The White House announced Monday a nominee for undersecretary for Food safety at the Agriculture Department. The position has been vacant for almost a year.

The nominee is Elisabeth Hagen, who currently holds the position of USDA chief medical officer, where she serves as an advisor to USDA on human health issues. Prior to that she was with USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service where she worked on public health. Hagen was a practicing physician before coming to the USDA. She is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and a board-certified expert in infectious disease.

Also announced was the nominee for administrator of drug enforcement, Michele Leonhart.

Hagen will serve with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who said in a statement "We can and must do a better job of ensuring the safety of meat and poultry products regulated by USDA, and Dr. Hagen brings the background, skills, and vision to lead USDA's efforts to make sure that Americans have access to a safe and healthy food supply."

Carol Tucker-Foreman, a food safety advocate with the Consumer Federation of America, says Hagen "brings impressive education credentials to the position of under secretary for food safety."

"Her rise through the ranks at USDA has been meteoric. She joined the department four years ago as deputy assistant administrator for public health, was appointed Food Safety Inspection Service chief medical officer four months ago, and now has been named to the highest ranking food safety position in the U.S. government."

While she has limited direct experience with Hagen, Tucker-Foreman says she's been told the new undersecretary "has been a strong advocate for improved food safety policies and has urged the agency to be more aggressive in asking companies to initiate recalls."

One example she gave was that Hagen has urged USDA to consider steaks and chops with detectable surface levels of E. coli O157:H7 to be adulterated.

Currently E. coli O157:H7 is adulterant only in ground beef.

Raymond said it was "high time" someone filled this position, the highest ranking food safety official in the U.S. government. "It is a tough job, and I know Elisabeth has the passion and toughness that is necessary to move food safety forward in a very tough environment."

Elizabeth Weise reports for USA Today.