Laurie Farmer
Office of Retail Food Protection Director
FDA

Laurie Farmer is the Director of the Office of Retail Food Protection within the FDA’s Human Foods Program, Office of Integrated Food Safety System Partnerships. She provides strategic leadership, management and oversight of retail policy and implementation. Her passion is coalition building and strategic alignment and engagement with food safety stakeholders toward public health goals. Laurie Farmer has 34 years of experience at the Food and Drug Administration in the areas of the state cooperative programs- which includes retail food protection, milk safety, shellfish sanitation, inspections, investigations, imports, compliance and enforcement, radiological health, quality assurance, financial management, state cooperative programs and public-private partnerships. She is the Agency representative to the Conference for Food Protection Board, the Agency lead for the Retail Regulatory Association Collaborative and represents FDA on the AFDO Healthy People 2030 Steering Committee and Norovirus Group. Laurie began her public health career in a county Women’s Infants and Children’s Program (WIC). She has been involved in Federal/ State/Territory/Tribal and local integration her entire career. Laurie holds a Bachelor of Science Degree, a Certificate from The Federal Executive Institute (FEI), a Public Policy Certificate and is currently enrolled in an AI Government Executive Leadership Program.