Why Authenticity Wins in Food Safety: 5 Leadership Lessons from Kelly Stevens

At Women in Food Safety, our mission has always been to elevate voices, share hard-earned wisdom, and build a community where professionals can thrive. Recently, we had the privilege of hosting our June gathering*  with Kelly Stevens, Director of the Global Food Safety Center of Expertise at General Mills.

With a remarkable 30+ year career spanning laboratory microbiology, intense manufacturing plant roles, and global corporate leadership, Kelly joined us to share the raw, honest milestones of her journey. For food safety professionals, her insights that we’ve boiled down to five tips, offer a powerful masterclass in leadership, navigating industry barriers, and owning your career path. 

1. Stop Self-Eliminating

Early in her 22-year tenure at General Mills, Kelly completed three manufacturing plant roles across New Jersey, Georgia, and Missouri. Despite initial personal resistance, she now credits those boots-on-the-ground operational roles as career-defining moments that built her technical credibility.

Many professionals, particularly women, fall into the trap of only applying for roles if they check every single box. Kelly’s advice? Don’t say no to yourself. When you choose not to pursue an opportunity, you remove yourself from consideration entirely.

Applying to that job, even if you feel underqualified, builds organizational visibility and could provide you with useful professional feedback. Kelly also suggests updating your resume annually. Not because you are actively job-hunting, but to track your skill development and benchmark your capabilities against the external market.

2. Admit When You’re Wrong

For the introverts in our community, Kelly’s transition into leadership is incredibly relatable. Identifying as a strong introvert, she admitted she initially became a people leader reluctantly. She learned to deliberately practice extroverted behaviors for professional effectiveness, ultimately finding that leading a team toward a common goal is the most rewarding part of her work.

As she started to develop her own leadership style, she learned a few tactics for fostering psychological safety and trust within technical teams. First, always admit when you’re wrong.

Openly acknowledging mistakes models vulnerability and signals to your team that it is safe to speak up.

Long pauses have a similar effect. When asked to make a difficult food safety or operational decision, Kelly takes a moment to think, with an intentional, extended pause before speaking. This explicitly invites dissenting opinions, allowing her to evaluate whether new input should pivot the team’s direction.

3. Resist Conforming to the Norm

Early in her career, Kelly was often the only woman in the room. She recalled receiving coaching to hide family photos, avoid personal topics, and conform entirely to dominant male norms, even resorting to reading hunting magazines just to find common ground with colleagues.

Today, her stance has shifted completely to authenticity over conformity. Trying to be anyone but yourself is unsustainable. The industry is changing for the better, and female leadership should be increasingly visible at every level of the organization.

4. Create Habitual Networking Skills

Building a network is the most valuable asset you can accumulate, but crowded industry conferences can feel overwhelming. Kelly recommends coming up with a list of questions to ask people before the conference starts to ease awkward moments and keep the conversational spotlight on the other person.

At large events, deliberately sitting at the busiest table is the best bet for introverts. It reduces the intense pressure of one-on-one small talk while still embedding you in the room’s energy. 

Finding your voice in a conference setting can be tough at first, but one place to start practicing could be your company’s conference room. Kelly once used a coaching exercise where she tracked and reported every single meeting when she chose to speak up versus when she held back. This practice helped Kelly create a habit of contributing in group settings.

5. Master the Art of Purposeful Prioritization

One of the most freeing moments of the session came when Kelly shared advice from her own mentor, Judy. The concept of daily ” work/life balance” is a myth. Trying to distribute your time and energy equally every single day creates immense, unnecessary pressure.

Instead, look at it as purposeful prioritization or “harmonizing.” True harmony means making deliberate choices based on what matters most right now, whether that is a critical plant audit today or a family milestone tomorrow.

Ultimately, Kelly’s journey reminds us that the most effective leadership doesn’t come from fitting a mold, but from breaking it. By applying to that high-level job, embracing your authentic voice, and choosing purposeful harmony over the exhausting myth of ” work/life balance,” you stop just navigating the food safety industry and start shaping its future as a leader. Even if you’re an introvert, you don’t need permission to lead; you simply need the courage to show up as yourself.

*Women In Food Safety Monthly Gathering is a welcoming virtual conversation where women across the global food safety community come together to connect, learn, and grow. Each month features an inspiring guest leader or industry expert who shares their career journey followed by an interactive Q&A and open discussion. Whether you’re a student, emerging professional, or seasoned leader, these gatherings provide a supportive space to build meaningful connections to empower one another to thrive in food safety.

Editors Note: The Food Safety Consortium and Food Safety Tech supports WIFS and for six years has published a dedicated Women In Food Safety column.