Dr. Jerry R. Gillespie

The Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA on June 19 announced the appointment of Dr. Jerry R. Gillespie as executive director of the Joint Institute for Food Safety Research. He succeeds Dr. William C. Wagner, who served as the interim executive director since September 1999.

During his two-year appointment, which began June 1, 2000, Dr. Gillespie will provide leadership for the coordination of research on food safety issues in government, including the USDA, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Dr. Gillespie has been professor and director of the Food Animal Health and Management Center, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, since 1994. In the past four years, he has conducted research on the food safety of beef production, serving as the principal investigator for studies on the ecology of Escherichia coli in beef cow-calf operations.

Prior to his current post, Dr. Gillespie held faculty positions in physiology at the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine (1976-1985), and was professor and head of the Department of Clinical Sciences and veterinary medical teaching hospital at the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine (1985-1994).

The Joint Institute for Food Safety Research, created in 1998 as part of the Clinton administration's Food Safety Initiative, is a shared undertaking staffed and supported by the HHS and the USDA. Its major functions are to coordinate the setting of priorities for food safety research among the two departments, other government agencies, and the private sector, and to foster the effective translation of research results into practice.