Vilsack Announces Food Safety Adviser

WASHINGTON—Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on July 24 announced Dr. Adela R. Ramos was named senior adviser for food safety for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (UDSDA).

Ramos most recently worked for Sen. Tom Harkin on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, where her portfolio included food safety, agricultural research, animal and plant health, and biotechnology issues. From 2004 to 2005, she served on Harkin's agriculture committee staff as a congressional science fellow sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ramos has a doctorate in microbiology from Cornell University, where she studied plant-microbe interactions, and a B.S. in biology from Duke University.