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Speaker Biographies
List of Speakers
- George Gray, Ph.D.
- James H. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D., P.E., DEE
- Marcus C. Peacock, MPH
- J. Craig Venter, Ph.D.
- R. Julian Preston, Ph.D.
- William A. Suk, Ph.D., M.P.H.
- Andrew Geller, Ph.D.
- Bruce A. Fowler, Ph.D.
- Steven Kleeberger Ph.D.
- Elaine M. Faustman, Ph.D., D.A.B.T.
- William Sanders III, Ph.D.
- Ann Grambsch
- Christopher Portier, Ph.D.
- Mike Slimak, PhD
- David A. Bussard
- Rita R. Colwell, Ph.D.
- Henry Falk, M.D., M.P.H.
- Peter Preuss, Ph.D.
- Michael H. Shapiro, Ph.D.
- John Vandenberg, Ph.D.
- Hal Zenick, Ph.D.
- Howard Frumkin, M.D., M.P.H., Dr.P.H.
- Laura Jackson, Ph.D.
- Drue Barrett, Ph.D.
- Tim Torma
- G. Martin Moeller, Jr.
Plenary Speaker - Dr. George Gray
U.S. EPA, Assistant Administrator for Research & Development
On November 1, 2005, Dr. Gray was sworn in to serve as the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development, which is the 1,900-person, $600 million science and technology arm of the Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Gray was appointed to this position by President George W. Bush and confirmed-by unanimous consent-by the U.S. Senate.
Prior to joining EPA, George was Executive Director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and a Lecturer in Risk Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health. In 16 years at HSPH, his researched focused on scientific bases of human health risk assessment and its application to risk policy with a focus on risk/risk tradeoffs in risk management. George taught toxicology and risk assessment to both graduate students and participants in the School's Continuing Professional Education program. George holds a B.S. degree in biology from the University of Michigan, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in toxicology from the University of Rochester.
Plenary Speaker - Dr. James H. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D., P.E., DEE
Dean, College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Sciences
Howard University, Washington, D.C. 20059
Dr. Johnson is a professor of Civil Engineering and dean of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Sciences at Howard University. Prior to this appointment, he was the chair of the Department of Civil Engineering and interim associate vice president for Research for Howard University. Dr. Johnson received his B.S. from Howard University, M.S. from the University of Illinois and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware. Dr. Johnson's research interests include the treatment and disposal of hazardous substances, the evaluation of environmental policy issues in relation to minorities, the development of environmental curricula and strategies to increase the pool of underrepresented groups in the science, technology, engineering and math disciplines.
He is the chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors Executive Committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a member of EPA's Science Advisory Board and the co-principal investigator of the Department of Energy-sponsored HBCU/MI Environmental Technology Consortium. Currently, he is a consultant to the Office of the President, University of California, as a member of the Environmental, Health and Safety Panel monitoring activities at the three DOE National Laboratories operated by the University of California. From 1989-2002, he was the associate director of the USEPA-sponsored Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic Center for Hazardous Substance Research; from 1996-2002, he oversaw the activities of the Engineering Coalition of Schools for Excellence and Leadership in Education, a National Science Foundation-funded consortium. Dr. Johnson is a member of the National Research Council's (NRC) Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, SECME, and the Engineering Deans Council of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Opening Session Featured Speaker
Marcus C. Peacock
Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Marcus C. Peacock is the Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA implements and enforces the nation's federal environmental laws and regulations; the Agency has over 18,000 employees nationwide and an annual budget of $8.6 billion. He was sworn in August 8, 2005.
Prior to joining EPA, Mr. Peacock served as the Associate Director for Natural Resource Programs at the Office of Management and Budget. He was responsible for reviewing policy and budget decisions regarding environmental, energy, and science issues. His portfolio included programs run by a dozen agencies including the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, the Interior and EPA. Federal spending in his area exceeded $160 billion a year. Mr. Peacock also was responsible for implementing three Presidential Management Initiatives including creation of the Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART) now being used to assess all federal programs. The PART won Harvard University's prestigious Innovations in Government Award in 2005. During this time Mr. Peacock also helped develop a performance-based system for funding U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' projects and, in 2006, was awarded the Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Medal for this effort.
Mr. Peacock's prior experience includes the staff director of a subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives, a staff position at the Office of Management and Budget, work in private practice, and employment as an engineer and supervisor in a printing plant.
Mr. Peacock has a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the District of Columbia.
Keynote Speaker
J. Craig Venter, Ph.D.
J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., is regarded as one of leading scientists of the 21st century for his invaluable contributions in genomic research and is one of the most frequently cited scientists. He is founder and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute and the J. Craig Venter Science Foundation, not-for-profit, research and support organizations dedicated to human genomic research, to exploration of social and ethical issues in genomics, and to seeking alternative energy solutions through microbial sources. In addition Dr. Venter is the founder and chairman of The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR).
Dr. Venter began his formal education after a tour of duty as a Navy Corpsman, in Danang, Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. After earning a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology, both from the University of California at San Diego and both in three years, he was appointed professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. In 1984, he moved to the National Institutes of Health campus where he developed expressed sequence tags or EST's, a revolutionary new strategy for gene discovery. In 1992, he founded The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). There he and his team decoded the genome of the first free-living organism, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, using his new whole genome shotgun technique. TIGR has sequenced more than 50 genomes to date using Dr. Venter's techniques.
In 1998, Dr. Venter founded Celera Genomics to sequence the human genome using the whole genome shotgun technique, new mathematical algorithms, and new automated DNA sequencing machines. The successful completion of this research culminated with the publication of the human genome in February 2001 in the journal, Science. In addition to the human genome, Dr. Venter and his team at Celera sequenced the fruit fly, mouse, and rat genomes.
Dr. Venter and his team at the Venter Institute continue to blaze new trails in genomics research and have recently published several important papers outlining advances such as: environmental genomics through the characterization of more than one million new genes found from shotgun sequencing of the Sargasso Sea; synthetic biology with publication of the synthetic PhiX 174 research; and the sequence and analysis of the dog genome.
Dr. Venter is the author of more than 200 research articles and is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, public honors, and scientific awards. These include: Financial Times' Man of the Year Award, TIME Magazine's Man of the Year (runner-up), 2002 Gairdner Foundation International Award, and the 2001 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize. Dr. Venter is a member of numerous prestigious scientific organizations including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Society for Microbiology. Dr. Venter was also one of the first 38 people to be selected by Desmond Tutu as part of his "Hands that Shape Humanity" world exhibition.
2006 Science Forum Platform Session Speakers
Disease Susceptibility and the Environment
Session Co-Chair - Dr. R. Julian Preston, Ph.D.
Acting Associate Director for Health, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), U.S.EPA
Dr. Julian Preston is the Acting Associate Director for Health, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) in the Office of Research and Development in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Preston earned his Ph.D. in Radiation Genetics from Reading University, England. He was a Research Scientist with the Medial Research Council (UK) from 1963-1970. He spent 21 years (1970-1991) in the Biology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Tennessee. He also served as Associate Director of the Oak Ridge - University of Tennessee Graduate School for Biomedical Sciences from 1980-1991. In 1991, Dr. Preston joined the CIIT Centers for Health Sciences, in Research Triangle Park where he served as Senior Science Advisor until 1999. He currently also holds Adjunct Professor appointments at Duke University (Integrated Toxicology Program) and North Carolina State University (Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology).
Dr. Preston is Chair of Committee 1 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, a member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and a member of several ILSI and IPCS committees. Dr. Preston is also an Editorial Board Member of Mutation Research, Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis and Health Physics.
Session Co-Chair - Dr. William A. Suk, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Director, Center for Risk and Integrated Sciences, NIEHS
Director, Center for Risk and Integrated Sciences, NIEHS
Dr. Suk is currently Director, Center for Risk and Integrated Sciences and Director, Superfund Basic Research Program, Division of Extramural Research and Training, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), an institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A primary aspect of his position has been the assessment of national and international efforts in biomedical research and its potential applications in determining adverse effects on human health resulting from exposure to environmental agents. He is responsible for designing, developing, and managing national and international programs that focus on those areas of research pertinent to the Institute's mission in experimental and molecular biology and population-based studies. Dr. Suk has served since its inception, as Director of the NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances Basic Research and Training Program, a program established by Congress as part of the reauthorization of Superfund in 1986. A unique Program, fostering interdisciplinary research approaches to address the problems associated with potentially hazardous environmental exposures. The Program has advanced the science of identifying, assessing, evaluating and remediating hazardous substances, and in so doing, it has matured to the point of truly enhancing the infrastructure of the environmental health sciences.
Dr. Suk received his Ph.D. in microbiology from the George Washington University Medical School in 1977, and his Masters in Public Health in health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has published extensively on issues linking exposures with disease etiologies and in developing research and prevention strategies to reduce risk to environmentally induced diseases and disorders. In so doing, he has worked to initiate and implement environmental health and science programs with related policy issues that focus on reducing risk to environmental exposure in Central and Eastern Europe, the U.S.-Mexico border and in South America, in Asia, including Central Asia. Dr. Suk is a member of a number of trans-NIH committees and consortia, most notably the Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) which is established within the Office of the Director, NIH, to promote and develop the bioengineering activities at NIH. He is a member of the BECON Subcommittee on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. In addition, Dr. Suk is a member of the Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative (BISTI) at NIH. Dr. Suk's strong and effective advocacy for research and policy, whether considered from an academic, a government, or a corporate perspective, is reflected by his personal interest in and active participation on issues surrounding children's environmental health. Dr. Suk has received numerous awards; most notably he is a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, an international society of scholars in occupational and environmental health.
Poster Co-Chair - Andrew Geller, PhD
Neurotoxicology Division, U.S. EPA
Andrew Geller is the Acting Assistant Laboratory Director for the core research program in Human Health at EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Lab. Dr. Geller also serves as the Office of Research and Development's senior staff scientist for EPA's Aging Initiative and is a principal investigator in EPA's Neurotoxicology Division specializing in ocular toxicity.
Since joining the staff of the US EPA, Geller has evaluated visual function and ocular development in humans, animals, and in vitro models of exposure to a number of different environmental toxicants. In addition, he has used his expertise in color and spatial vision and statistics to contribute to the risk assessments of a number of organic solvents and ammonium perchlorate.
Dr. Geller received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and earned his Masters degree and PhD in Cognitive and Experimental Psychology at the University of Michigan. Geller did post-doctoral training in Neurotoxicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Environmental Medicine and Lung Biology and through a National Research Service Award from the NIEHS.
Poster Co-Chair - Dr. Bruce Fowler
Director of the University of Maryland System-wide Program in Toxicology
Dr. Bruce A. Fowler, Fellow A.T.S., received a B.S. degree in Fisheries (Marine Biology) from the University of Washington in 1968 and a Ph.D. in Pathology from the University of Oregon Medical School in 1972. He was a staff scientist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences from 1972 until 1987, when he became Director of the University of Maryland System-wide Program in Toxicology and Professor of Pathology at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine. In 2001, Dr. Fowler became Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Toxicology in the Department of Epidemiology at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine. From 2002-2003 he was a Senior Research Advisor to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry (ATSDR) in the Division of Toxicology. Dr. Fowler was appointed as the Assistant Director for Science in the Division of Toxicology and to the Senior Biomedical Research Service (PHS) at ATSDR in November 2003.
Dr. Fowler, who is an internationally recognized expert on the toxicology of metals, has served on a number of State, National and International Committees in his areas of expertise. These include the Maryland Governor's Council on Toxic Substances (Chair), National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council (NAS/NRC) Committees on Toxicology, Toxicology Information Committee, Committee on Women in Science and Engineering, Measuring Lead in Critical Populations (Chair), Biological Markers of Urinary Toxicology, Committee on the Evaluation of Augmenting Potable Water Supplies with Reclaimed Water, and the Subcommittee on Arsenic in Drinking Water of the Committee on Toxicology. Dr Fowler has been honored as a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (1990), as a Fulbright Scholar and a Swedish Medical Research Council Visiting Professor at the Karolinska Insititute, Stockholm, Sweden (1994-995), and was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (2000). Dr Fowler was selected as Colgate-Palmolive Visiting Professor of In Vitro Toxicology at the University of Washington in 1998. He served as Chairman of the Scientific Committee on the Toxicology of Metals under the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) 1996-2002, as a consultant to the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) and a member of the Fulbright Scholarship review committee for Scandinavia (1999-, Chair, 2000-2001).
Plenary Speaker - Dr. Steven Kleeberger Ph.D.
Chief of the Laboratory of Respiratory Biology, Director of the Environmental Genetics research, NIEHS
Steven Kleeberger received his A.B. degree in zoology from Miami University and a Ph.D. in ecology from Kent State University in 1982. He did his postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University and became a full Professor at Hopkins in 2000. He was recruited to NIEHS as Chief of the Laboratory of Respiratory Biology in 2001. He also directs the Environmental Genetics research group at NIEHS.
The overall goal of his research has been to utilize positional cloning approaches in inbred mice to identify candidate genes that determine susceptibility to environmental lung disease. His lab has developed a number of models of genetic predisposition to inhaled agents including acid-coated particles nitrogen dioxide, ozone, as well as a murine model of genetic susceptibility to hyperoxia. The work has led to the identification of significant susceptibility quantitative trait loci (QTLs), and functional characterization of candidate genes for susceptibility to lung injury induced by environmental pollutants. His laboratory is also focused on gene-environment interaction and the pathogenesis of disease in human populations. His lab is participating in genetic analysis of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), asthma pathogenesis, and susceptibility to coal workers pneumoconiosis. His lab is also directing investigation of the role of innate immunity and antioxidant genes in determination of susceptibility to RSV infection and chronic lung disease in infants. Dr. Kleeberger has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) and US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) regarding susceptible sub-populations and airborne pollutants.
Plenary Speaker - Dr. Elaine M. Faustman, Ph.D.
Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Director of the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication. Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Toxicology Program at the University of Washington (UW), Director
Dr. Elaine M. Faustman, Ph.D., D.A.B.T is Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Director of the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication. Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Toxicology Program at the University of Washington (UW), Director, Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication, UW, Director, Center for Child Environmental Health Risks Research, UW, UW Co-Principal Investigator, Pacific Northwest Center for Human Health and Ocean Studies UW Principal Investigator, Center for the Study and Improvement of Regulation (CSIR). She has also served as the department's Associate Chair.
She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has served on the National Toxicology Program Board of Scientific Counselors, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Toxicology, and numerous editorial boards. Currently she chairs the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Developmental Toxicology. Her research interests include understanding mechanisms of developmental and reproductive toxicants, characterizing in vitro techniques for developmental toxicology assessment, and development of biologically based dose-response models for noncancer risk assessment. Her research expertise also includes development of decision-analytic tools for incorporating new scientific findings into risk assessment and risk management decisions.
Plenary Speaker - Dr. William Sanders III
Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, USEPA
In September 2002, Dr. Sanders was named Deputy Assistant Administrator in OPPTS. The office is responsible for implementation of the country's laws governing pesticides, industrial chemicals, and pollution prevention, and works in multiple international venues to ensure harmonization and coordination of our domestic activities. In this capacity Dr. Sanders also served as the Deputy Agency Environmental Executive for the Agency; as the U.S.E.P.A. senior executive representative to the Federal Green Building Council; as the U.S. National Focal Point to the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety, as the U.S. representative to the Sound Management of Chemicals (SMOC) Working Group of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, and as the Chair, Interagency Working Group on Methyl Mercury.
Since March 2004, Dr. Sanders has served as the Acting Director, Office of Children's Health Protection, responsible for formulating the Agency's objectives for developing and supporting programs and related efforts to improve understanding of children's environmental health, and the relationships between children and their environment. The office develops procedures and training to ensure the Agency meets its commitment to set standards that adequately protect against differential health effects facing children. Dr. Sanders currently serves as the Interim Director, Office of Children's Health Protection and Environmental Education, reflecting a recent reorganization in the Office of the Administrator.
Dr. Sanders holds the following degrees:
- University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health, Dr. P.H., Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, 1992.
- DePaul University, Chicago, M.S. in Management of Public Service, Quantitative Methods, 1974
- University of Illinois at Chicago, B.S. in Civil Engineering, Structural Design, 1969
Global Challenges Session
Session Co-Chair - Ann Grambsch
Acting Manager, Global Change Assessment Staff, U.S. EPA
Anne Grambsch is the Acting Manager of NCEA's Global Change Assessment Staff at the Environmental Protection Agency. She is an expert on the potential effects of climate change and climate variability on human health and was a Contributing Author to the 1997 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report, The Regional Impacts of Climate Change. She was a Lead Author for the US Global Change Research Program's (USGCRP) National Assessment Health Sector Assessment in 2001 and co-wrote a chapter in the 2003 WHO report Climate Change and Human Health: Risks and Responses. Anne has also written on adaptation strategies, and co-control benefits of climate policies. Anne received a Master of Science Degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to working on climate change issues at the Agency, she conducted research on implementing environmental accounting systems and a comprehensive benefit-cost assessment of the Clean Air Act, from 1970 to 1990.
Session Co-Chair - Dr. Chris Portier
Associate Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) for Risk Assessment and Leads the Environmental Systems Biology (ESB) Research Group within the Laboratory of Molecular Toxicology
Dr. Christopher Portier serves as Associate Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) for Risk Assessment and Leads the Environmental Systems Biology (ESB) Research Group within the Laboratory of Molecular Toxicology. As Associate Director, Dr. Portier organizes and coordinates all research activities related to risk assessment both within the NIEHS and outside of the NIEHS with grantees and institutional collaborators. As Head of ESB, Dr. Portier conducts research into quantifying and modeling the interactions of mammalian systems with environmental agents. Previously, Dr. Portier was Director of the Environmental Toxicology Program (ETP) at the NIEHS and Associate Director of the National Toxicology Program (NTP).
Dr. Portier received his Ph.D. in 1981 from the University of North Carolina in biostatistics. Dr. Portier is an internationally recognized expert in the design and analysis of toxicology data and in risk assessment methodology. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and over 50 book chapters/reports covering such diverse topics as risk assessment, statistics, cancer biology, immunology, development, genetically modified foods and genomics.
Poster Chair - Dr. Mike Slimak
Associate Director for Ecology in the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), U.S. EPA
Michael Slimak is the Associate Director for Ecology in the National Center for Environmental Assessment where he is responsible for developing and implementing research programs in ecological risk, global change and ecosystems science. Prior to his current assignment in ORD, he was the Deputy Director of the Office of Environmental Processes and Effects Research (1987 - 1995) responsible for directing a research program into the fate and effects of pollutants upon aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
As Chief of the Ecological Effects Branch in the Pesticides Office (1985-1987), he was responsible for assessing the ecological risks associated with the use of pesticides. In the Office of Toxic Substances (1983 - 1985), he managed a group responsible for evaluating the hazards associated from new and existing chemicals. He began his EPA career with the Office of Water (1976 - 1983), developing risk assessments for priority toxic water pollutants. Dr. Slimak is a recognized authority on ecological risk assessments, has authored numerous government-sponsored reports, has published in peer-reviewed journals and books, and has received numerous awards. He serves on a number on interagency committees including the Climate Change Science Program and the National Invasive Species Council. He holds a BS in Biology, an MS in Wildlife Ecology and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science.
Poster Co-Chair - David A. Bussard
Washington Division Director in the National Center for Environmental Assessment, U.S. EPA
David A. Bussard is currently the Director of the Washington Division of EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment in ORD. He is responsible for several of EPA's more complex and significant health and dose-response assessments of chemicals and the development of a number of other tools for risk assessment. Previously, Mr. Bussard served as a Division Director in EPA's Office of Solid Waste where he was involved in the development of many of the regulations governing hazardous waste in the U.S. and for agreements governing international transfer of hazardous and other wastes. He has also held project management or policy analysis positions within EPA's Office of Toxic Substances and EPA's Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation. Mr. Bussard has a Bachelor's in Biochemistry from Harvard. He has also had two years study at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Plenary Speaker - Dr. Rita R. Colwell
Senior Advisor and Honorary Chairman of Canon U.S. Life Sciences
In 2006 Dr. Rita Colwell was named Senior Advisor and Honorary Chairman of Canon U.S. Life Sciences. Dr. Colwell joined Canon U.S. Life Sciences, as Chairman of the Board, in early 2004 after serving as the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1998 to 2004. Her policy approach enabled the NSF to establish support for major initiatives, including Nanotechnology, Biocomplexity and Information Technology. Under her leadership, the NSF received significant budget increases, recently reaching a level of more than $5.6 billion. Dr. Colwell has held many advisory positions in the U.S. Government, non-profit science policy organizations, and private foundations, as well as in the international scientific research community. She is a renowned scientist and educator, and has authored 16 books and more than 600 scientific publications. She produced the award-winning film, Invisible Seas, and has served on editorial boards of numerous scientific journals.
Prior to joining the NSF, Dr. Colwell was President of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (1991-1998) and a member of the National Science Board (1984 -- 1990.) Dr. Colwell holds a B.S. in Bacteriology and an M.S. in Genetics, from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Washington. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Dr Colwell has been awarded 35 honorary degrees by national and international universities.
Plenary Speaker - Dr. Henry Falk
Director, Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Henry Falk serves as Director, Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention (CCEHIP), which is one of four Coordinating Centers at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CCEHIP includes the critical core of the Department of Health and Human Services' work in environmental health, the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR), and also includes the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC).
Falk received his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City in 1968 and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston in 1976. Falk began his career with CDC in 1972 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer stationed at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. While at NCEH, Dr. Falk led the Center's national effort to prevent and control environment-related diseases, illness, and deaths. He also served NCEH for 14 years as Director of the Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects.
Dr. Falk earned his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1968. He received a master's degree from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1976, and he is board-certified in pediatrics, public health and general preventive medicine.
Plenary Speaker - Dr. Peter Preuss, Ph.D.
Director of the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) in the Office of Research and Development (ORD), U.S. EPA
Dr. Peter Preuss is the Director of the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) in the Office of Research and Development (ORD), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This National Center is EPA's national resource center for human health and ecological risk assessment. NCEA conducts risk assessments, carries out research to improve the state-of-the-science of risk assessment, and provides guidance and support to risk assessors.
Prior to this, Dr. Preuss was the Director of the National Center for Environmental Research responsible for the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Program of extramural grants and fellowships, as well as a variety of EPA funded research centers. He has also been the Director of the Office of Science Policy and Regulatory Evaluation, an interface between the EPA research community and the EPA regulatory community. Dr. Preuss received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. His areas of expertise and interest include risk assessment and its applications, science policy and law, and the use of comparative risk assessment as a tool in setting environmental priorities, both in this country and abroad. Dr. Preuss has been instrumental in helping to develop risk capabilities in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and in the Middle East. More recently, his interests have moved to the development and enhancement of innovative approaches to risk assessment.
Plenary Speaker - Dr. Michael H. Shapiro
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water, U.S. EPA
Michael Shapiro joined the Office of Water as the Deputy Assistant Administrator in November 2002. Prior to that, he was the Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER). He has been in that position since February 1997, with a brief nine months as Acting Assistant Administrator during the transition between Administrations. Before that Mr. Shapiro was the Director of the Office of Solid Waste, where he had served since November 1993. Prior to that, Mr. Shapiro served first as Deputy Assistant Administrator and then as Acting Assistant Administrator in EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, where he directed implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. From 1980 to 1989, Mr. Shapiro held a variety of positions in the Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, where one of his responsibilities was developing EPA's Toxic Release Inventory.
Mr. Shapiro has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Harvard. He has also taught in the public policy program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Session Chair - Dr. John Vandenberg
Associate Director for Health in the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), U.S. EPA
Dr. Vandenberg is Associate Director for Health in the National Center for Environmental Assessment at the US Environmental Protection Agency. He is responsible for planning and oversight of much of EPA's health risk assessment program in the EPA Office of Research and Development. He began working at EPA in 1984, and was responsible for performing national-scale exposure and health risk assessments for numerous hazardous air pollutants. Following a year on assignment from EPA to the State of California to help develop risk assessment guidelines, he joined EPA's Office of Research and Development as Director of EPA's Research to Improve Health Risk Assessments program. He served in recent years as EPA's first National Program Director for particulate matter research and as acting director of EPA's Human Studies Division and Experimental Toxicology Division. Dr. Vandenberg has been a consultant to the World Health Organization and has represented EPA in scientific meetings in Europe, South America and Asia. He is an adjunct professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University where he teaches a graduate course in air quality management. He received his B.A from the College of Wooster, Ohio, and the MS and PhD from Duke University in biophysical ecology.
The Built Environment
Session Co-Chair - Dr. Hal Zenick, PhD
Associate Director for Health, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), U.S. EPA
Dr. Hal Zenick, Associate Director for Health, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) in EPA's Office of Research and Development, has more than 20 years of experience in research in environmental health and risk assessment. Dr. Zenick received his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology/Biology at the North Texas University in Denton, Texas in 1968 and his Post Doctoral degree in Physiological Psychology from the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri in 1972. Prior to joining NHEERL, he was a Branch Chief in EPA's Office of Health and Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development. Dr. Zenick serves as a U.S. Co-Chair of the Environmental Health Workgroup under the binational U.S.-Mexico Border 2012 Program and serves as EPA's representative to the U.S.-Mexico Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Health Working Group.
Dr. Zenick also has the lead for the Office of Research and Development for several cross-EPA/cross-Federal Agency initiatives including the impact of the environmental on the rapidly growing, aging population and the Futures of Toxicity Testing. Dr. Zenick is a member of the Advisory Board for the UNC Business Institute for Science, and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Board of Scientific Counselors. He is a past President of the Reproductive and Development Toxicology Specialty Section, Society of Toxicology, and a member of the March of Dimes Reproductive Hazards in the Workplace. He has also served on the editorial board of several prestigious journals.
Session Co-Chair - Dr. Howard Frumkin, M.D., M.P.H.
Plenary Speaker
Director of the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR)
Dr. Howard Frumkin is Director of the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NCEH/ATSDR works to maintain and improve the health of the American people by promoting a healthy environment and by preventing premature death and avoidable illness and disability caused by toxic substances and other environmental hazards. Dr. Frumkin is an internist, environmental and occupational medicine specialist, and epidemiologist. Before joining the CDC in September, 2005, he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, and Professor of Medicine at Emory Medical School, in Atlanta. At Emory he founded and directed the Environmental and Occupational Medicine Consultation Clinic, the Occupational Medicine Residency training program, and the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit.
Dr. Frumkin received his A.B. from Brown University, his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.P.H. and Dr.P.H. from Harvard, his Internal Medicine training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Cambridge Hospital, and his Occupational Medicine training at Harvard.
Poster Co-Chair - Dr. Laura Jackson
Research Biologist, U.S. EPA's Office of Research and Development
Laura Jackson is a Research Biologist with the U.S. EPA's Office of Research and Development, in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. She has conducted studies on ecological indicator development, environmental monitoring and assessment, and landscape change analysis. Her current work involves the landscape ecology of urbanizing areas and the integration of human and ecological health.
Dr. Jackson received her undergraduate degree from Bryn Mawr College, a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and a Ph.D. in Ecology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Poster Co-Chair - Dr. Drue Barrett
Acting Associate Director for Science in the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
Acting Associate Director for Science in the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Dr. Drue Barrett currently serves as the Acting Associate Director for Science for the National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR). In this position she provides leadership and ensures excellence for the scientific activities of NCEH and ATSDR programs. She oversees the NCEH/ATSDR Office of Science staff members who are responsible for a variety of science functions such as protection of human research participants, clearance of scientific documents, peer review of research and program activities, and scientific training. Prior to coming to the Office of Science, Dr. Barrett served for 6 years as the Chief of the Veterans' Health Activity in NCEH. In this position, Dr. Barrett served as CDC's liaison to the Department of Health and Human Services on Gulf War veterans' health issues and provided oversight for veterans-related studies funded through NCEH. Dr. Barrett received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1990 from Georgia State University. She also completed two years postdoctoral training in epidemiology and public health through CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service program in the Cardiovascular Health Studies Branch of the Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (Class of 1992).
Plenary Speaker - Tim Torma
Smart Growth Program, U.S. EPA
Tim Torma has worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Smart Growth Program since 1999. The program conducts innovative research, creates communication products and analyzes policies as part of EPA's efforts to help communities reap the benefits of growth with minimal impacts on public health, air, water, and land resources. Mr. Torma's recent work has included projects related to the environmental and other benefits of density, environmental and health effects of school citing, research and writing on school citing and planning guidelines. Mr. Torma has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars on topics related to the built environment and development patterns. He has been a contributing writer, editor or reviewer on a wide range of growth-related publications, most recently Getting to Smart Growth II, and Creating Great Neighborhoods: Density in Your Community. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, The Journal of the American Planning Association and the Planning Commissioner's Journal.
Prior to working at EPA, Mr. Torma was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon, West Africa and a Legislative Intern in the U.S. House of Representatives. He received a B.A. degree in Government from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.
Plenary Speaker - G. Martin Moeller, Jr.
Senior Vice President for Special Projects, The National Building Museum
Martin Moeller is currently senior vice president for special projects at the National Building Museum. He previously served as the Museum's executive vice president, acting as chief operating officer, with day-to-day responsibility for exhibitions, educational programming, development, and Museum operations. Before joining the National Building Museum in 1998, Moeller served as executive director of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, whose members include the faculty of all colleges and universities with accredited architecture programs in the United States and Canada. Previously, he was executive director of the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and simultaneously served as executive vice president of the chapter's affiliated foundation, the Washington Architectural Forum.
Moeller received a professional degree in architecture from Tulane University in 1984. He also studied for one year at the University of Manchester in England through Tulane's honors foreign-study program.