Mary Heersink is an internationally known food safety advocate and the author of E. Coli 0157: The True Story of a Mother’s Battle with a Killer Microbe.
Mrs. Mary Heersink and Dr. Marnix E. Heersink
In it, she recounts the harrowing experience of her son Damion, who in 1992 at the age of 11, ate contaminated hamburger meat at a Boy Scout outing and spent six-and-a-half weeks near death in pediatric intensive care. Despite Damion’s ultimate victory over E. coli 0157, Mrs. Heersink found her confidence in our food safety systems shaken.
Her encounters with ineffective government agencies led her to found STOP Foodborne Illness, a national grassroots public health organization dedicated to preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens.
Mrs. Heersink has served on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. She has also testified before the U.S. Congress and is frequently asked to present at scientific meetings, both nationally and internationally.
Whether the issue be food safety, food security, viral pandemics, anti-microbial resistance, non-communicable diseases, we need global health workers who can engage across a very broad landscape using multiple levers of power to affect change.
Mary Heersink
Mrs. Heersink currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Masters of Global Heath Program, a joint initiative between McMaster University in Canada, Maastricht University in the Netherlands, Manipal University in India, Thomassat University in Thailand, Rosario University in Columbia, Afhad University for Women in Sudan, and University College of South-East Norway.
She also is serving or has served on Boards of Directors for numerous nonprofit and civic organizations in the Dothan area, including Boys and Girls Clubs of Dothan, the Wiregrass Museum of Art, Houston Academy, and Landmark Park. Mrs. Heersink has been married for 43 years to Dr. Marnix Heersink, an ophthalmologist in Dothan.