Ralph Iwamoto is the deputy administrator for international services in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

From December 2000 until his selection to this position Iwamoto served as APHIS’s associate deputy administrator for international services. He has worked for APHIS for over 37 years, starting as a plant quarantine inspector with the agency’s Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Unit at JFK International Airport in New York City in 1965.

Iwamoto worked in various American embassies in APHIS foreign service for the agency’s International Services Unit for 16 years from 1984-2000. This included serving as the officer in charge in San Jose, Costa Rica from 1990-93, and the area director in Tokyo, Japan from 1993-96. In 1996 he became the regional director for the agency’s International Services Asia and Pacific Region, based in Tokyo, where his responsibilities covered 28 countries from mainland China through New Zealand and westward to India and Pakistan.

Angel Cielo, the previous deputy administrator for international services, is now regional director of APHIS’s Screwworm Program and Central America, based in Panama City, Panama. •