Jerold R. Mande, who served in key nutrition and food safety roles during the Obama administration, has joined the Center for Science in the Public Interest as senior advisor, the organization’s president, Dr. Peter G. Lurie, announced today.

Mande comes to CSPI from Tufts University, where he had served as Professor of the Practice at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy since 2017, and where he recently led the 50th anniversary of the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health. In 2009, Mande was appointed Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture by President Barack Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. After two years in that role Mande became senior advisor to the agency’s Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services department, focusing on reform of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other national feeding programs.

Earlier in his career Mande was a senior advisor to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, where he helped shape national policy on nutrition, food safety, and tobacco, and led the design of the Nutrition Facts label. At other times, he was a senior advisor at the White House, deputy administrator of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and a legislative assistant for Al Gore in the U.S. House and Senate. Mande earned his MPH with concentrations in Nutrition and Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health, and a BS in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Connecticut.

“Having shaped nutrition and food safety policies under three presidents, Jerry appreciates the power of food to improve health outcomes and he has an advanced understanding of the challenges facing our food supply chain,” said Lurie. “We are fortunate to have his advice and experience at a time when so many Americans are understandably anxious about having access to safe, affordable, and nutritious food. He will also allow CSPI to focus on public health issues beyond nutrition.”

“The Center for Science in the Public Interest has been helping America eat better since its inception nearly 50 years ago,” said Mande. “Today, the Covid-19 pandemic is putting great stress on the nation’s nutrition programs and on the women and men who grow, harvest, and process our food, and is underscoring the importance of CSPI’s work to improve diet quality. I look forward to helping CSPI continue to improve the nation’s health during the pandemic and beyond.”

Contact Info:  Contact Jeff Cronin (jcronin[at]cspinet.org) or Richard Adcock (radcock[at]cspinet.org).