Murinda Appointed AVS Interim Chair

Shelton Murinda

Professor Shelton Murinda has been appointed as the interim chair of the Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, effective immediately.

He takes the place of Professor Broc Sandelin, who is leaving at the end of the academic year to become a dean at Delaware Valley University.

Murinda has taught at Cal Poly Pomona since 2005, specializing in teaching biotechnology applications in animal science and meat science and industry classes.

He has served as director of the university’s Center for Antimicrobial Research & Food Safety since 2007. In 2015, he was appointed as the campus coordinator for the California State University Agricultural Research Institute.

Murinda was twice appointed by U.S. secretaries of agriculture to serve on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection. He also has provided food processing and safety consulting services to the dairy and meat industries and for President Obama’s Food Safety Group.

A native of Zimbabwe, Murinda earned his bachelor’s degree in agriculture and animal science with honors from the University of Zimbabwe; his master’s degree in dairy and food chemistry from the National University of Ireland University College Cork; and his doctorate in food science with an emphasis in microbiology from Penn State. Murinda also was a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Tennessee, where he honed his skills in biotechnology applications in food safety.

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