Over the years the International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH) has brought together Environmental Health professionals from all over the globe. REHIS recently played host to one such friendship. Colin Wallace, a past President and IFEH representative, has been a friend and colleague of Sharyn Jupp for many years always meeting on foreign soil so it was a great pleasure for them both to be able to meet up in Scotland at the end of September. Of particular interest to Sharyn, given her ancestry and the fact that her great grandfather played the organ in Edinburgh’s St Andrews Church, was the visit that she and Colin made to said church.
Sharyn commenced her training as a Registered Environmental Health Specialist for Santa Clara County in 1986, an area known to us as Silicon Valley, or near the city of San Jose in California. On qualification Sharyn continued working with Santa Clara County for 30 years. In 2015 when an opportunity came up to work for Marin County just north of San Francisco and just over the Golden Gate Bridge, Sharyn took it. Marin County was where she grew up, so for her, it’s home! She has enjoyed working in Food Safety and Recreational Health (public swimming pools and spas) her entire career and as a member of IFEH, loves learning about International food safety and other areas of Environmental Health that she does not experience in her daily work.
Whilst in Scotland Colin arranged for Sharyn to visit the Institute’s office and to attend the REHIS Annual Food Update Course. She also met with our President, Lorrainne McGillivray, in Stirling who kindly arranged for Sharyn to shadow Carrie Cooper on a working visit to Graham’s the Family Dairy Ltd. Sharyn found the visit to be very illuminating.
Colin and Sharyn also managed to cram in quite a bit of Ayrshire culture by visiting Burns Cottage and Museum, the Electric Brae, Souter Johnnie’s, the Robert Adams designed Culzean Castle. A particular interest to Sharyn was the top floor of Culzean Castle, of which was converted into a self-contained apartment and offered to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, for his lifetime tenancy, as a gesture of thanks from the people of Scotland, for his part in commanding Scottish Troops in the Battle of Europe.
Photo caption: Colin Wallace with Sharyn Jupp at the REHIS office.
