The International Programs Staff:

Sharon Berberich, Jeff Stein, Bill Doley, Katie Moon

Sharon Berberich, Assistant Director

Jeff Stein, Biosafety Advisor, Program for Biosafety Systems

Jeff Stein is a plant pathologist and highly experienced expert in all dimensions of biosafety, including food and environmental safety issues for biotech crops. He joined the International Programs team in April 2006 as the Biosafety Advisor for the Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS). For the past seven years he served as the Director of Regulatory Affairs at Syngenta Biotechnology, where he led an international team of regulatory managers developing and supporting safety dossiers in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. From 1981 to 1994, Mr. Stein served as a research scientist at Syngenta’s seed company in North Carolina and at Allied-Signal corporation in Syracuse, New York. Prior to this private sector experience, Mr. Stein worked for five years in the public sector as a researcher in the Department of Plant Pathology at Cornell University.

Jeff is an experienced teacher and public speaker, actively involved in biosafety communication and outreach activities in North America, Brazil, Argentina, Africa, and Europe, including the intergovernmental committee of the Cartegena Protocol.  He is keen to mobilize his skills and experience to help develop effective biosafety systems and safe technology transfer processes that will serve agricultural development in the developing world.

He has a Masters in Plant Pathology from Cornell University, and a BA in Biological Sciences from Ithaca College.

Bill Doley, Project Director, Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa

Bill Doley is a career plant scientist with sixteen years of experience in agricultural biotechnology product development. Since February 2006, he has been the Project Director of the Virus-Resistant Cassava for Africa (VIRCA) project at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

Prior to joining the Danforth Center, Bill worked in the global development of imidazolinone-tolerant crops, first with American Cyanamid, then with BASF and finally as an independent consultant. During these years, Bill was the global technical manager for the development of imidazolinone-tolerant canola, sunflower and maize. In a short 5 years after the project initiation, imidazolinone-tolerant sunflower were commercialized in 3 countries (Turkey, Argentina and the United States) on 3 continents ahead of timelines and within budgets.

Bill was also the technical manager of the Striga-control project based in Kenya. This innovative approach to controlling this devastating parasitic weed is a joint project between BASF and CIMMYT and was launched in 2005.

Prior to joining American Cyanamid in 1998, Bill was the Plant Geneticist in the Beet Seed Division of the American Crystal Sugar Company. He managed all aspects of the commercial development of transgenic sugar beets which included implementation of the first transgenic sugar beet trial in the US in 1993. He managed tissue culture and diagnostic labs, greenhouse operations as well as the hybrid development program for Michigan and Ohio.

Bill has a PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Michigan State University, an MS in Plant Breeding from the University of Minnesota and a BS in Plant Science from the Pennsylvania State University.

Katie Moon, Administrative Coordinator

Katie Moon has served as the Administrative Coordinator for the International Programs department since August 2005.  She works closely with the Director and Assistant Director to coordinate the day-to-day activities of the office, including making travel arrangements, coordinating meeting logistics at the Danforth Center and abroad, preparing budgets, and writing and editing documents.

Katie has a Masters of Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary, and a BA in English Education from Cedarville University.