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What does it take to lead a complex scientific association through rapid change and actually come out ahead? In this episode of Built to Connect, Jackson speaks with Christie Tarantino-Dean, CEO of the Institute of Food Technologists and former head of Association Forum, to explore what great association leadership looks like when the stakes are high and the pace of change is relentless.

Christie shares how decades of watching associations grow — and struggle — shaped the board culture she built at IFT, why the best innovation often starts with a simple concierge service, and how a Jobs-To-Be-Done research framework led to the launch of CoDeveloper, IFT's own AI-powered tool for food science product developers.

And she leaves us with a reminder that every association leader building something new needs to hear: "You need the operational thinkers, but you also need some that can dream of what is possible."

Topics covered:

• From Association Forum to IFT: the lessons that stuck
• Board governance: what to model and how to build credibility fast
• IFT's board onboarding process: setting members up from day one
• From member research to AI product: the origin story of CoDeveloper
• Planting seeds: how IFT connects young people to a career that matters
• Beyond the annual meeting: what member engagement can actually look like