Dr. Chika Okafor is a Pre-harvest Food Safety Epidemiologist. As director of Veterinary Public Health Program, he oversees the veterinary concentration of the UTK’s MPH degree program. His long-term research goal is to improve stewardship of antimicrobial use in food animals and veterinary medicine. He has utilized his expertise in epidemiological methods as well as statistical analysis of large datasets to understand/prevent animal diseases (e.g., bovine anaplasmosis) and pre-harvest food safety issues (colibacillosis, salmonellosis) associated antibiotic usage. He has published extensively in his field and has an excellent record of obtaining extramural funding. Before joining UT, Dr. Okafor received his DVM degree from the University of Nigeria, MS in Food Safety and PhD in Epidemiology from Michigan State University, and a post-doctoral fellowship in Nutritional Epidemiology at the University of Guelph, Canada. He is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and specialty board certified in Epidemiology.