Dr. Catherine Donnelly, PhD

2025

K. Dun Gifford “Local Hero” Award

Co-Recipient

Catherine Donnelly, Professor Emeritus, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Vermont, is an expert on the microbiological safety of food, believes that requiring cheesemakers to use pasteurized milk is not the best way to produce safe (and tasty) cheeses. Dr. Donnelly believes is better to educate cheesemakers about how to ensure the safety of their raw-milk products. Dr. Donnelly was formerly the co-director of the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese which provided educational opportunities and scientific/commercial advice to small-scale cheesemakers. Prof. Donnelly is a recognized international expert on the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes and has published numerous articles and delivered hundreds of presentations on the topic.

No doubt, a local hero.

This year’s awardees of the K. Dun Gifford Local Hero Award were special to Dun Gifford.

In March 2000, Oldways, the American Cheese Society, Whole Foods Market, and the Cheese Importers Association joined forces to assemble an international coalition to fight to preserve the rights of individuals to choose raw milk cheeses. The new coalition was called the Cheese of Choice Coalition, and the four organizations worked together to fight the proposed FDA ban on raw milk cheeses; The FDA threatened to lengthen the aging time for raw milk cheeses from 60 days to 120 or more days – thereby banning most raw milk cheeses. The collective work was effective, and today, the 60-day aging rule on raw milk cheeses still stands. 

Artisan Cheesemakers Mateo and Andy Kehler and scientific expert Catherine Donnelly were important partners in the success of this effort, working with Dun Gifford, and *together they are joint recipients of the 2025 K. Dun Gifford “Local Hero” Award.