August 27, 2019

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that Regina Tan, DVM, MS, has joined the agency’s Center for Veterinary Medicine as the director of the center’s Office of Research. Dr. Tan is an experienced scientist, accomplished technological innovator, and administrator, having worked most of her professional career within the Federal government at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

Dr. Tan comes to the FDA from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), where she oversaw the organization’s Office of Food Safety as it affected Child Nutrition Programs. Prior to joining FNS, Dr. Tan was the director for Recall Management and Technical Analysis at USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), where she led USDA actions to ensure the safety of the meat, poultry and egg product supply.

Dr. Tan has also served at CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and Preventive Medicine Fellow. In this capacity she helped attend to biosecurity hazards in the United States and abroad, including directing surveillance activities following the World Trade Center attacks, containing a low pathogenicity avian influenza outbreak in Southwest Virginia, and enabling the Indonesian government to track and ultimately lessen childhood lead and anemia poisoning. 

Dr. Tan received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Maryland, College Park, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine, and a Master of Science in Public Health and Molecular Epidemiology, also from Purdue. She also held advanced board certification as a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.