Ohio Department of Agriculture | ODA Divisions Leadership

Dr. W. Michael Hockman is the chief of the Division of Meat Inspection, which helps assure all meat and poultry establishments with a state license are producing safe, wholesome and truthfully labeled products in a sanitary environment.

Dr. Hockman began his career working for the United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Inspection Service, where he held many progressively responsible positions within the agency, ultimately leading to the position of circuit supervisor and acting assistant area supervisor in Springfield, IL. Dr. Hockman also served the federal Food Safety Inspection Service as a veterinary recruiter for nearly 20 years, and as a field epidemiology officer. In 1997, he began his tenure with the Ohio Department of Agriculture as assistant chief of the state's Division of Meat Inspection.

Kevin Elder is chief of the Division of Livestock Environmental Permitting. In this capacity, he oversees environmental compliance of the state's largest livestock and poultry farms. Beginning in 2001, he worked with stakeholders and advisory boards to establish the policies, laws and rules necessary to implement and manage the newly created program. Prior to joining ODA, Elder served as the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Soil and Water Conservation, Engineering Section administrator and as an agricultural pollution abatement specialist. He was also previously employed at the Fairfield Soil and Water Conservation District as program administrator and district technician.

Elder has participated as a member of the Phosphorus Task Force, Certified Crop Advisory Board, the United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resource Conservation Service-State EQUIP Technical Advisory Board, Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan Training and Certification Team, Ohio Livestock Environment Assurance Program Development and Advisory Group; and is a Certified Assessor for the National Pork Producers, Odor and Environmental Assurance Program.

Matt Beal is the chief of the Division of Plant Health, which is responsible for overseeing the following consumer and public protection regulations: label statements on feed and fertilizers; nursery stock; financial stability of grain elevators; pesticides; pesticide applicators; pesticide use complaints; and work with the federal government to control invasive pest species. He has served at ODA since 1985 as pesticide control specialist, pesticide control supervisor, agriculture inspection administrator, and assistant chief. In 2010 he was appointed to acting chief, and in 2011 promoted to chief of the division. Prior to joining ODA, he was employed by Torco Pest Control.

Recent efforts include working with The Ohio State University Extension to consolidate private applicator pesticide-use categories; protecting farmers by overseeing the grain indemnity fund in grain insolvency cases; creating an emergency response plan to the Asian Longhorned Beetle; and continuing work with the US Environmental Protection Agency to find an answer to the state's growing bed bug problem.

Gary Hill serves the department as chief of two divisions - Enforcement and Amusement Ride Safety. He started his ODA career in 2000 as an enforcement agent, accepted a position as assistant chief, and was appointed Enforcement chief in 2006. In this capacity, he works with other department divisions to uphold compliance with Ohio agricultural laws and regulations. Hill has also served as chief of Amusement Ride Safety since 2008, where he oversees the safety and regulation of all Ohio amusement rides.

Prior to joining ODA, he worked at the Columbus Police Department until his retirement in 1995, serving as uniformed patrol, a member of the SWAT team for more than 10 years, and an abuse investigator on the Juvenile Bureau for more than five years. Hill also worked as a White Collar Crime Unit investigator in the Intelligence Bureau, focusing on embezzlement, fraud, gambling, and organized crime cases. Hill was also employed at the Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation as a contract consultant.

Charles L. Kirchner was named chief of the Division of Food Safety in 2006, and is responsible for overseeing program areas that include food processing, retail food safety, and food sampling. The division conducts 500 federal inspections annually for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and conducts food sampling and Country of Origin Labeling review inspections for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Prior to joining the department, Kirchner began working in 1973 at Borden, Inc., where he held several positions. Initially he worked in the corporate Science and Technology Division as a food inspector auditing Borden food operations across the United States for compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices and with Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point programs. Kirchner was promoted to Borden's International Foods Division and assisted the Central and South American Borden Food Operations with Quality Assurance and Quality Control related programs and sanitation. He was then promoted to Technical Director for the Borden International Foods Division in Europe.

Kirchner is the past President of National Egg Regulatory Officials, represents the department on the Utility Radiological Safety Board, is commissioned as an officer of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, and is a Registered Sanitarian in Ohio.

Mead's responsibilities include overseeing the department's legislative, communication and marketing efforts, and shaping department policy. She also works on promoting agribusiness opportunities in the state.

Mead, who joined the department in 2011 and most recently served as chief of the Markets division, has also worked for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. She has also previously worked in communications for the Ohio State Alumni Association and Mycogen Seeds.

She is a graduate of The Ohio State University where she earned a degree in agricultural communications.

Fran Elson-Houston is the chief deputy state sealer for the Division of Weights & Measures, and is responsible for overseeing fair weighing and measuring standards in Ohio. She is a member of the National Conference on Weights & Measures (NCWM), currently serving as co-chair of the NCWM Retail Motor Fuel Dispenser Workgroup, the Central Weights & Measures Association, Ohio Weights & Measures Association, International Society of Weights & Measures, and ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials).

Elson-Houston has been employed with ODA's Division of Weights & Measures since 2000, when she served as administrative assistant to the chief. She was appointed chief of the division in 2008. Prior to joining ODA, she was a grant writer/administrator for the Ohio Department of Development.

Bailey oversees the department's Plant Health, Weights and Measures and Livestock Environmental Permitting divisions, and shapes department policy. Since joining the department in 2004, Bailey has served as executive director of the Office of Farmland Preservation and executive director of the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board.

A combat veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, he currently serves as an Intelligence Officer in the United States Army Reserve.

Bailey is a graduate of The Ohio State University where he earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in agricultural economics.

Wise oversees the department's day-to-day regulatory operations and laboratories, in addition to the department's policies and procedures. Prior to his this recent appointment, Wise served as the department's assistant director from 2004 through 2006.

From July 1999 to June 2004, he served as the executive director of the department's Office of Farmland Preservation. Wise has served in several leadership capacities at the Ohio Department of Development.

He is a graduate of The Ohio State University where he earned a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees in political science and public administration.

Erica Pitchford is director of the Communications Office, serving as the primary spokesperson for the department. Appointed Communications Director in March 2012, she is responsible for coordinating media and public outreach efforts, monitoring agency-related news stories, and managing the department's social media outreach.

Pitchford began her Ohio Department of Agriculture career as a public information officer in January 2011, working to develop and implement a strategic communication plan to educate the agriculture community on Ohio Livestock Care Standards, developing the state-wide Ag is Cool visual arts program, and planning Ohio Agriculture Day. Prior to employment at the department, she worked as a Legislative Aide in the Ohio Senate and as a Legislative Service Commission Fellow. She is a 2011 graduate of The Jo Ann Davidson Ohio Leadership Institute.

Pitchford is a graduate of Ashland University where she earned bachelor's degrees in political science and religion and was a scholar with The John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs.

Tom Johnston is responsible for overseeing the Ohio Department of Agriculture's financial operations and managing the department's fleet and laboratory maintenance. In addition, he oversees agency procurement.

He brings 35 years of financial and leadership experience to the department. He is a former chief financial officer for the Ohio Department of Development and the Ohio Department of Agriculture, and has served as manager of the housing tax credit program at the Ohio Housing Finance Committee.

Nathan Aichele is the legislative liaison for the Ohio Department of Agriculture. He acts as an advocate on behalf of the department to the Ohio General Assembly and U.S. Congress, and works with consumer groups and industry representatives to assist in the research and development of legislative changes.

Prior to this appointment, Aichele worked as a legislative aide to State Senator Keith Faber for four years and participated in the Legislative Service Commission's legislative fellowship program.

Rick Corbin is the administrator for the department's human resource management, overseeing employee and labor relations.

He brings more than 22 years of human resource management experience to the department, including a previous appointment to this position in 2005. From 2006 to 2010, Corbin worked in California public and private sectors in human resources. He previously worked for the Ohio Dept. of Administrative Services, in the office of collective bargaining, and spent 25 years at the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Roger Tedrick was appointed chief of the Dairy Division in 2011. He is responsible for the daily operations of the division, which oversees dairy producers, processors, haulers, weigher, sampler, and testers within the state.

A registered sanitarian, Tedrick joined the Dairy Division in 1999 as plant section head. He was named assistant chief in 2008, and appointed as acting chief in 2010. Prior to employment at the department, he was field supervisor for Milk Marketing Inc./DFA. Tedrick is the president of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Alumni Society, and is a member of Council I of the National Conference of Interstate Milk Shipments, the Ohio Association of Food Protection, and the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation.

Position is currently vacant.

Dr. Beverly Byrum is Director of Laboratories for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, with oversight of the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL) and the Consumer Protection Lab. These two labs work in conjunction to maintain a safe food supply and protect public health. The ADDL is accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians and is a member of the National Animal Health Lab Network. Sections of Consumer Protection Laboratory are accredited according to ISO 17025 standards. In addition, the Consumer Protection Laboratory is a cooperative agreement lab for microbiology and chemistry with the FDA Food Emergency Response Network and the FSIS Food Emergency Response Network. It also houses the official equine drug testing lab for the Ohio State Racing Commission.

Dr. Byrum is an adjunct faculty member with the Ohio State University Department of Preventive Medicine. She currently is Chair of the AAVLD Accreditation Committee. Prior to working the veterinary diagnostics, Dr. Byrum worked as research microbiologist in the medical nutritional industry.

Steve Swayne was appointed Chief Information Officer for the Ohio Department of Agriculture in 2011. He leads and oversees the delivery of the agency's information technology strategy, enterprise architecture, enterprise application development, infrastructure management, and computing technologies to all of the divisions and programs in the department.

Prior to joining the department, Swayne completed a 29-year career in law enforcement and law enforcement training that spanned several departments and positions. The career began as a Deputy Sheriff in Southeastern Ohio and concluded as the Assistant Chief of the Office of Law Enforcement at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. At ODNR he served as project manager for the Multi-Agency Radio Communications System and as the project manager for the Field Based Reporting initiative.

Swayne possesses several industry certifications and maintains membership in the Central Ohio Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association and in the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists. He represents the department on the Cyber Security Working Group of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Homeland Security Advisory Council and the Central Ohio InfraGard in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

King is responsible for overseeing and promoting the department’s farmland preservation program. She brings more than 20 years of experience with natural resources management and conservation policy to the department.

King, who most recently served as a deputy superintendent with the Ohio Department of Commerce, has previously worked as a government relations program director for The Nature Conservancy, as chief of the division of Recycling and Litter Prevention and as chief of policy for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

She is currently a Washington Township trustee and has previously served on Dublin City Council and as vice-mayor of Dublin.

Orahood is responsible for the department’s human resources management and oversees employee and labor relations. She most recently served as a fiscal and human resources manager with the Office of the Governor, and has previously worked for the Ohio Office of Budget and Management and the Ohio Department of Administrative Services.

Orahood is a graduate of Franklin University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Human Resources Management and a master’s degree in Business Administration.

As legislative liaison, Honnold acts as advocate on behalf of the department to the Ohio General Assembly and U.S. Congress, and works with consumer groups and industry representatives to assist in the research and development of legislative changes.

Honnold most recently worked as the deputy director of communications and community education at the Office of the Ohio Treasury and previously served as an aide in the Ohio House of Representatives.

As legislative liaison, McNab acts as advocate on behalf of the department to the Ohio General Assembly and U.S. Congress, and works with consumer groups and industry representatives to assist in the research and development of legislative changes.

Prior to his appointment, McNab worked as an aide in the Ohio Senate.