Thomas Hill
Public Health Specialist
Specialty:
Thomas has thirty-five years with the US Public Health Service (USPHS), retiring at the rank of Captain. He is credentialed by the US National Environmental Health Association as a Registered Sanitarian, and certified Professional-Food Safety. He is a Diplomate in the American Academy of Sanitarians. While at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) he served as the Program Technical Expert for the InterstateTravel Program (ITP) providing consultation and training to ITP Specialists and Investigators in the field inspecting interstate conveyances, including passenger aircraft, vessels, trains, buses, caterers and watering points.
Thomas Hill graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech (1983) and a Master of Public Health degree from the School of Public Health at the University of Texas (1994). He has ten years of environmental health experience with the Commonwealth of Virginia, and thirty-five years with the US Air Force (USAF) and US Public Health Service (USPHS), retiring at the rank of Captain (O-6). He is credentialed by the National Environmental Health Association as a Registered Sanitarian and Certified Professional-Food Safety and is a Diplomate in the American Academy of Sanitarians.
While at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Thomas served as the Program Technical Expert for the Interstate Travel Program (ITP) providing consultation and training to ITP Specialists and Investigators in the field inspecting interstate conveyances, including passenger aircraft, vessels, trains, buses, caterers and watering points. He was responsible for reviewing and approving plans for new-builds and renovations of aircraft and vessel galleys and conducting environmental investigations related to foodborne illness outbreaks.
Over the course of his career, he has received training and developed expertise in food safety, potable water, sewage disposal, pools and spas, epidemiology, vector borne and zoonotic diseases, injury prevention and control, good agricultural practices and produce farm investigations, cruise ship and aircraft galley construction and inspection, providing training and emergency preparedness, coordination and response.
Since his retirement from the Service in 2013, Thomas has continued to provide environmental health consultative services in private practice, focusing primarily on food safety, emergency preparedness and response. As a public health-focused practitioner, he advances and provides instruction and training on food safety, risk-based inspections and the prevention and control of foodborne illness based on the USPHS Food Code and CIFOR Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response.
