WASHINGTON – US Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack named 19 individuals to serve on the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Animal Health. The committee is tasked with provide outside perspectives on USDA’s programs, strategies and policies in addition to leading a broader dialog about public health and livestock economies.

Committee members will serve through June 2017, and the next meeting will be posted in the Federal Register. The committee members are:


• Dr. Michael J. Blackwell, a veterinarian and director of veterinary policy for the Humane Society of the United States from Tennessee;

• Dr. Stephen Crawford, state veterinarian and deputy commissioner of agriculture from New Hampshire;

• Dr. S. Peder Cuneo, extension specialist and assistant director of university animal care at Univ. of Arizona;

• Glenda S. Davis, program manager for tribal veterinary services from Navajo Nation;

• Dr. Mark J. Engle, technical services manager, swine business unit, for Merck Animal Health;

• Dr. David L. Fernandez, a sheep producer and extension livestock specialist from Arkansas;

• Maximiliano A. Fernandez, a cattle and sheep producer and advocate from Washington;

• Dr. John R. Fisher, director and professor of cooperative wildlife disease study at Univ. of Georgia;

• Dr. Daniel L. Grooms, chairperson and professor of large animal clinical sciences at Michigan State Univ.;

• Dr. Annette B. Jones, state veterinarian and director of animal health and food safety services from California;

• Mary Ann Kniebel, rancher and feedlot nutritionist from Kansas;

• Dr. John R. MacMillan, vice president of Clear Springs Foods in Buhl, Idaho;

• Judith I. McGeary, producer and attorney at law from Texas;

• Dr. Willie M. Reed, dean of the college of veterinary medicine at Purdue Univ.;

• Dr. G. Donald Ritter, veterinary director of health services for Mountaire Farms from Maryland;

• Charles Rogers, CEO for Clovis Livestock Auction from New Mexico;

• David R. Smith, endowed professor and beef program leader at Mississippi State Univ.;

• Dr. Belinda Thompson, faculty, advisor and interim assistant executive director, animal health diagnostic center at Cornell Univ.; and

• Dr. Elizabeth K. Wagstrom, chief veterinarian for the National Pork Producers Council from Minnesota.