Gary A. Flory

Gary A. Flory | Editor

Affilation: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, USA

Gary Flory is the Agricultural & Stormwater Program Manager for the Valley Regional Office of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.  In this role, Gary provides leadership on numerous issues surrounding the nexus of agriculture, the environment and public health.  A passionate problem solver, he is regularly selected to execute new and potentially controversial regulatory programs including stormwater management, biosolids land application, agricultural permitting and compliance, and the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) program. Gary also founded G.A. Flory Consulting, a global consulting firm, to help clients with a range of services including animal disease and natural disaster response, agricultural emergency planning, emergency response training and public speaking.  Gary was deployed to the Midwest on 5 separate occasions in support of USDA’s efforts to control Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreaks and was a lead author of USDA’s recently released Mortality Composting Protocol for Avian Influenza Infected Flocks. Gary has published numerous articles including recent articles on the weaponization of emerging infectious diseases, biosurveillance, and counter-agroterrorism for the journal Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Warfare.   He shares his expertise at conferences around the country and as far away as Malaysia and Azerbaijan.  Gary also serves on the Editorial and Scientific Advisory Boards of a number of scientific journals.  He was recently awarded the Agency Star award by the Governor of Virginia for his community service and leadership on animal disease response and agroterrorism. Gary is the chair of the Animal Health Quadrilateral Meeting of the Emergency Management Task Group & Disposal, Destruction & Disinfection (QUADS 3D) Network, co-chairs the USDA/APHIS Composting Technical Committee, and participates in a variety of working groups including the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Agricultural Workgroup, Virginia Poultry Disease Taskforce, BioWatch Extended Veterinary Network, and the Virginia Catastrophic Livestock Mortality Taskforce.

Research Interest

Emerging infectious diseases, transboundary animal diseases, anthrax, foreign animal diseases, One-Health; avian Influenza; and agroterrorism.