Dr. Denise Eblen
Dr. Denise Eblen was appointed as Assistant Administrator for the Office of Office of Public Health Science (OPHS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in May 2018. In this role, Dr. Eblen leads OPHS to provide expertise in scientific analysis, including oversight of FSIS laboratories and testing of regulatory samples, risk assessment, and outbreak investigation and response. Her team provides recommendations on all matters involving public health and related sciences at FSIS. Her duties directly support FSIS’ Strategic Goals 1: Prevent Foodborne Illness and Protect Public Health, and 2: Modernize Inspection Systems, Policies, and the Use of Scientific Approaches.
In 2015, Dr. Eblen joined USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in Washington D.C., as a Deputy Director. In this role, she led NIFA’s Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, which supports research, education and extension activities in food safety, food quality, nutrition and obesity.
Dr. Eblen first joined the FSIS family in 2001 as the Agency’s first Food Safety Fellow and rose to become OPHS’ Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator in 2013. Dr. Eblen previously held the position of Research Associate at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, where she studied the safety of produce.
A native of Ireland, Dr. Eblen is a naturalized U.S. citizen. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Human Nutrition from the University of Ulster at Coleraine in Northern Ireland, a Master of Science Degree in Food Science from Queen’s University, Belfast, in Northern Ireland, and a Ph.D. in Food Safety Microbiology from the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Northern Ireland.