Dr. Deanna A. Brown
Associate
Deanna is passionate about food safety and has over 31 years of public health and food safety experience in both the US military as well as USDA-FSIS.
Dr. Deanna Brown received her B.S. in Animal Science (1986) and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Mississippi State University (1990). She received her Masters of Public Health degree at University of Texas School of Public Health (1999). Shortly after receiving her MPH, she earned board certification in the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.
Deanna is passionate about food safety and has over 31 years of public health and food safety experience in both the US military as well as USDA-FSIS. She began her professional career as a private practitioner where she was an associate in an 80% food animal practice in Wisconsin (predominantly dairy). From there she entered active military service in 1991. During her 20-year military career she served in a variety of positions both in the US as well as overseas. She conducted and/or provided oversight of food safety and food defense programs on military installations and conducted audits of a variety of commercial processing facilities (seafood, dairy, FF&V, water, and bakeries). In addition to traditional public health assignments, she led teams providing disaster relief and planned and implemented humanitarian assistance projects in several countries (Africa, Europe, Middle East, and Caribbean). As senior staff veterinarian in Iraq in 2004 and 2006, she worked to help build capacity for food safety and animal disease control within the nation’s Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Health. Her final military assignment was Commander of the Tennessee Valley District Veterinary Command overseeing the veterinary public health mission on installations covering seven states in the southern US.
Upon retirement from the military (2010), Dr. Brown transitioned to US Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service where she initially served as a Supervisory Public Health Veterinarian in a large poultry slaughter and processing establishment in Arkansas. From there she was promoted to Frontline Supervisor where she was responsible for oversight of FSIS inspection teams at meat and poultry slaughter and processing establishments in Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri. Establishments within her area ranged from very large to very small, included poultry as well as livestock slaughter and processing, traditional and NPIS, and included a variety of specialty meat processing with multiple HACCP categories. She assisted numerous establishments as they developed their food safety systems to gain a federal grant of inspection. She worked with many through Food Safety Assessments, recalls, NOIEs, as well as suspensions. This experience gave her a broad understanding and exposure to the food safety and operational challenges that plants face. It also gave her familiarity with common problems and mistakes that some plants make that can result in foodborne illness outbreaks and enforcement actions. As a federal employee, she worked closely with both FSIS inspection teams as well as plant management and always strived to be fair in regulatory oversight decisions.
She has been active in the American Association of Food Safety and Public Health Veterinarians (AAFSPHV) as well as National Association of Federal Veterinarians (NAFV). In NAFV, she served two terms as an FSIS Board member, two terms as Secretary Treasurer, two years as President Elect and is presently serving a two-year term as President through the end of 2022 when her term ends.
