Virginia Tech Professor Named Deputy FDA Commissioner

BLACKSBURG, Va., Feb. 26, 2002 -- Lester Crawford, named deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday, has become the third senior federal official with Virginia Tech ties to be named to the nation's top positions concerned with food safety issues.

Crawford's appointment was announced yesterday (Feb. 25) by Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Crawford is the senior official in the 9,000-employee FDA pending the appointment of a commissioner.

"Dr. Crawford's extensive experience in food safety issues in industry, government, and academia will be an important addition to the government's effort to keep America's food supply safe," said Charles Steger, president of Virginia Tech. "His appointment highlights the support Virginia Tech provides in this important area, as well as the high regard in which this institution is held."

With Crawford's appointment, federal officials with Virginia Tech ties dominate the top food safety positions in the federal government. Complementing his appointment to head the FDA were the appointments last fall of Elsa Murano, a university alumnus, as undersecretary for food safety in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the appointment last month of Merle Pierson, professor of food science and technology at Virginia Tech, as Murano's deputy undersecretary.

A veterinarian by training, Crawford has served as executive director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, executive vice president of the National Food Processors Association, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service, and director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine. He was previously a faculty member at the University of Georgia, and he worked early in his career in research and development at American Cyanamid Company.

He earned his DVM from Auburn University, and his doctorate in pharmacology from the University of Georgia.

FDA's mission is to promote and protect public health by helping safe and effective pharmaceuticals reach the market in a timely way, ensuring food is safe, wholesome and properly labeled, , and monitoring products for continued safety after they are in use.

The Virginia Tech Center for Food and Nutrition Policy, which Crawford has directed since 1997, is a resource on food and nutritional issues to which policy makers often refer. The center is designated a center of excellence by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization.

Maureen Storey, who joined the center in 1998, will serve as acting director. The center is based in Alexandria, and uses research, outreach, teaching, and communications to advance rational, science-based food and nutrition policy.

Storey earned her bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the University of Minnesota. She has held several executive positions with Kellogg Company, and she was senior vice president of health and nutrition marketing at a national marketing firm.