Top USDA Official Lends Her Expertise On Food Safety To Resources For The Future

4/26/2002

From: Michael Taylor of Resources for the Future (RFF), 202-328-5066

WASHINGTON, April 26 -- Resources for the Future (RFF) is proud to announce the appointment of Margaret Glavin. As a visiting scholar at RFF, she will play a leadership role in the continued development and management of the independent research institute's food safety program.

Glavin is on a two-year leave of absence from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service, where she most recently served as acting administrator. As the USDA's top-ranking career food safety official, Glavin's accomplishments include managing implementation of major food safety reforms in U.S. meat and poultry plants, developing new initiatives to combat Listeria in foods, and initiating highly regarded management improvements within USDA's food safety agency. In 1999, she was the recipient of the U.S. Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive, the highest civil service award.

Michael Taylor, director of RFF's Risk, Resource, and Environmental Management Division, says: "Maggie brings a wealth of experience in managing food safety regulation and management programs which will be a huge benefit as we build our food safety program. Her expertise and leadership skills will play a critical role in linking our important work on models for resource allocation with the interests and concerns of the policy and stakeholder communities."

"I'm so delighted to join RFF and to have this opportunity to work on food safety in a research setting," says Glavin. "RFF's well-earned reputation for independent scholarship and the development of practical policies and decision tools make it the ideal place to continue my work on improving food safety regulation."

RFF's food safety program focuses on improving regulatory decision making and the allocation of government food safety resources to reduce the risk of food-borne disease. RFF is currently collaborating with the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the Iowa State University College of Agriculture, and the Milbank Memorial Fund to develop the decision tools required to manage a more science- and risk-based food safety system.

RFF is an independent, non-profit research institute dedicated to environmental and natural resource scholarship of the highest caliber. For 50 years, RFF researchers have examined critical issues facing our country and world, including biodiversity, energy security and reliability, land use and conservation, antibiotic resistance, international development, climate change, electric utility restructuring, space technologies, food safety, and sustainable forestry. RFF prides itself on putting forth realistic policy options for the consideration of key leaders and decision makers.

Before coming to RFF, Michael Taylor was the administrator of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, and a deputy commissioner for policy at the Food and Drug Administration.