Directory

Steve Côté
National Manager of the International Phytosanitary Standards Section,
Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
Ph: 613-773 7368
Email: Steve.Cote(at)canada.ca

Steve Côté joined the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in 2002 in the grain and oilseed section of the Plant Protection Division. In this role, Steve was responsible for the development of inspection procedures and various plant protection policies. From 2005 to 2015, Steve worked in the International Phytosanitary Standards Section as the Senior Plant Health Standards Officer. 

During this period, he was one of Canada’s representatives on the NAPPO Advisory and Management Committee (AMC), formerly known as the NAPPO Working Group. Over this period, Steve was involved in the development and revision of various NAPPO Regional Standards for Phytosanitary Measures. 

For the last two and a half years, Steve has been on assignment with the Forestry Section working on various market access issues impacting this sector. Steve has recently returned to the International Phytosanitary Standards Section as Acting National Manager and International Standards Advisor and represents Canada on the NAPPO AMC.

Patricia Abad
PPQ/ NAPPO Technical Director
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine (USDA-APHIS-PPQ)
Ph: 301-851-2264
Email: Patricia.V.Abad(at)usda.gov

Patricia Abad is USDA-APHIS’ Plant Protection and Quarantine Program Technical Director for NAPPO issues and her Agency’s lead representative to NAPPO’s AMC. Since October 2015, she coordinates and oversees APHIS’ participation in the NAPPO standard-setting program and helps advance U.S. harmonization priorities at NAPPO.

From 2008-2015, Pati was an International Trade Specialist with APHIS’ International Services’ Trade Support Team in Washington, DC, coordinating sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) trade policy positions and strategies for several Western Hemisphere and other countries and managing World Trade Organization notifications. She briefed executive-level officials and represented APHIS at Consultative Committees of Agriculture, Free Trade Agreement SPS Committee meetings, and other trade fora. 

During the summer of 2015, she was the Acting Confidential Assistant for USDA- Marketing and Regulatory Programs’ Undersecretary (who oversaw agencies, including APHIS) and in September 2012, she was the Acting APHIS-International Services Agricultural Attaché based in San Jose, Costa Rica, overseeing local staff. Pati previously worked for the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Stephanie Dubon - Alternate
IPS Deputy Technical Director Plant Protection and Quarantine
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine (USDA-APHIS-PPQ)
Ph: 301-851-2180
Email: Stephanie.M.Dubon(at)usda.gov

Stephanie Dubon has been with APHIS since April 2005, when she started as a Biological Sciences Technician with the Plant Epidemiology and Risk Analysis Laboratory (PERAL) of Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) in Riverdale, Maryland. In 2006, she was transferred to Raleigh, North Carolina, and continued with PERAL for a total of 4.5 years, working on Pest Risk Analyses and as Coordinator of the New Pest Advisory Group.

In 2009, Stephanie worked as an Associate Professional Officer with the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy, for three years.

She returned to APHIS in 2012 in Riverdale, Maryland, to the newly formed International Phytosanitary Standards team in APHIS, which is the central mechanism within PPQ to address and advance U.S. objectives and priorities at international plant protection standard setting organizations, such as the IPPC and NAPPO.

Stephanie is married to her husband Angel, and has two children, Javier and Carmen.

Ana Lilia Montealegre
Deputy Director for Harmonization and International Evaluation.
SENASICA-SADER 
Ph: 52-55-5905-1000, ext. 51341
Email: Ana.Montealegre(at)senasica.gob.mx

Ana Lilia served as a member of the IPPC Standards Committee for many years, where she was one of four representatives from the Latin America and Caribbean Region. Ana Lilia stepped down from the Standards Committee in 2018.

Stephanie Bloem
Executive Director
Ph: 919-617-4040 (office)
Ph: 919-480-4761 (cell)
Email: Stephanie.Bloem(at)nappo.org

Stephanie Bloem accepted the position of NAPPO Executive Director in July 2015. In this role, she manages the NAPPO Secretariat’s human and financial resources while leading the fulfillment of the NAPPO Executive Committee’s strategic plan and priority goals for North America. She Chairs the NAPPO Advisory and Management Group (AMC).

Stephanie was born in Mexico and grew-up in Guatemala. She has a Licenciatura degree in Biology and a Doctorate in Entomology and more than 30 years of experience working on phytosanitary issues around the world. She is a subject matter expert in the area of sterile insect technique and inherited sterility for moth pests.

Before joining NAPPO, she was a risk analyst and training specialist for the NPPO of the United States, where her responsibilities included development and review of pest risk analyses for import and export of agricultural commodities for consumption and propagation and the design and delivery of pest risk analysis workshops.

Alonso Suazo
Technical Director
Ph: 919-617-4039 (office)
Ph: 919-559-3302 (cell)
Email: Alonso.Suazo(at)nappo.org

Alonso Suazo is the NAPPO Technical Director since July 2016.  Before NAPPO, Alonso worked for five years as the State Regulatory Entomologist with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture where he was responsible for the coordination, implementation and supervision of multiple state and federal programs aimed at protecting the state’s agriculture and forest resources from invasive insect species. 

Alonso has also developed New Pest Response Guidelines for the US Department of Agriculture-Animal Plant Health Inspection Services (USDA-APHIS) on forest pest species of concern to the United States and worked on research in multiple areas including population genetics of Africanized honeybees, development of chemical attractants for the small hive beetle Aethina tumida a pest of honeybees, biological control of the Mexican bromeliad weevil Metamasius callizona, and gene mapping of aphid resistance genes in lupin Medicago truncatula.  Alonso has also experience in international consultancy work in beekeeping, outreach and teaching. 

He graduated with a general degree in Agriculture at the Panamerican School of Agriculture in Honduras and a PhD in Entomology at the University of Florida.