Ms. Ciarra Toomey
Ciarra Toomey was appointed the director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS) International Liaison Office in Mexico City, Mexico, in April 2022. Toomey is responsible for representing FSIS in Mexico and Central America on technical issues about importing and exporting meat, poultry and egg products to promote the safe international trade of these products. Her functions directly support FSIS’ Strategic Goals: (1) Prevent Foodborne Illness and Protect Public Health; (2) Transform Inspection Strategies, Policies and Scientific Approaches to Improve Public Health; and (3) Achieve Operational Excellence.
Toomey began her USDA career in 2008 as a trial attorney with the Office of the General Counsel’s Trade Practices Division, now the Marketing, Regulatory and Food Safety Programs Division. From 2008 to 2022, she represented and provided legal counsel to FSIS, as well as to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Agricultural Marketing Service on a variety of legal, policy and international issues as well as civil, criminal and administrative enforcement actions. Toomey also advised numerous USDA agencies, facilitating the finalization of international cooperative agreements, national and international memorandums of understanding, settlement agreements filed in federal court, and legislation.
In addition to Toomey’s expertise with USDA statutory and regulatory authorities, she has extensive knowledge and experience in federal and administrative litigation. Toomey has represented FSIS and APHIS in a broad scope of affirmative and defensive litigation in federal and administrative court, including precedent-setting enforcement and civil cases.
Toomey is also a professor at The George Washington University, where she has been teaching international law since 2008. Toomey holds a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law and a Master of Arts from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.