Director

Dr. Tara McHugh

Dr. McHugh received her B.S. from Cornell University and her Ph.D. from U.C. Davis, both in Food Science.  She is an internationally recognized expert in innovative food processing, edible films and nanoscience and a leader in high impact technology transfer. Her and her team’s cuttin​​g-edge science have positively impacted the food industry and rural economies, adding value to specialty crops and co-products, while creating jobs and improving human health and food safety. She authored 215 peer-reviewed publications and patents, many of which have been licensed, and led over 50 extramurally funded research projects.  She received a multitude of awards, including ARS’ Senior Scientist Award, two USDA Secretary Honors Awards, Arthur S. Flemming Award, three Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards and is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists. Her research has an h-index of 57 and her manuscripts have received over 12,500 citations. Dr. McHugh has served multiple times in interim appointments for the Pacific West Area office including two acting assignments as Assistant Area Director and a recent appointment as Acting Area Director from April 1 to June 30, 2022.   

Associate Director

Dr. Frederick (Fred) Pierson

Dr. Fred Pierson is the Research Leader at the Northwest Watershed Research Center in Boise, ID. He received his B.S. degree in Range Management from Humboldt State University in 1983, his M.S. in Forest and Range Science in 1985 and Ph.D. in Soil Physics in 1988 from Washington State University. He began his career with ARS as a Post Doc in 1988 at the Northwest Watershed Research Center in Boise, ID. Dr. Pierson has conducted research on the ecohydrological impacts of changing plant community attributes associated with expansion of juniper woodlands, wild and prescribed fire, and implementation of rangeland conservation practices. He has been a leader in developing the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model (RHEM), the first and only erosion model developed specifically for rangeland applications. RHEM is now in widespread use across the US and in many foreign countries. Dr. Pierson became Research Leader in 2007 and leads six scientists in efforts to improve predictions of water supplies held in mountainous snowpacks, water, energy and carbon balances of dryland ecosystems, and management, utilization and restoration of sagebrush plant communities. His Unit operates the ARS Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in southwest Idaho with over 60 years of historical data and information that now provides the foundation for the ARS Great Basin Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network site, the NSF funded Critical Zone Observatory, and countless regional, national and international research collaborations. Dr. Pierson has over 200 publications, served for three years as a PWA Research Leader Advisory Council representative during the Year of the RL, and currently serves on the Leadership Team for the LTAR Network.

Associate Director (Acting)

Dr. Adalberto (Beto) Ángel Pérez de León

Dr. Pérez de León has over 35 years of experience leading transdisciplinary research programs on diverse agricultural issues. He attended veterinary school at the Universidad Veracruzana receiving a DVM degree in 1987. He earned an MS in Entomology at the University of Georgia in 1991 and a Ph.D. in Entomology at the University of Wyoming in 1996. His association with the USDA-ARS dates back to master and doctoral studies involving research on Africanized honeybees and the main North American insect vector of bluetongue viruses, respectively. This was followed by postdoctoral work to elucidate the role of biting flies as vectors of vesicular stomatitis viruses.

Between 1998 and 2008, Dr. Pérez de León worked in the private sector holding positions of increasing managerial responsibility with different organizations ranging from discovery research to product development to assess the efficacy and safety of animal and plant health treatments. His duties spanned business development and competitive intelligence, serving as an attending veterinarian, managing an analytical chemistry lab, and creating a high-throughput screening platform.

In 2009, Dr. Pérez de León joined the ARS as Director of the Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville, Texas, acting as ARS lead on a public-private partnership that delivered the anti-tick vaccine technology adopted by the Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program. In 2015, Dr. Pérez de León served as Acting NPL of National Program 104. He co-led the ARS initiative to create the Veterinary Pest Genomics Center, co-led project funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to develop capacity in Eastern Europe for soft tick surveillance, incorporated the ARS Kerrville laboratory in the Global African Swine Fever Research Alliance, and collaborated with private entity that commercialized novel remote delivery systems to treat livestock for parasite control. Dr. Pérez de León represented the USDA in the Health and Human Services 2019 Tick-Borne Disease Working Group established by Congress as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. He served as member of the Acarological Society of America Executive Committee and held appointments as Adjunct Professor at North Carolina State University, Adjunct Associate Professor and Adjunct Member of the Graduate Faculty at Texas A&M University. Dr. Pérez de León represented the U.S. for 11 years as technical expert in the U.S.-Mexico Binational Committee for Cattle Fever Ticks. The University of Wyoming College of Agriculture and Natural Resources awarded him the Outstanding Alumni Award in 2018.

In 2020, Dr. Pérez de León was selected to serve as Director of the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center where he oversees innovative research to increase productivity, quality, and marketability of crops by solving agricultural problems. Ongoing achievements at the Center in Parlier, California, include revamping the research program on crop diseases, pests, and genetics, creating the ARS citrus breeding research program in California, leading the century celebration of highly impactful table grape breeding research, and overseeing sterile insect technique research in support of the Navel Orangeworm program. Dr. Pérez de León served as Acting Center Director of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center for 3 months in 2024. He is a member of the Academy of Veterinary Medicine of Mexico, the FAO expert consultation group on acaricide resistance, and is credited with over 200 scientific publications and 6 patents.