IPPC Secretariat

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Mr. Osama El-Lissy was born in Egypt and is a national of the United States, Mr. El-Lissy holds a doctorate degree in management from the University of Maryland, a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University, a Master of Public Administration from American University, and a Bachelor of Science in agriculture production and entomology from Cairo University.

Prior to his current appointment as the IPPC Secretary, Dr. El-Lissy worked for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for almost 22 years. For the past nine years, he served as Deputy Administrator of USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. In that role, Dr. El-Lissy led the national plant protection organization of the United States and served as the country’s chief plant health officer. He also provided leadership to 3,000 employees in the United States and around the world.

Dr. El-Lissy held several other executive positions earlier in his USDA career. These included Associate Deputy Administrator, Director of Plant Health Emergency Programs, and National Coordinator of Cotton Pest Programs.

Before joining USDA in 2000, Dr. El-Lissy worked for the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation from 1994 to 2000, leading one of the largest pest eradication programs in the world. From 1986 to 1994, he worked with the Arizona Cotton Research and Protection Council, managing large-scale cotton pest eradication programs in Arizona and the southwestern region of the United States.

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Direct support assistance to the IPPC Secretary and IPPC Governance administration. Admin coordination of all IPPC Governing body meetings.

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Unit lead for standard setting: Management of the standard setting unit including staffing, budgeting and resources mobilization. Management coordination of standard setting activities (Standards Committee (SC), technical panels, expert working groups and other ad-hoc meetings) as well as relevant input into the CPM, SPG and Bureau meetings. Liaison: liaison with relevant organizations and other stakeholders

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Ms Adriana G. Moreira holds a PhD degree in Plant Pathology with focus on plant virology. Adriana Moreira joined the IPPC, and FAO, in 2012 under the Standard Setting Unit taking the role as IPPC Secretariat lead for the Technical Panel on Diagnostic Protocols (TPDP). Currently, she is Standard Setting Officer and Deputy Assistant to the Team Lead and coordinates the work of the Standards Committee, the IPPC technical panels and expert working groups, which have the objective of drafting International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs). Also, she coordinates the process for CPM Recommendations. Adriana G. Moreira also act as liaison between the IPPC Secretariat and several international organizations by ensuring mutual interest agreements for common understating and implementation of IPPC strategic objectives, mission and vision with the aim to protect the world’s plant resources from pests. In 2019 she was recognized as one of “FAO100 young employees”. She is author and co-author of several scientific publications, book chapters and other type of training materials.
Before joining the IPPC and FAO, Ms Adriana Moreira was Senior Plant Pathologist at multinational seed industry and was the plant quarantine lead coordinating a post-entry quarantine station accredited by the Brazilian NPPO.
Languages: Portuguese (mother tongue), English (fluent) and Spanish (working knowledge).

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Coordinate and lead the work of the Technical Panel for the Glossary (TPG), and several other SSU topics and working groups. Support to the SC, expert working groups, CPM Recommendations and other standard setting activities. SSU lead for e-commerce topics. Input into IPPC Governance and outreach material. Liaison: liaison with relevant organizations including the Biological Weapons Convention - the United Nations and FAO antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

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I am a plant protection specialist with MSc in Plant protection and a BSc in Horticultural engineering. I have worked for the Hungarian NPPO in the Plant and Soil Protection Department on GLP experiments, and technical translation of reports. Previously I have worked in commercial fruit production and post-harvest technologies. I have been with the IPPC Secretariat since 2016 working with the Technical Panel on Phytosanitary Treatments, other expert working groups and the Standards Committee. I’m in charge of maintaining the IPPC Phytosanitary Treatments search tool and the call for phytosanitary treatments.

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Providing support to Technical Panels (TPDP), Groups (Expert Working Groups, ePhyto Steering Group (ESG) and ePhyto Industry Advisory Group (IAG)) and to the Standards Committee (SC). Standard Setting Lead for the coordination of the consultation and notification periods for draft ISPMs, specifications and CPM recommendations. Lead for the List of Topics and the IPPC Secretariat SOPs. Support the implementation of the IPPC ePhyto Solution through workshops, trainings and country support.

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Language Review Groups (LRGs) coordination, responsible for the ink amendments implementation and finalization and online publication of adopted International Standards in all FAO languages

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Scientific copy-editor of all IPPC standard setting documents, particularly ISPMs and meeting reports. Report writer for standard setting meetings. Also provides some editorial and report writing services to other IPPC Secretariat units. More than 20 years of experience in scientific publishing, and before that a PhD and 10 years as a freshwater biologist. Previous experience of development of European standards for freshwater biology methods. Joined the IPPC Secretariat in 2016.

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Alejandra provides administrative support to all activities of the Standard Setting Unit and also to the IPPC Secretariat on matters such as coordinating rosters of consultants and procurement activities.
She joined the IPPC community in 2016 and has since supported different teams in organizing workshops, virtual meetings and webinars. She ensures quality management, SOPs and provides input to outreach material.
She has a BA in International Business and a Master in Project Planning with European Funds and Business Internationalization and before joining the IPPC Secretariat she worked for the private sector, especially in Import - Exports areas.

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Support the work of the Standards Committee, the Technical Panel for the Glossary, and other expert drafting groups in standard setting activities. Coordinate the calls for Topics, EWG and TP experts, DP authors and papers and studies. Maintain the IPPC Procedure Manual for Standard Setting. Contribute to outreach materials.

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Support to the work of the SC, including coordination of some expert working groups, SC meetings and the SC-7 working group. Support to the TPDP and other standard setting activities. Provision of input to outreach material

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Sarah Brunel is a French engineer in Agriculture from
ISARA-Lyon , holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from the Sorbonne University and another one in Anthropology from the French Museum of Natural History. She has 20 years of progressive national, regional and global experience in plant protection, pest and disease control policies and legislation, implementation of the standards for phytosanitary measures, as well as environmental protection and capacity development.
IFU Lead for:
• Supporting the management of the unit including staffing, budgeting and resource mobilization
• Coordination of implementation, facilitation and capacity development activities including the overall coordination of the IC, development of Guides and Training Materials, management of projects, conduct of PCEs and improvement of the PCE, addressing emerging pests (FAW & TR4), and implementation of all projects
IPPC Secretariat Lead for:
• One Health
• CPM FG on Pest Outbreak Alert and Response Systems
Secretariat Liaison Lead: CABI, COLEACP, EC, EFSA, STDF
Languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish

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Barbara Peterson has worked as a consultant with the IPPC Secretariat since 2019. She has 20 years of experience as a plant health officer with the NPPO of Canada and worked as an integrated pest management consultant prior to that. She holds a Master’s Degree in Pest Management from Simon Fraser University.
IFU Lead for:
• Managing the development of IPPC Guides and Training Materials
• IC Team on Guides and training materials
• IC Team on e-Commerce
• E-Commerce Guide
• ISPM 15 Guide
• Pest Status Guide
• Task Force for Topics (TFT)
• Online Comment System (OCS)
IPPC Secretariat Lead for:
• CPM SF developmental agenda on e-Commerce
Secretariat Liaison Lead: UPU, GEA, WCO (e-Commerce)
Languages: English, French

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Descartes Koumba is an engineer in Plant production with a degree from the National Institute of Agronomy and Biotechnology (Gabon), in addition to a Master’s Degree in Management of Environment from the Faculty of Science St. Jerome (France). Since 2012, he has served in the Gabonese Ministry of Agriculture and then in the FAO Sub-regional Office for Central Africa (SFC). He joined the IPPC Secretariat in 2019.
IFU Lead for:
 The coordination of the Implementation and Capacity Development Committee (IC)
 Lead for the Implementation Review and Support System (IRSS)
 Lead for IC including meetings, ensuring activities and IC e-Decisions are coordinated.
 Lead for the IC Sub-group on IRSS, Dispute Avoidance and Settlement and ICD Calls
 Supports the Working Groups on eLearning for Export and Inspection
 IC-SC collaboration
 Supports the delivery of regional workshops
 Input into CPM, Bureau & SPG
Secretariat Liaison Lead: IICA
Languages: English, French

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Qingpo Yang has a PhD in Entomology and graduated from China Agricultural University. He worked with the IPPC Secretariat from 2018 as an Associate Professional Officer (APO). Since 2021, he has worked as a consultant with the IPPC Secretariat.
IFU Lead for
• IC Team/Subgroup on National Reporting Obligations (NROs).
• IPPC-China project under FAO-China South-South Cooperation programme.
Provide support for:
• FAW TWG
• Working Group on e-Commence Guides
• Supports the CPM Focus Group on Pest Outbreak Alert and Response System.
• Supports the delivery of regional workshops.
Secretariat Liaison Lead: NSP FAW Secretariat
Languages: English, Chinese

E-mail [email protected]

Fitzroy White is a Jamaican national. After graduating from the College of Agriculture in Portland, Jamaica, with an Associates of Science, Fitzroy joined the government service in the Ministry of Agriculture in 1991. He served in the Plant Quarantine Branch for 27 years and served on many committees relating directly and indirectly to plant health.
IFU Lead for:
• PCE related activities including the coordination of the IC Team on PCE, reviewing the PCE modules, improvement of the PCE tools.
• PCE Facilitator for Mongolia, Fiji, Nepal
Language: English

E-mail [email protected]

Natsumi Yamada has worked for 15 years as a plant protection officer of the NPPO of Japan. She holds a Master’s degree in Agriculture from the Open University of Japan.
IFU Lead for:
- IFU communication activities and IC Teams
• Lead for IC Teams on: Contributed resources, Framework for Standards and Implementation, projects, and web-based resources
• Managing the Japan Project
Support for:
• The Working Groups on ISPM 15 Guide, eLearning for PRA and Surveillance
• The delivery of regional workshops.
• Input into CPM, Bureau & SPG
Secretariat Liaison Lead: Imperial College
Languages: English, Japanese

E-mail [email protected]

Ewa Czerwien is a Polish national and holds a Master's Degree in International Relations from the Jagiellonian University. Before joining the IPPC Secretariat, she worked for the private sector in finance and in administration for non-governmental organizations, with a focus on international cooperation projects.
IFU Lead for:
• Administrative support to all activities of the Implementation and Facilitation Unit and to the IPPC Governance.
Languages: English, Italian, Polish and Russian

E-mail [email protected]

E-mail [email protected]

Juan Rull Gabayet is a Mexican national with a PhD in Entomology from the University of Massachusetts. Before joining the IPPC Secretariat, Juan was a research scientist specializing in tephritid fruit flies.
IFU Lead for:
- E-Learning courses on PRA, export certification, surveillance and inspections.
- Guide on contingency planning
- Tutoring to the courses on PRA and export certification.
Languages: English, French, Spanish

E-mail [email protected]

Mutya Frio has a Bachelor’s Degree in Development Communication and is currently a candidate for a Master’s degree in the same field from the University of the Philippines. Prior to joining the secretariat, she has worked as a communications specialist for more than 12 years with UNDP, WHO, UNICEF, FAO and with other international organizations in Asia and Africa.
IFU Lead for:
• Developing and implementing the IRSS Communications Strategy
• Developing strategies and packaging IRSS communication materials to ensure efficient use including web pages, web resources and publications
• Writing and editing news articles, annual reports and press releases
Language: English

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Lisa Ferraro is a British and Italian national with a Master’s Degree in Marketing and Communication from the Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi. Prior to joining the Secretariat, Lisa worked predominantly in the private sector building and growing brands. Most recently, Lisa headed-up Communications for the Technology Division at WFP. Lisa joined the Secretariat in January 2021, leading communications on a project basis.
IFU lead for:
• Developing communications for IFU overall
• Specific focus on IRSS’ 2022 communication strategy and implementation plan
Languages: English, French, Italian and Portuguese

E-mail [email protected]

Thomas Gbokie, Jr. is an agricultural and research development professional with a BSc in Agriculture and M.Phil. Entomology, both from the University of Ghana. He has held administrative and technical roles within the Ministry of Agriculture of Liberia, including serving as Crop Protection Specialist, Deputy Agriculture Minister and Technical Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture. Since 2015, Thomas has also contributed his expertise to the development processes of Liberia’s national agro-inputs (seed, fertilizer and pesticides) policies, regulations and related legislations to attract investment support, and to also facilitate trade and exchanges within the West Africa Sub-region.
Support for:
- The COMESA project's activities to perform simulation exercises for surveillance and pest outbreak response
- Organizing training workshops on Fusarium TR4.
Language: English

E-mail [email protected]

Jelena Ilic worked as an Associate Professor at the Department of Plant Pathology of the Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences Osijek, Croatia. She holds a PhD in Plant Protection with major in Plant Pathology. From December 2019 to May 2020 Jelena worked as a Seconded National Expert for EFSA.
Support for:
- The development of the IPPC Guide on contingency planning and
- organisation of the simulation excercises (virtual and/or physical) within COMESA countries (COMESA project)
Language: English, Croatian, Serbian

E-mail [email protected]

Rohila Madaminova is a Kyrgyz national with an MA Degree in Political Science and International Relations from Central European University. Prior to joining the Secretariat, she worked for the International Development Law Organization in Rome, for Transparency International – Russia in Moscow, and for South Caucasus and Central Asia Bulletin in Edinburgh.
Support for:
- Implementation of COMESA project and Phytosanitary activities;
- Implementation of IFU activities and programmes
Languages: English, Russian, and Uzbek, Italian (beginner)

E-mail [email protected]

Milan Ivic has 20 years of experience in plant protection and pesticide management across governmental, intergovernmental, industry, academic and consultancy organizations. He worked for 10 years at the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture - Plant Protection Directorate and the National Reference Food Safety Laboratory. He holds an MSc degree in Plant Protection and Food Safety from the University of Belgrade, Serbia.

Support for:
- Development of the IPPC Guide on ISPM 15, development of IPPC Guide on e-Commerce, and study on risk-based border management

Languages: English, Spanish, Italian

E-mail [email protected]

Nader ElBadry is an Egyptian national hold a PhD in Plant Biology and Crop Production (Universita degli Studi di Milano, Italy) and an MSc in Integrated Pest Management (Newcastle University, England, UK). Nader has multidisciplinary experiences working for the Ministry of Agriculture, National Plant Protection Organization of Egypt as Agricultural Specialist and as a Researcher for STDF projects at Agricultural Research Center, as well as for Park of Science (Parco Tecnologico Padano, Italy) and Food and Environment Rural Affairs of the UK.
Support for:
- Overall IRSS technical support
Languages: English, Arabic, Italian (intermediate)

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E-mail [email protected]

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Team Lead: My main tasks are the management of the Integration and Support Team (IST) of the IPPC Secretariat, including staffing, budgeting and resources mobilisation. I also coordinate and manage the meetings of the IPPC governing bodies (CPM, CPM Bureau, SPG) and of the management team, secretary office as well as the IPPC Secretariat Annual and Mid-Year meetings. I also provide inputs into other subsidiary bodies’ meetings (FC, SC and IC) as required. I am responsible for the IPPC information management system through overseeing the IPPC International Phytosanitary Portal (IPP), communications and advocacy activities as well as IPPC network activities such as coordination and organization of the IPPC regional workshops and technical consultation among regional plant protection organizations (TC-RPPOs). Other tasks include oversight of the IPPC Secretariat partnership and international cooperation activities through liaison with relevant organizations and other stakeholders (EUPHRESCO, CIHAEM, University of Florence, ISPP, IAPPS, ISTA, ESA and others)

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Lead in providing innovative solutions for the development of the IPPC knowledge management technical requirements in order to improve their effectiveness while maintaining the IPPC tools and coordinating knowledge management activities across the IPPC Secretariat.

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My main areas of work are governance, liaison and external cooperation and advocacy as well as promotion of IYPH legacy activities.

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Providing administrative support to the Secretariat as a whole and to IST in particular

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Supports the governance, technical, strategic planning, partnership, communication and advocacy activities of the IPPC Secretariat.
Supports IPPC activities related to emerging pests and other plant health issues

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Mr. Fedchock is currently the senior advisor to the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretariat. Previously, he was Coordinator of the Secretariat. He has previously held a number of positions with the USDA^^s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ)Division, including Director of International Capacity Development, Associate Executive Director of the APHIS, PPQ Plant Health Programs, and the Director of the APHIS, PPQ Phytosanitary Issues Management (PIM) staff. Before joining the PIM staff, Mr. Fedchock was the Director of Bilateral SPS Affairs at the Executive Office of the President, Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Chief of Staff for APHIS International Services, and the Director for Asia Trade Policy in the APHIS International Services^^ Trade Support Team. While at USTR he was the lead negotiator for the United States on sanitary and phytosanitary issues in Free Trade Agreement negotiations and World Trade Organization accession discussions with several countries. Mr. Fedchock also worked in the Codex Office of the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the U.S. Department of Commerce^^s International Trade Administration. He also served as a Russian linguist in the United States Army.