Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show Dr. Keith Sumption, Ph.D. - Chief Veterinary Officer - Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) - UN
Dr. Keith Sumption, Ph.D. is Chief Veterinary Officer and Leader of the Animal Health Program at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO - https://www.fao.org/home/en ) as well as their Director of the Joint Centre for Zoonoses and Anti-Microbial Resistance (CJWZ). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is an international organization that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. The FAO comprises 195 members and helps governments and development agencies coordinate their activities to improve and develop agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and land and water resources. It also conducts research, provides technical assistance to projects, operates educational and training programs, and collects agricultural output, production, and development data. Dr. Sumption has worked on disease ecology at the interaction of wildlife, domestic and the environment for more than 30 years. Dr. Sumption holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Reading, gained following 3 years of field and molecular epidemiology research upon African Swine Fever in southern Africa, and veterinary medicine (Vet.MB) and Natural Sciences degrees from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Dr. Sumption has served as Executive Secretary of European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD), where he has been responsible for developing strategy, negotiating funding and managing implementation of the Commission's work programs, which now involve over 80 countries, and reports to the member states of the Commission and FAO Regional Conference and Department (AGD) for progress. Prior to FAO, Dr. Sumption was a research group leader and Master’s program Coordinator at the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM), University of Edinburgh, managing projects on African high impact tick borne and contagious diseases including heartwater , theilerioses, mycoplasmoses (CBPP and CCPP), and viral Transboundary Animal Diseases TADS (rinderpest , PPR and sheep and goat pox) and as a seconded technical officer to the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), leading work to define demand and impact of research at the primary animal health care level in Kenya, for almost 2 years.