Deb joined NIFA in July 2020 as Director, Division of Animal Systems and was appointed Deputy Director, Institute of Food Production and Sustainability (IFPS) in November 2020. She provides leadership and oversight for competitive and capacity programs related to pre-harvest food production. She also oversees about 70 full-time IFPS staff across four IFPS Divisions.
Prior to joining NIFA, Deb was Associate Vice Chancellor for Research (2018-2020); Associate Dean, Agricultural Research and Associate Director, Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station (2009-2018) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Deb was a National Program Leader with the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) from 1997-2000 and 2001-2009 and Scientific Review Administrator in the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2000-2001. She also was Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, Arizona Health Sciences Center, University of Arizona (1995-1997) and Assistant Professor, Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Deb earned a B.S. in Animal Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an M.S. in Animal Science from Washington State University, and a PhD in Reproductive Endocrinology from Colorado State University. She received an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct research in molecular endocrinology at Case Western Reserve University.