February 17/Battle Creek, Mich./Business Wire -- The International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI) announced the appointment to its board of directors of Dr. David William Kennedy Acheson, managing director, Food and Import Safety, Leavitt Partners, a firm founded by former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary and EPA administrator Michael O. Leavitt to provide strategic input and counsel to clients in matters involving health, the environment and trade. Prior to joining Leavitt Partners, Acheson served as associate commissioner of foods of the FDA, a role in which he provided agency-wide leadership on all food and feed issues, including health promotion and nutrition.
"IFPTI is dedicated to improving public health through the creation of a fully integrated national food safety system," said Stephen Benoit, president and chief operating officer of the National Center for Food Protection and a founding Board member of IFPTI. "As such, we are extremely pleased to have Dr. Acheson as a member of the institute's board of directors given his long-standing recognition of the essential role state and local agencies play in assuring the safety of the nation's food supply, and the critical importance of training to assuring capacity, competency, and equivalency within state and local agencies as part of an integrated food safety system."