Our team is comprised of renowned experts with a passion for quality. USQC’s quality experts have more than 30 years of combined experience in USP Standards, health product quality, and food / cannabis law.
Dr. John Atwater helped set up, launch and expand US Pharmacopeia’s USP Verification Programs for Dietary Supplements that set a national standard for the quality of supplements used and recognized by a range of stakeholders, including manufacturers and consumers across the globe. In addition, our experts helped establish core elements for USP’s emerging quality standards for cannabis. Their expertise in the field of cannabis will now help accelerate the quality of cannabis products delivered to consumers.
John B. Atwater, Ph.D. has over twenty-five years of experience in analytical chemistry, quality assurance program development, and drug development project management. Dr. Atwater had been with USP for nearly twenty years as the Senior Director of USP’s Verification Programs. To enhance and help secure the quality of products across the globe, Dr. Atwater helped develop and implement a stringent international verification program for dietary supplements, dietary ingredients, drug substances and excipients. He has worked with over 60 different companies verifying the quality of their products. Dr. Atwater joined USP after serving as Director of the Natural Products Analytical Group at Hauser Technical Services, in Boulder, CO, where he worked with staff chemists to isolate natural drug actives and develop and validate analytical test procedures for natural products analyses. Dr. Atwater earned his B.A. in chemistry from Colorado College, and his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Colorado State University. He is a Regulatory Affairs Certified (RAC) professional and a member of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS). He is a Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) and a member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ).
Joel Chappelle specializes in food and cannabis law and consulting. With more than a decade of experience, Joel’s extensive knowledge and expertise in all aspects of food and cannabis production, including state and federal regulatory compliance, product safety, and supply chain risk mitigation strategies, allow him to provide unparalleled service to clients throughout the United States.
Joel began his career working on behalf of some of the nation’s largest food companies, helping them manage high-profile foodborne illness outbreaks and the ensuing litigation. His experience also includes helping companies resolve a wide range of complex food and cannabis safety legal and regulatory issues, managing recalls, conducting root cause analysis, pre-suit investigation, expansive discovery, and successfully litigating complex cases.
As a food and cannabis industry consultant and lawyer, Joel has worked with companies from coast-to-coast, providing exceptional counsel, advice, and legal representation to clients of all sizes, from newly founded start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. His success is based on a time-honored formula that begins with unwavering dedication to client service, continues with hard work, creativity, tenacious representation, and ends with achieving exceptional results.
In addition to his legal and consulting work, Joel is a well-known and highly regarded speaker who frequently speaks before national audiences, executive suites, and governmental regulators on a diverse array of food and cannabis industry issues. Likewise, Joel’s writing is regularly featured in magazines, trade publications, and on the websites of the nation’s premier food and cannabis industry advocacy organizations.