Module 9: Pest Free Concepts

Walter P. Gould, Ph.D.

Walter P. Gould is a Senior Risk Manager – Entomology with USDA-APHIS-PPQ Policy Management. He received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and both a Masters and Ph.D. degree in Entomology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1986 he began work with USDA-ARS as a Research Entomologist in Miami developing commodity treatments for fruit flies and other insect pests. In 2001 he joined the USDA-APHIS-PPQ as the Entomologist in charge of oversight of containment facilities for exotic insects. In 2006 he became a Senior Risk Manager – Entomology with a responsibility to determine the pest mitigations required to allow safe importation of fruits and vegetables into the United States.

Edward Podleckis, Ph.D.

Dr. Edward Podleckis is currently a Senior Risk Manager with USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ), Plant Health Programs staff analyzing plant pest risks associated with agricultural commodities and developing risk management strategies and policies to mitigate those risks. Ed began his career at USDA in 1988 as a research associate in the Agricultural Research Service, Molecular Plant Pathology Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland developing detection methods for pome and potato quarantine pathogens. He joined APHIS in 1994 as a Plant Pathologist conducting commodity plant pest risk analyses. Ed has spent his entire APHIS career in the area of risk analysis, first as a risk assessor for the former Biological Assessment and Taxonomic Support (BATS) staff in PPQ and later for the Center for Plant Health Science and Technology (CPHST), Plant Epidemiology and Risk Assessment Laboratory (PERAL) when the BATS analysts were transferred to PERAL. He left CPHST to become PPQ’s first Risk Mitigation Specialist then later joined the Policy and Program Development (PPD) Risk Analysis Systems staff until he returned to PPQ in 2012 to accept his current position.

Ed has also been active in international standard setting serving as the chair of the North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO) Plants for Planting Panel and Expert Working Groups that drafted the NAPPO Plants for Planting Standard, the NAPPO Risk Management Standard, the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Plants for Planting Standard, and the IPPC Seed Standard.

Ed received his B.S. in Plant Pathology from Cook College, Rutgers University, and an M.S. in Plant Science from the University of Delaware and a Ph.D. in Plant Virology/Plant Pathology from the University of Maryland. He then returned to Rutgers as a postdoctoral research associate at the Rutgers University Blueberry/Cranberry Research Center where he studied blueberry scorch virus.