Deborah A. Golino

CE Specialist, Director, Foundation Plant Services, Plant Pathology Department

Dr. Deborah Golino has been the Director of Foundation Plant Services (FPS) since 1994. FPS is a unit of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at University of California, Davis. FPS is dedicated to the distribution of disease tested, true to identity plant materials produced by UC researchers or improved by technology developed by UC researchers. At this time, FPS is responsible for programs for grapes, strawberries, fruit trees, nut trees, sweet potatoes, and roses. The grape importation, quarantine and clean stock programs are the largest in the United States. These programs have played a key national and international role in distributing new crop varieties and healthy planting stocks. Since September, 1994, the department has been housed in the National Grape Importation and Clean Stock Facility, a state-of-the-art building funded by a combination of federal, state and industry monies.

Dr. Golino began her professional career in Riverside, California, where she worked for the USDA-ARS at Boyden Entomology Laboratory, specializing in research on insect-transmitted diseases of citrus. After completing her PhD dissertation "Characterization of the beet leafhopper transmitted virescence agent, a mycoplasma-like organism" in 1987, she was transferred to the USDA-ARS fruit pathology research group in Davis. Since then, she has managed a research program directed at controlling the virus and virus-like diseases of grapevines with a focus on improved methods of pathogen detection and streamlining virus elimination techniques for clean stock and quarantine programs. She joined the University of California in 1994. In addition to her position as FPS Director, she is a Cooperative Extension Specialist in the department of Plant Pathology, UC Davis, participating in teaching, extension and service. She is an author of over 60 scientific publications in plant pathology.