{"id":16344,"date":"2023-04-18T18:39:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T18:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/?p=16344"},"modified":"2023-04-19T13:04:20","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T13:04:20","slug":"alumna-appointed-to-serve-as-usda-director-for-the-office-of-the-chief-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/2023\/04\/18\/alumna-appointed-to-serve-as-usda-director-for-the-office-of-the-chief-scientist\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna appointed to serve as USDA Director for the Office of the Chief Scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on April 11, 2023 at\u00a0news.fiu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Written by Stephanie Rendon<\/p>\n

After a nearly two-decade career in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), FIU alumna Deirdra Chester Ph.D. ’03 has taken on a new role as the department\u2019s director for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS).<\/p>\n

The OCS provides strategic coordination of science initiatives to inform the federal government\u2019s decisions, policies and regulations as they relate to U.S. food and agriculture. As the director for OCS, Chester is responsible for ensuring all research and science for the USDA is held to the highest levels of scientific integrity.<\/p>\n

For her, leading OCS is the culmination of hard work and persistence \u2014 one that couldn\u2019t have happened without the support she received from her parents in her earlier years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m a first-generation college student. Neither one of my parents went to college, but they were my biggest supporters,\u201d Chester shared. \u201cI know that they’re looking down and are very happy and proud of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2019, to prepare her for a future leadership role, Chester applied and got accepted to the USDA\u2019s competitive Senior Executive Service Candidate Development program \u2014 out of 1,200 applicants, only 40 were chosen. After completing the intensive nine-month program, she was equipped with the skills and experience needed to qualify for a senior executive position within the federal government.<\/p>\n

Susan Himburg, Chester’s major professor at FIU, is proud to see how far her former student has gone since graduating from the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a milestone in the profession of dietetics and nutrition that an FIU graduate would be chosen to supervise scientists in all disciplines within the USDA,\u201d she said. \u201cIt has been exciting to watch Deirdra blossom further in the USDA \u2014 it\u2019s where she got hired right out of school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chester previously led the Division of Nutrition at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) where she was responsible for funding nutrition research across universities and colleges. In a previous role at NIFA, she was a national program leader, charged with identifying emerging issues of national importance and leading grants management in the areas of nutrition, functional components of food and childhood obesity. Prior to joining NIFA, she was a scientist at USDA\u2019s Agriculture Research Service.<\/p>\n

Chester earned her doctoral degree in dietetics and nutrition at FIU\u2019s\u00a0Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work<\/a>, where she was awarded the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship and was in the inaugural class of the Gates Millennial Scholars. Her time at FIU helped her narrow down what path she wanted to take in her career.<\/p>\n

While teaching held some appeal as a profession, Chester ultimately responded to a different call. “I felt I could make an impact as a government scientist,\u201d says the woman who has ridden her credentials to the top and now serves her country while also inspiring young people to follow their dreams, a leader for our times.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on April 11, 2023 at\u00a0news.fiu.edu. Written by Stephanie Rendon After a nearly two-decade career in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), FIU alumna Deirdra Chester Ph.D. ’03 has taken on a new role as the department\u2019s director for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). The OCS provides strategic coordination of science […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[523,12,522],"class_list":["post-16344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","tag-deirdra-chester","tag-fiu-alumni","tag-united-states-department-of-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16346,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16344\/revisions\/16346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}