Relating Numbers of Foodborne Pathogens to Human Illness: Biographies
Food Safety Initiative Technical Workshop:
Relating Numbers of Foodborne Pathogens to Human Illness
Introduction | Program | Talks | Abstracts | Qs & As | Slides | Biographies
Tuesday, August
4, 1998
Atrium, Stamp
Student Union
University
of Maryland
College Park,
MD
Speaker Biographies
Margaret
E. Coleman
US Department of Agriculture
Office of Public Health
and Science
Washington, DC
Peg Coleman joined the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), US Department of Agriculture in 1989 as a chemist in the Residue Evaluation and Planning Division. For the past five years, she has focused her efforts on issues and methods specific to microbial hazards in foods, such as improving the capability of FSIS to use risk analysis as an approach to improve food safety and reduce food borne disease. Her manuscripts reflect a data analysis approach that permits explicit modeling of variability and uncertainty as model inputs. She has presented the FSIS work in risk assessment at many international and national meetings and contributed to the development of Codex documents on risk assessment and risk analysis. Ms. Coleman was appointed to the Risk Assessment Consortium formed under the President’s Food Safety Initiative in 1997. She holds a B.S. (Biology) from Syracuse University, a M.S. (Medical Microbiology) from the University of Georgia and another M.S. (Biology/Biochemistry) from Utah State University.
David W.
Gaylor, Ph.D.
Food and Drug Administration
National Center for Toxicological
Research
Jefferson, AR
Dr. David W. Gaylor is Associate Director for Risk Assessment Policy and Research at the National Center for Toxicological Research, Food and Drug Administration, Jefferson, AR and has been with NCTR since 1972. He holds an Adjunct Professor appointment at the University of Arkansas and participates in numerous National Research Council, Public Health Service, EPA, FDA and International Life Sciences Institute Committees considering health risk methodology and risk estimation of specific substances. His many published manuscripts and presentations at technical meetings have been on statistical methods and health risk assessment techniques. Dr. Gaylor has a B.S. (Statistics) from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. (Statistics) from North Carolina State University.
Dennis
J. Kopecko, Ph.D.
US Department of Agriculture
Office of Public Health
and Science
Washington, DC
Dr. Dennis J. Kopecko has been Chief of the Laboratory of Enteric and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD since 1994. He had spent 18 years at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research having achieved the position of Assistant Chief, Department of Bacterial Immunology. He had also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University Medical School. His research interests include: molecular and genetic analyses of bacterial pathogenicity, mechanisms of bacterial invasion, oral bacterial vaccines, gene expression control mechanisms, bacterial genetics of plasmids and transposons, host-pathogen interactions and rapid diagnostic techniques. His numerous scientific credits include: manuscripts and patents as well as review, consultant and teaching functions at the national and international levels. Dr. Kopecko holds as B.S. (Biology) from the Virginia Military Institute and a Ph.D. (Microbiology) from the Medical College of Virginia.
Dennis
Lang, Ph.D.
National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National
Institutes of Health
Bethesda,
MD
Dr. Dennis Lang has been the Enteric Disease Program Officer at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD since 1993. He is charged with the development, coordination and direction of the extramural grants and contracts program in enteric diseases which includes the development of vaccines and therapeutics against enteric pathogens. He interacts with many federal agencies, international organizations, industrial, university and foundation scientists to facilitate program initiatives and develop consensus and recommendations on topics related to enteric disease. Dr. Lang also served on the committee that drafted the President’s Food Safety Initiative. Before coming to NIH in 1991, he had completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell University, was Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Cincinnati Medical School for nine years and worked for biotech and diagnostic firms for another nine years. He holds a B.S. and Ph.D. (Microbiology) from Syracuse University.
Myron M.
Levine, M.D., D.T.P.H.
Center for
Vaccine Development
University
of Maryland School of Medicine,
Baltimore,
MD
Dr. Myron M. Levine (Mike) is Director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. During his 28 years at the University, he has fostered the discipline of vaccinology including: basic research on the pathogenesis of bacterial enteric infections and on the construction of vaccine candidates, clinical research to assess the safety and immunogenicity of candidate vaccines in adult and pediatric populations and epidemiological field research. He has also served the University of Maryland in many other capacities including Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine since 1985. His scientific credits encompass a plethora of manuscripts and books, national and international committees and collaborations and numerous awards including a Life Science Achievement Award by the University of Maryland and the Gold Medal Award of the Albert B. Sabin Foundation. Dr. Levine received his M.D. from the Medical College of Virginia and completed a pediatric residency and pediatric infectious disease fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1974, he received a D.T.P.H. from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Wesley
R. Long, Ph.D.
Center for Food Safety
and Applied Nutrition
Food and Drug Administration
200 C Street SW
Washington, DC 20204
Wes is the Food Safety Initiative Lead for Risk Assessment at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). In this position, he is charged with coordinating the activities of the Interagency Risk Assessment Consortium and directing the development of the risk assessment clearinghouse at the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN). Within CFSAN, he is charged with developing and implementing the FDA’s microbial risk assessment research plan as well as leading the activities of the CFSAN Microbial Risk Assessment Team. Within JIFSAN, he is charged with developing a Center for Excellence in Risk Analysis.
Wes has worked in private industry, as well as in FDA’s Office of Policy, CFSAN’s Office of Plant and Dairy Foods and Beverages, and CFSAN’s Office of Premarket Approval. He received his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Arizona State University.
Fred R.
Shank, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor
to the Commissioner
Food and
Drug Administration
Rockville,
MD 20857
Dr. Shank was appointed Senior Advisor to the Commissioner for External Academic Affairs in January 1998. In this capacity, he is responsible for optimizing FDA's interaction in its unique consortiums with academic institutions and the food industry. When implemented, FDA's food safety and science programs will be fully integrated with academic institutions, creating intellectual partnerships to increase the quality of research and public health policy, and ensure effective use of scientific resources.
Prior to this position, he served as the director, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition for almost 10 years. In that capacity her was responsible for planning and implementing scientific and regulatory programs to provide for the quality, safety, and accurate labeling of all food and cosmetic products regulated by FDA. Before joining FDA in 1978, Dr. Shank performed program evaluations and served as a nutrition specialist with the Food and Nutrition Service for domestic food assistance programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Dr. Shank earned his doctorate in nutrition at the University of Maryland. He has authored or co-authored numerous papers and has made many presentation on public health, nutrition and food safety.
James M.
Slauch, Ph.D.
Department
of Microbiology
University
of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign,
IL
Dr. James M. Slauch has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1994. He is also an instructor in the Advanced Bacterial Genetics Course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. He received his B.S. (Biochemistry) from Penn State University, a Ph.D. (Molecular Biology) from Princeton University, and did his Postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of Salmonella typhimurium pathogenesis. He is using the IVET (in vivo expression technology) system to identify bacterial genes that are required for the various stages of infection.
Kirk Smith,
Ph.D.
Minnesota
Department of Health
University
of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign,
IL
Dr. Smith graduated from the University of North Dakota with a B.S. in Biology in 1986, from Iowa State University with a D.V.M. in 1990 and a M.S. in Veterinary Preventive Medicine in 1991, and from the University of Georgia with a Ph.D. in Veterinary Parasitology in 1995. Dr. Smith also served in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service program. Dr. Smith is currently supervisor of the Foodborne, Vectorborne, and Zoonotic Diseases Unit within the Acute Disease Epidemiology Section of the Minnesota Department of Health. His major interests include foodborne diseases, antimicrobial resistance in foodborne bacterial pathogens, wildlife diseases, zoonotic diseases, and parasitic zoonoses.
Sita R.
Tatini, Ph.D.
Department
of Food Science and Nutrition
University
of Minnesota
St. Paul,
MN
Dr. Sita R. Tatini is a Professor of Food Microbiology at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN where he has been a member of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition since 1966. His research credits focus on food microbiology and microbiological contamination issues including: recovery of pathogens from food products, quantification of bacteria in foods, methods of detection and effects of processing on food quality. Dr. Tatini holds a B.V.Sc. (Veterinary Science) from the University of Madras, India, a M.S. (Dairy Industries) and a Ph.D. (Food Science) from the University of Minnesota.
David R.
Tribble, M.D.
Enteric Diseases Program
Naval Medical Research
Institute
Bethesda, MD
Dr. David R. Tribble is Deputy Head, Clinical Trials and Field Evaluation Branch, Enteric Diseases Program, Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, MD and has been associated with the National Naval Medical Center since 1990. He holds concurrent appointments at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and serves in several academic roles at the University. His research interests include: bacterial diarrheal disease with clinical research involving oral immunization, epidemiology and antimicrobial therapy (Campylobacter jejuni); mucosal adjuvant development and infectious disease surveillance/risk assessment. Dr. Tribble completed an Internal Medicine residency at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, VA in 1990. He holds a B.A. (Biology) from Hendrix College and a M.D. from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine.
James
Wilson, Ph.D.
Center for
Risk Management
Resources
for the Future
St. Louis,
MO
James D. Wilson is a Senior Fellow in the Center for Risk Management at Resources for the Future, a Washington, D.C. research institute. His current research focuses on use of science in regulatory decision making. An organic chemist by training, he holds degrees from Harvard and the University of Washington (PhD, 1966). Joining the Monsanto Company in St. Louis, he worked several years doing bench research, from which he moved first into research management and then into environmental policy. His tenure as research manager included developing methods for assessing risks of poorly soluble organic chemicals in the aquatic environment and managing the interface between one Monsanto business unit and product regulatory agencies. In 1983 he began to focus on science policy issues concerning application of risk analysis to human health and environmental regulatory decisions. He was President of the Society for Risk Analysis in 1993 and was named a Fellow of the Society in that year.
H. Kirk
Ziegler, Ph.D.
Department of Microbiology
and Immunology
Emory Medical School
Atlanta, GA
Dr. Kirk Zeigler is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory Medical School, Atlanta, GA and has been at Emory since 1981. He has published many manuscripts and given presentations at technical meetings on a variety of topics in immunology. Dr. Zeigler has a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, where he also received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology.
