IESC Announces Tarek Nabhan International Achievement Award Winner, Dr. Silvia La Osa
August 25, 2023
Established in 2013, the Tarek Nabhan International Achievement Award recognizes staff members in our overseas offices who regularly go above and beyond their normal job responsibilities to achieve excellence. The award is named after Tarek Nabhan in recognition of his 31 years of service to IESC. One winner and two runners-up are selected each year.
For 2022, we honored Dr. Silvia La Osa, IESC Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Animal Health Specialist for the US Department of Agriculture Food for Progress-funded Trade Safe (TraSa) project in the Dominican Republic, as the Tarek Nabhan International Achievement Award winner.
Silvia is responsible for informing animal SPS regulations and policies and coordinating farmer training and institutional capacity building. Her ability to turn her innovative ideas into effective actions has achieved significant and sustainable impact for program participants. Her efforts contributed to the Dominican Republic achieving equivalence status for its beef health inspection system to meet the safety standards required to export beef to the United States. Recognizing a need for quality and sustainability in the meat inspection process, she also helped establish a short-term meat inspection diploma program within a private university’s veterinarian program, which includes certification from the Ministry of Health.
To help fight African Swine Fever (ASF), Silvia developed a communications campaign to reach thousands of backyard swine producers, working through more than 800 agro-veterinary supply shops to disseminate messaging on identifying the disease and preventing its spread. She also worked with Purdue University in the development of BIOPORC, an online application that allows swine producers to self-assess their biosecurity status and needed improvements to combat ASF. Her efforts ensured that the assessment reflected the cultural characteristics of Dominican producers. She has gone above and beyond by developing strong relationships with partners and project participants. Her contributions have resulted in improved food quality and safety for consumers.
