Robert Griffin:  

I continued school after Coronado, receiving a B.S. in Biology from Northern Arizona University in 1975 and an M.S. in Plant Pathology from the University of Arizona in 1980. My Federal career started in 1976 as a fire fighter with the US Forest Service while attending graduate school. I joined the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in 1980 as a Plant Protection and Quarantine inspector in Laredo, Texas where I became fluent in Spanish. From 1984 until 1989, I worked for APHIS as Area Plant Disease Identifier and Officer in Charge of the Plant Inspection Station in New Orleans, Louisiana. About half of the time I worked overseas, mainly in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, surveying for exotic plant diseases. In 1989, I was transferred to APHIS Headquarters in Hyattsville, Maryland where I was responsible for national oversight of import programs. In 1991, I became APHIS' Senior Plant Pathologist with responsibility for risk analysis systems. In 1995, I began working on regional and international plant health standards. In 1997, I moved to Rome, Italy as Coordinator...Expand for more