Leah Zorrilla, Ph.D.

Director, Regulatory Toxicology North America at Bayer Crop Science

Speaker

Leah Zorrilla, Ph.D. is the Director of Regulatory Toxicology, North America and serves as Global Biologicals Human Safety Lead at Bayer Crop Science. In these roles, she leads multidisciplinary teams responsible for human health risk assessments and global regulatory strategies for crop protection products, with a particular focus on biologicals and biopesticides.

An internationally recognized expert in biopesticide human safety assessment, Dr. Zorrilla has played a leading role in advancing next-generation risk assessment approaches for agricultural biological products. She serves on the OECD Expert Group on Biopesticides, helping drive development of the first OECD biopesticide toxicology guideline and international alignment on key microbial safety issues, including tiered testing approaches, validation of new approach methodologies, antibiotic resistance and secondary metabolite assessments. Through her work, she fosters collaboration among regulators, industry, academic researchers, and scientific organizations to advance harmonized, science-based approaches for the evaluation and regulation of agricultural products.

Dr. Zorrilla earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Biomedical Sciences from North Carolina State University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She currently serves as a human safety expert supporting several biopesticide working groups, is Program Committee Chair for The Toxicology Forum and holds leadership positions within the Society of Toxicology, contributing to the advancement of regulatory science and modern toxicology approaches.