(PMCA — July 2025) — During PMCA’s Annual Meeting of Members, held Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at the 78th Annual Production Conference in Lancaster, PA members ratified the slate of directors for the new fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025.
The following individuals were ratified as new members of the PMCA Board of Directors. Their first terms began July 1, 2025 at the start of the PMCA fiscal year 2025/2026.
Judy Cooley, Global Confection Connections, LLC
Judy has served on multiple PMCA committees for many years, including as Chair of the Production Conference Program Committee, which organizes PMCA’s largest annual educational and networking event. She is also an active participant in the Student Outreach Program as a student mentor.
Judy is a product development candy technologist with a mission to combine passion for confectionery industry success with eradicating global malnutrition. Her expertise is in global products, technical services, production feasibility and efficiencies, education and team building with nearly 45 years of success in R&D, growth and product implementation. She is the recipient of multiple confectionery industry awards and has mentored many young professionals with an understanding and love of many cultures. Judy has always been an advocate of education, research and cooperation within the confectionery industry. Judy retired from The Hershey Company in 2015 and started Global Confection Connections, LLC consulting company and has clients worldwide.
For 29 years, Judy worked as a principal scientist for The Hershey Company where she was responsible for development of sweets, refreshment and international R&D and product implementation in multiple countries. From 2013-2015, she was involved in the development and implementation of ViVi, a highly fortified peanut snack that Hershey donates to school children in Ghana. Fifty thousand children were fed daily in 2015 alone.
In 2014, Judy had the privilege to help with design and implementation of Project Peanut Butter’s Ghana factory for production of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).
Judy has a passion for our sweet industry and has been volunteering her time with these associations for many years including multiple roles within PMCA, NCA and AACT. She also mentor young confectioners in the US, China and Mexico.
Judy was inducted into the Candy Hall of Fame in 2012, received AACT’s Stroud Jordan Award and was nominated for Candy Industry’s Kettle Award in 2007 and 2011. She holds two patents, with two pending.
Judy holds an MBA with high honors from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, a BS in foods and nutrition with a minor in chemistry from Illinois State University and a certificate in international management from Georgetown University.
Jenna Derhammer, Blommer Chocolate Company
Jenna started working in the food industry in 2004 as her second career. She attended the French Culinary Institute (now International Culinary Center) for a degree in pastry arts and received a master’s degree in nutrition from Drexel University. She has held various roles in product and recipe development at Balducci’s and Ashland prior to joining Blommer. She started with Blommer in 2007 focusing on product development and more recently has shifted focus to innovation and business development. As the innovation director, she leads the teams that develop opportunities, listen to customer voices and generate new and novel concepts. Jenna is passionate about the confectionery industry and has served on the board of directors at the Fine Chocolate Industry Association and is currently the Chair of PMCA’s Research Committee. She was the 2024 recipient of the Marie Kelso Award for her 2023 production conference presentation.
Eric Schmoyer, IRCA Group Americas
Eric Schmoyer joined IRCA Group Americas in 2024 as technical innovation director. Previously, he was technical services manager with Barry Callebaut since 2007, where he worked with internal and external customers solving production issues.
Prior to joining Barry Callebaut, Eric was with the R.M. Palmer Company for almost 20 years. Starting in the moulding department and moving to tech services, he worked with raw materials, formulation and processing, as well as standard QA duties. In 1998, he was named R&D lab manager, where his duties included ideation and new item prototype development, plant scale-ups, on-line troubleshooting, production of sales samples and managing the QA libraries.
Eric has instructed and attended several PMCA courses as well as the NCA Confectionery Residency course in Madison, WI. A member of PMCA for a long, long time, Eric is co-chair of the Education & Learning Committee, chair of the Nominations Committee and is active on the Long Range Planning and Student Outreach committees. He also leads the Beyond the Basics Subcommittee, which plans the Monday morning program for PMCA’s Annual Production Conference. Eric is past president of the American Association of Candy Technologists as well as Philadelphia Chairperson. He was the 2020 recipient of AACT’s Stroud Jordan Award and will be inducted into the Candy Hall of Fame in October of 2025.
Directors renewing second terms are Rebecca Kuehn, Guittard Chocolate Company and Abdoulaye Traore, ofi.
About PMCA
PMCA is an international organization that enhances the companies and careers of confectionery and snack professionals through inspired learning and the building of long-term personal connections, which empowers our members to create products that bring people joy.