Deborah Carter
(Photo by Geraldine Warner/Good Fruit Grower)
Deborah Carter, technical issues manager at the Northwest Horticultural Council, based in Yakima, Washington, will retire at the end of August. She has been with the council since 2006 and has worked on issues such as food safety and chemical and pesticide regulations.
She has represented the tree fruit industry on several national groups, such as the Center for Produce Safety, United Fresh Produce Association, and the Produce Marketing Association, and has supported the Pacific Northwest Food Safety Committee.
She has also worked with the industry to negotiate Washington State Department of Ecology regulations for packing houses and worked with the departments of agriculture in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington on state issues, such as specialty crop block grants and pesticide labels. She maintains the Hort Council’s database of maximum residue levels for pesticides in more than 60 countries.
Carter, 62, received the Washington State Horticultural Association’s award for Women’s Leadership Through Science in 2013.She has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, Ohio, and was principal research scientist at Battelle Columbus Labs in Ohio for a decade. She has also worked for the Landec Corporation, Monsanto, and Pace International.
For five years before joining the Hort Council staff, she ran her own grant-writing and consulting business in Yakima. After retiring, she and her husband, Vern, plan to do more community work and volunteer with the Red Cross for disaster services.
They will go on a mission trip to an orphanage in Swaziland this fall. Carter said she appreciated the opportunity to work with the tree fruit industry. “I cannot think of a more intelligent, insightful, forward-thinking, inviting group with whom I can finish a professional career.”
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