APHIS PROMOTES IWAMOTO, FERNANDEZ
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has appointed Ralph H. Iwamoto Jr. to deputy administrator of the agency’s international services program.
Iwamoto joined APHIS in 1965 as a plant protection and quarantine inspector at New York’s JFK Airport. Since then, he has worked for the agency’s international services program in Hawaii, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands, and at the U.S. embassies in Kingston, Jamaica; Mexico City; and San Jose, Costa Rica; and Tokyo.
APHIS also promoted Peter J. Fernandez to associate administrator.
In 1990, Fernandez joined APHIS’ international services program. He became senior staff officer for epidemiology in 1993 and served as co-director of the Mexico-United States Exotic Animal Disease Commission. In addition, Fernandez worked at APHIS posts in Mexico City and Santiago, Chile. He returned to APHIS headquarters in Riverdale, Md. in 2000.