroom. It had been I had been in a classroom for the previous 16 years just from a different side of the table, as you will.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:26:57] Right. But the idea of having all that access and being so involved puts you in a similar position as many of our students who are mid career very successful, doing well, have a mission in life and in their career. What did you see? A doctoral degree, that distinction doing for you to further your career so that that was a motivation beyond the work that you were already doing because you were already obviously contributing greatly to your your primary mission in life. Where did you see the doctoral degree as fitting in and helping with that mission?
Dr. Darin Detwiler [00:27:40] I believe, you know, there’s two sides to this, one is. You start to feel. Bit as if this could help me not feel like an outsider. I was literally referred to back in the 90s. As the crying mom who wears pants, the Dirty Harry, if you will, in the meat industry. This person who lost a son and now is telling us about this, this person who is advocating for this, who is trying to inspire, who is trying to educate, inform and to support, but who is he and what’s his credibility? And you do start to develop this imposter syndrome, this idea of of why am I here? Am I really here because of someone else’s agenda or am I really here on my own agenda? And so the goal is a know as as going through this doctor process. I want to add more to the resources that are out there. I want to make connections had not been previously made. I want to have resources out there that I was able to contribute to. I want to know now, if you will, if I’m going to read you, rethink myself and transform what I’m doing, I need to be able to talk about bigger, broader issues and bring some level of authority to that. I need to be able to. You know, make larger connections and be able to cement myself as and I think I’ve actually really enjoyed and been able to be successful in this area. You know, I I feel as if I met that very, very complicated Venn diagram of when I’m working with scientists, when I’m working with journalists, when I’m working with politicians, when I’m working with industry, when I work with nonprofit organizations and I sit right at the middle in that I’m not here representing any one of them. I’m kind of representing all of them as someone from academia. And sometimes people go, Why are you representing Northeastern? Well, yes. I mean, I don’t want to reflect poorly upon Northeastern, but Northeastern is not someone with a stake in this game where my professional interests lie. And so it definitely plays an aspect of that. It definitely helps you build. You know, and I’m not going to say that this is the same for everyone. Everyone transforms through a doctoral program in different ways. But but I grew up in terms of that cohort that I was in. That was a very interdisciplinary core. I mean, there was someone who was an expert in the bridges of New York. There was someone who was an expert in health care policy in in Delaware. There was someone who was an expert. And in the black vote, changing the black vote, there was someone who was all these different areas of expertise. And it was just amazing to work with them and to hear from them and to be thought of as someone who is worthy of of being in this pool of people. And it does. You know, if all I spent my time and focus on was on my one area of interest or area of research, I would have missed out that opportunity to help build better connections in the bigger picture of what I was studying and also to learn about these these connections with different topics. So I would say that I guess quickly in summary, that it helped my transformation in terms of my personal and emotional and confidence and my ability to to fit into the different audiences that I’ve been able to see grow ever since then. It’s it’s resulted in a better understanding of law and policy and of research and things obviously pertaining to my research. But it’s also definitely open up some doors in terms of the work that I do in and out of the classroom for me.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:32:15] Yeah, I think that what you started off saying was the the way that you were perceived by particularly people in the industry, as you were advocating, was something you had an emotional reaction to. I don’t want to be perceived that way as by having a doctoral degree. You’re now no longer kind of the victim, but you pull into that role of the expert, which is what your mission requires. And so I think that that’s important. A lot of people do pursue their doctoral degree because of wanting to have a sense of credibility. You already have the ability to do what you’re doing. But to to bring in that additional credibility is helpful. And then, of course, the transformation that comes in with a doctoral degree program only helps you be more effective in all those ways that you just mentioned.
Dr. Darin Detwiler [00:33:07] Well, I would imagine that many, many people who have earned a doctorate, who continue to work with industry to work outside the classroom, you find yourself at industry events, even in virtual worlds. And you look at who are the panels, you look at who’s at the table and not the not that, you know. Not that there’s any one way of defining someone, but it is strange sometimes where the reason why that person’s an expert is because they work for a big company and they may not even have a graduate degree. They may not have as many years of experience as you have, but the name of the company on their business card or that that that company is able to afford them being the sponsor of the conference and on the agenda is really what what what drives their credibility for being at the table. And when you don’t have that, it really does help in many cases when you’re able to have a degree or the benefits of that degree in terms of knowing the research and the body of work that I’ve written, the engagements for, speaking and consulting that I’ve done and the networking I’ve been able to do, you put this bigger body of work together. And I like to think that when I am on that panel, when I’m on that stage, I can look at that in terms of this is all that you have to do to be next to this person that has a major brand name on their business card and it can pay off. There’s no guarantee. But but that is sometimes what one has to do in order to compete with that. With the benefits, the benefits of having a diverse panel of experts, someone that represents academia says. Well, that represents the research in my case, not only that, but someone who represents consumers and the consumer perspective is it’s very hard to get sometimes most panels. Again, they’re made up of people representing the companies who sponsored the event, not necessarily people that represent a diverse first series of perspectives for stakeholders. And on that panel.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:35:30] Right. And when you. The folks that are in the audience, hopefully they can appreciate the difference between. I have the brand name on my business card versus I have years of experience, I have immersed myself in this, I am dedicated to this. And and certainly from a consumer standpoint, I’m the person who’s speaking for you objectively because of my academic background. But still, that is that’s that’s a voice that I’m trying to make sure it’s heard.
Dr. Darin Detwiler [00:36:07] Well, I agree with you, but I would also, I guess, add that when I’m looking at that person who’s got a major company’s name on their business card kind of thing, I definitely the vast majority of those experiences. Are with people who. Put consumers interests as a top priority, they do the right things, they are people with whom I actually do want to be associated. There are people who I have consulted with, who I have involved in writing projects, who I literally consider friends not only on professional and social media, but you go to some of these conferences and it’s sounds like a high school reunion. But but, you know, you get that opportunity to network and mingle. And and when I get to spend some time with some people, I truly admire and appreciate it. It’s it’s it’s an honor. It’s not a competition to be at that table with them. It’s an honor and a pleasure to be at that table with them, to be on that stage with them and to be part of that discussion and hoping that the bigger, broader audience is able to see not only a diversity of perspectives, but an alignment. In terms of that mission line meant for for that conversation.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:37:39] So addressing your mission of food safety directly now, what do you think is the the biggest outstanding challenge? I’m sure there’s been a lot of progress made. A lot of things have happened in the past 20 some years now since since the E. coli outbreak that you mentioned earlier. What’s the biggest outstanding challenge in your mind?
Dr. Darin Detwiler [00:38:05] So I wrote a book called Food Safety Past President Predictions, and it is, I think, three or four books and one, it’s not just a way for me to get my doctoral thesis into a book. It’s not just a way for me to go beyond my doctoral thesis and tell the stories that that don’t necessarily have a place. In a doctoral thesis. I was able to work with the publisher and get them to change their model, their template, and allow me to at times write in first person narrative along with that third person academic voice. But in doing so, I also brought in over seventy five interviews with the people who were actually there, the people who were making the policies, the people who are pushing the policy through Congress, the people who were advocating for policies, the people who were monitoring outbreaks or investigating recalls the people from industry who were reacting to and responding to issues. I wanted to get their voices into that. But as you can imagine, past president predictions, the chronology of the book would allow you to have predictions at the end, and the publisher wanted me to focus on technology, a much, much greater depth than what I did. And I said, look, it really does fit within the organization of this book. I want to write a second book called Building the Future of Food Safety Technology, where I look at how my experiences and this was completely I didn’t write this in first person, the second book. But again, I brought in over twenty five different experts from completely different areas of industry and areas of expertise. And we said, look, everyone’s talking about technology. Everyone’s talking about lockshin, everyone’s talking about artificial intelligence. Everyone’s talking about the Internet of things. Everyone’s talking about how technology, technology, technology. But when I go to these, literally the only people there are in the food drink industry and we’re only there to talk about change, we’re only there to talk about technology. Right. You find that people’s definition of this and their understanding of this was completely skewed. You’re the decision makers, the people who are going to make directional changes for industry. They’re going to have significant purchasing power and be leaders in this movement. And they were talking as if, well, we’re not going to make any changes right now. We’re going to wait until we can just buy blockchain and turn it on. And I said at this one, even in San Francisco, I’ll never forget this. I was saying, you know, for those who are saying along this line, I’m we’re not going to do anything until we have this, you need to be thinking about your stakeholders, about your your vendors, your suppliers, your distributors, your your security of the gate, your front end workers, that everything from an understanding of your mission and and your values within a company, the the the the various hazards and control points within your specific industry facilities. You need to have lines of communication. You need to have data collection. You need to have data storage. You need to have data analysis in order to bring on technology that’s going to work with this. And you need to have ethics and corporate social responsibility and you need to have those people in play that that are going to understand and be at that level of performance, which align with what you’re trying to do. And I had an audience member raise his hand and he goes, oh, I’m sorry, let me say this. I said, you can’t turn on blockchain Monday night and expect to communicate any better or be more ethical Tuesday morning.
