Erin Elizabeth Hiatt was born on January 10, 1992 in Sandpoint Idaho.  She grew up in the small town of Bonners Ferry Idaho where she learned important life skills such as working hard on her grandparents’ farm, assisting elderly neighbors, gardening, yard work, cooking, cleaning, etc.  As a teenager, she participated in multiple activities.  She competed at a state level in cross country, basketball, and track.  She won the local Junior Miss Scholarship Program and then went on to compete in the state competition.  She played the piano for high school honors and mixed choirs, was a member of national honor society, received her Young Woman Personal Progress award, served in her church young woman program, and earned the school valedictorian award. 

After high school, she moved to Provo Utah to attend Brigham Young University to study food science.  The journey into food science began at a young age while cooking with her mom.  She enjoyed expressing her creativity through food.  It continued in her early adolescence while walking on the Cornell University campus.  While there, she noticed the newly constructed food science building and was intrigued by the large cooking equipment, as well as the unique flavors of cheese offered to the public.  The summer preceding her junior year in high school, Erin visited Tillamook Cheese factory where the chemistry and science behind cheese making increased her intrigue in food science.  At that moment, she knew that she would study food science, and she has never turned back.

Professionally, Erin has interned at Litehouse foods two complete, and one partial summer. Litehouse is an acidic foods company specializing in dressings and dips.  Each summer she returned to Litehouse, her further schooling combined with past interning record increased her value to the company.  While at Litehouse, she has formulated new recipes requested by companies, organized and carried out a company-wide retail dressing shelf life extension sensory test, lead an herb replacement project (3-5mil), and, most recently, began the replacement project for pasteurized egg yolk (1.8-9.4mil).  The industry exposure has been invaluable to her learning.

Erin plans on graduating from Brigham Young University in April 2016 and then continuing her education with a masters in food science.  Erin’s hobbies include cooking, running, taking walks, fishing, gardening, listening to books on tape, crocheting, and doing crafts.  She enjoys spending time with her family – Mom and dad, 4 brothers, 2 sisters, 4 sister-in-laws, 1 brother-in-law, and 17 nieces and nephews.