Congratulations to Liza Fleeson Trossbach, who retired from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) Office of Pesticide Services (OPS) on July 31, 2024. Liza worked in the Office of Pesticide Services for 24 years and led OPS as Program Manager for the past 16 years. As Program Manager, Liza was responsible for development of pesticide related regulations, planning and coordinating the development of pesticide programs to conform with federal laws, and development of polices and guidelines. In addition, she coordinated EPA grant applications and served as liaison between VDACS and Virginia’s pesticide industry stakeholders as well as national industry leaders and EPA. Throughout her career, Liza worked with industry leaders and state and federal agencies on the regulation of pesticides, and she is highly regarded as a subject matter expert in pesticide regulation. Liza is well known by Virginia’s pesticide industries, including both structural and agricultural.

Liza provided oversight of numerous pesticide projects in Virginia, including Virginia’s pollinator protection plan, electronic inspection forms for use by OPS pesticide investigators, remote applicator certification testing, Spanish language testing for Registered Technician certification, Spanish language applicator manuals, and she worked closely with the VDACS Information Technology staff to develop and implement the agency’s new online system that can be used for applicator certification, business licensing, and product registration. The online pesticide system has taken several years to develop and while this project is not yet complete, it is nearing completion and Liza devoted many hours to ensuring the success of this new system.

As a regulatory agency, VDACS was represented on the national level by Liza through her participation in the Association of Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials, Association of American Pesticide Control Officials, and other pesticide related organizations and agencies. Throughout her career, Liza was very active in these national organizations, resulting in Virginia’s pesticide program being nationally recognized and more importantly her participation allowed Virginia to have a voice on pesticide related issues at the national level with other states and with the EPA. Liza served in leadership roles with various organizations over the years:

• Served as President of the Association of Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials for three terms
• Elected as Director of the Association of American Pesticide Control Officials in 2020 and President in 2022
• Served as a member of the Board and later as Vice-President and President of the Pesticide Stewardship Alliance
• Served on numerous national working committees for these organizations and EPA
• In August 2023, Liza was elected to the Association of Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials Hall of Fame
• Also in 2023, the Board of Directors of the Association of American Pesticide Control Officials bestowed upon Liza a Life Membership for her outstanding contributions.

The Association of Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials (ASPCRO) recently inducted Liza into the association’s hall of fame. ASPCRO is a professional association comprised of the state regulatory officials responsible for regulating services provided by the structural pest control industry in their respective states. The induction highlights the positive impact Liza has had on the structural pest control industry, the regulatory community, and her contributions to ASPCRO.

In speaking of her hall of fame induction, Liza stated, “I am honored to have been recognized by my colleagues and peers. I am so grateful for the opportunities that have been afforded to me by the agency in allowing me to participate with this and other groups involved in pesticide regulation nationwide. To represent not only VDACS but to also be selected to advocate for pesticide regulatory officials and programs on this stage is and has been rewarding and humbling and I consider it a career peak.”

Throughout her career, Liza has gained valuable experience with state and federal laws governing the regulation of pesticides, served in leadership roles for a variety of industry organizations, and she is highly regarded as a subject matter expert in pesticide regulation. Liza is the ASPCRO immediate past president and has served on the Board of Directors since 2008. She has the distinction of serving as ASPCRO President for three terms and Immediate Past President for four terms. In addition to serving on several working committees, she started and chaired the Bed Bug committee which was established as a liaison to assist state, tribal, and territorial lead agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency and other stakeholders with concerns over critical emerging pests threatening public health. Through her leadership, a nationwide survey, review of testing protocols, development of a clearinghouse for bed bug resources, and label language review played a key role in assisting states and federal agencies in promoting meaningful policies to control the public health pest and setting the stage for the development of what is now ASPCRO’s most important working committee, the Public Health Committee.

For her many contributions to ASPCRO in furtherance of the association’s goals to protect public health and foster the development of practical public policy related to regulation of the pest control industry and consumer health protection, Liza was inducted into the ASPCRO Hall of Fame.