De Ann Davis

De Ann Davis, PhD, is Senior Vice President, Science for Western Growers. The Science division leads the association’s engagement in several areas, including food safety, environment, sustainability and data science. De Ann has extensive leadership experience in the development and execution of technical global programs in areas of product safety, quality assurance and regulatory compliance.

Following an impressive 20-year run with consumer-packaged goods companies, such as Procter & Gamble and Kimberly Clark, De Ann transitioned to packaged food and fresh produce safety over a decade ago. Prior to Western Growers, she served as Director for Commercial Food Sanitation and as Vice President of Food Safety and Quality for both Church Brothers Farms and Earthbound Farm. De Ann also served as Chief Food Safety Officer for Kraft Foods Group, where she was heavily engaged in industry’s response to the regulatory framework of the Food Safety Modernization Act. 

De Ann earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Chemistry from Point Loma Nazarene University and her PhD in Biochemistry from Texas A&M University. She was a certified Diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology from 1996 to 2021.

De Ann currently holds several committee and board appointments representing the produce industry and recently completed two terms on the USDA National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Food.