SMS Partners

Epidemiologist
Department of Medicine and Epidemiology
University of California at Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine
530-601-0714

Dr. Pam Hullinger is a 1990 graduate of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. She completed a residency in large animal internal medicine in 1996 and a Masters in Preventive Veterinary Medicine in 2001. She was in large animal/dairy private practice in the Petaluma, CA area for 3 years, then completed her internal medicine residency at UC Davis, has spent 10 years as a veterinary medical officer with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and 5 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as the Director Food and Agricultural Security. She is currently at UC Davis in the school of veterinary medicine working on foreign animal disease prevention, policy development and response planning at both the state and national levels. In addition to her clinical and epidemiological expertise, she has foreign animal disease experience including working in the United Kingdom as part the effort to control the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic of 2001 and working on the eradication of Exotic Newcastle disease (END) from southern California in 2002-2003. Her current work is focused on national US dairy foot-and-mouth disease continuity of business planning and state and national foot-and-mouth disease vaccination strategy and policy planning.

Assistant Clinical Professor
Center for Animal Health and Food Safety
University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine
385A AnSci/VetMed
1988 Fitch Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108
612-625-0883

Dr. Goldsmith received a BS degree in Animal Science from University of Wisconsin – River Falls in 1996 and a DVM from the University of Minnesota in 2001.  Dr. Goldsmith was in private practice, practicing food animal medicine with an emphasis on beef and dairy cattle in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota until 2006, after which he joined the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety (CAHFS) at the University of Minnesota completing a resident in Veterinary Public Health in 2007 and joining as a faculty member. Dr. Goldsmith completed his Master of Public Health degree in 2008 and became a Diplomat in the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine in 2010. In his current role with the CAHFS, Dr. Goldsmith works on projects related to emergency response planning and continuity of business issues, as well as various public health related projects. With the UMN College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Goldsmith has teaching responsibilities in the areas of veterinary public health and food animal production systems, specifically beef production medicine. 

Risk Analyst
Center for Animal Health and Food Safety
University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine
USDA: APHIS: VS: CEAH contractor
2150 Centre Avenue Bldg B
Ft. Collins, CO 80526
790-494-7151

Dr. Kristen Johnson received a BA degree in MCD Biology from the University of Colorado (1982), her DVM from Colorado State University (1986) and a MS in environmental health and toxicology from Colorado State University (1998). Her master's thesis focused on determination of environmental contaminant levels in neonatal fur seals from the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. Dr. Johnson worked as a small animal practitioner for 6 years in Colorado, followed by work for Foster Wheeler Environmental Corporation and Foster Environmental Sciences for 8 years as a human health and ecological risk assessor. The risk projects included assessments of Superfund Hazardous Waste Sites for the Department of Defense, US Fish and Wildlife Service, NASA, the state of Texas and private clients. Dr. Johnson joined the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety (CAHFS) at the University of Minnesota in November 2009 as a risk analyst. She is located at USDA-APHIS Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health (CEAH) in Ft. Collins, CO where she works on proactive risk assessments for movement of livestock commodities, as part of emergency response planning and continuity of business during a FMD outbreak. She also serves as a resource for other CAHFS public health projects.

Graduate Student
Center for Animal Health and Food Safety
University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine
St. Paul, MN 55108

Dr. Sarah Easter Strayer is a Veterinary Public Health Resident and Master of Public Health degree candidate at the University of Minnesota. She is a graduate of the Ohio State University, where she earned her BS in Animal Science (2003) and her DVM (2007). Dr. Easter Strayer is an active duty Army officer and her previous assignments include Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Pensacola Naval Air Station, and a deployment to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. Her experiences include food safety and defense, small animal medicine, preventive medicine program management, and personnel management. Dr. Easter Strayer has an interest in transparency and safety in food supply systems and will be at the University of Minnesota until autumn of 2014.

Director, Center for Food Security and Public Health
Director, Institute for International Cooperation in Animal Biologics
2156 College of Veterinary Medicine
515.294.8459

Dr. James Roth is the Clarence Hartley Covault Distinguished Professor in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Epidemiology in the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa.  He is the Director of the Center for Food Security and Public Health and the Institute for International Cooperation in Animal Biologics. Dr. Roth’s primary area of research expertise is immunity to infectious diseases of food producing animals, emphasizing evaluation of T cell mediated immunity.  He has led the development of a course on Emerging and Exotic Diseases of Animals which is used by students at all of the US Colleges of Veterinary Medicine and has been translated into Spanish for use in Latin America. He has authored or co-authored over 150 publications in refereed journals. Dr. Roth has contributed 33 chapters to monographs, and has edited 12 monographs and one textbook. He has served as the major or co-major professor for 49 MS and PhD students. Dr. Roth received the Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist Award from the American Association of Veterinary Immunologists and the Distinguished Veterinary Microbiologist Award from the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists. He has testified before Congress on biosecurity preparedness and efforts to address bioterrorism and agroterrorism. Dr. Roth currently serves on the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity.  Dr. Roth received his PhD (1981) and MS (1979) degrees in veterinary microbiology from Iowa State University, and his DVM (1975) also from Iowa State University. He is a Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (ACVM).

Associate Director
2176 College of Veterinary Medicine
515.294.1492

Dr. Bickett-Weddle received a BS degree in Animal Science from South Dakota State University in 1995 and her DVM from Iowa State University in 1999. She practiced as a veterinarian before joining Land O' Lakes Farmland Feed as a dairy field nutritionist and technical services manager in 2000. In that position, she provided consultation to dairy producers in South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa until late 2002 when she returned to ISU to work for the CFSPH. She received her MPH from the University of Iowa in December 2003 and her practicum was focused on musculoskeletal disorders in dairy producers. She became a Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine in 2006 and earned a PhD in Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine in 2009 focused on biological risk management practices on dairy operations. Since 2004, she has been the Associate Director for the Center for Food Security and Public Health.  In that role, Bickett-Weddle manages projects related to the USDA-APHIS National Veterinary Accreditation Program, development of a Secure Milk Supply Plan, and ISU’s Biological Risk Management. She has teaching responsibilities in the College of Veterinary Medicine at ISU (biosecurity, dairy production medicine) as well as the College of Public Health at UI (emergency preparedness and zoonotic disease prevention). She has been invited to give presentations throughout the U.S. and Mexico about disease prevention, agroterrorism, and dairy biological risk management issues.