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Human Studies Review Board

Human Studies Review Board

Ethics Training for Members and Consultants Serving on the HSRB

The Human Studies Review Board (HSRB) is a Federal advisory committee operating under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) that provides advice, information, and recommendations on issues related to scientific and ethical aspects of human subjects research. The HSRB reports to the EPA Administrator through EPA's Science Advisor.

Short List of Candidates for the EPA Human Studies Review Board

The EPA, Office of the Science Advisor (OSA) is considering several qualified individuals in the areas of bioethics and human health risk assessment to serve on the EPA Human Studies Review Board (HSRB).

The OSA has reviewed and identified 5 possible candidates to serve on the HSRB. Brief biographical sketches ("biosketches") on these candidates are provided below. OSA invites comments or other documentation from members of the public that the OSA should consider in the selection of HSRB members. Any information furnished by the public in response to this Web site posting will be combined with information already provided by the candidates and gathered independently by the OSA. In making the final selection of HSRB members, the combined information will be reviewed and evaluated for any possible financial conflict of interest or a possible appearance of a lack of impartiality. The information will also be used to ensure appropriate balance and breadth of expertise needed to address the charge to the Board. Candidates not selected for membership might be considered in the future as vacancies become available, used as a consultant to the HSRB, or used as a member or consultant to an HSRB subcommittee. Please e-mail your comments no later than noon, Eastern Time, Wednesday, May 16, 2012 to Jim Downing, OSA (downing.jim@epa.gov).

HSRB Nominees:

Elizabeth Heitman, Ph.D.

Dr. Heitman is Associate Professor Medical Ethics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, with appointments in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Anesthesiology.  She also holds an appointment in the Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Science.  She received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Rice University.

Dr. Heitman’s research addresses the evaluation of education in research ethics and the responsible conduct of research, as well as the cultural awareness and professional socialization of students and researchers.  Dr. Heitman is Director of a four-year, research ethics education program for Costa Rican biomedical researchers and research ethics review committees sponsored by the NIH’s Fogarty International Center.  The program is conducted in conjunction with the Hospital Nacional de Ninos in San Jose, Costa Rica. She is also principal investigator of a National Science Foundation-sponsored study of the experience of international science graduate students in US standards of practice in ethical research. She is a member of the Education Core of the Vanderbilt Institute of Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) and provides research ethics consultation as a member of VICTR’s Biostatistics/Ethics Core. Her research collaborations include the Policy, Ethics, and Law Core of the South East Regional Center for Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infections and the NCRR-sponsored URICA study of institutional climate for ethical research. She is also a consultant to the NHLBI-sponsored Jackson Heart Study Undergraduate Training Program at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi.

At Vanderbilt, Dr. Heitman is Co-Chair of the Ethics Committee and a member of the Critical Care Committee and the Organ Donation Advisory Committee. Dr. Heitman teaches ethics, responsible conduct of research, and community health in the School of Medicine, as well as advising students in the Medical Humanities, Community Health, and Global Health areas of the Emphasis Program. As a member of the Center for Medicine, Health and Society and the Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Science, she teaches ethics in public health, responsible conduct of research, and advises undergraduates on a variety of independent study projects.

John Kissel, Ph.D.

Dr. Kissel is currently Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.  He holds a Ph.D. in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Stanford University and is a registered professional engineer.  Dr. Kissel's research interests generally involve human exposure assessment, with emphasis on exposures related to waste management practices, agricultural and residential use of pesticides, and consumer products.  He has particular interests in probabilistic prediction of exposure and reconciliation of model predictions with observed biomarker data.  Dr. Kissel and his students have produced multiple papers describing human exposure to soil that are listed as “key studies” in the U.S. EPA’s Exposure Factors Handbook.  Dr. Kissel is a former President and Councilor of the International Society of Exposure Science and also served one term as Chair of the Exposure Assessment Specialty Group within the Society for Risk Analysis.  He was a member of a National Academy of Sciences Committee that evaluated Superfund-related remediation of mining and smelting-related contamination in the Coeur d’Alene Basin in Idaho and has served as an ad hoc member of the EPA's FIFRA Science Advisory Panel on multiple occasions.  His recent research activities have been funded by the U.S. EPA, NIOSH, and the Washington State Departments of Ecology and Health.

Nu-May Ruby Reed, Ph.D.

Nu-May Ruby Reed recently retired as a staff toxicologist with the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) Department of Pesticide Regulation, where she was the lead scientist on risk assessment issues. Her research interests were evaluating health risks and developing risk assessment guidelines for pesticides. She has been on several Cal/EPA working groups that initiate, research, and revise risk assessment guidelines and policies, and she represented her department in task forces on community concerns and emergency response, risk management guidance, and public education. Dr. Reed was a member of several past National Research Council Committees, including the Committee on Risk Analysis and Reviews, and is a current member of the Committee on Acute Exposure Guideline Levels. Dr. Reed earned a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from the University of California at Davis.

David Resnik, J.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Resnik is a Bioethicist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from Concord University School of Law. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Davidson College. Dr. Resnik was Assistant and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wyoming (UW) from 1990-1998, and Director of the Center for the Advancement of Ethics at UW from 1995-1998. He was Associate and Full Professor of Medical Humanities at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University (ECU) from 1998-2004, and Associate Director of the Bioethics Center at ECU and University Health Systems from 1998-2004. Dr. Resnik has published over 150 articles on various topics in philosophy and bioethics and is the author of seven books. He serves on several editorial boards and is an Associate Editor of the journal Accountability in Research. Dr. Resnik is also Chair of the NIEHS Institutional Review Board.

Jason Richardson, M.S., Ph.D.

Jason Richardson, M.S., Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Resident Member of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI). He received his M.S. in Veterinary Medical Science/Toxicology and his Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from Mississippi State University where he conducted research on mixtures of organophosphate pesticides and the developmental neurotoxicity of organophosphates during critical periods of development. He then completed postdoctoral training in Molecular Neuroscience and Neurotoxicology at Emory University where he focused on the role of pesticide exposure in Parkinson’s disease. His research at EOHSI focuses on the role of environmental exposures during development and how such exposures interact with genetic susceptibility to produce neurological disease. Dr. Richardson has authored or co-authored 30 publications in the areas of developmental neurotoxicology, neurodegenerative disease, and pesticides. He has received the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and a Young Scientist Award from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Dr. Richardson is currently a member of the editorial boards of Toxicological Sciences and Neurotoxicology and is an Associate Editor for BMC Neurology. He has served as a grant reviewer for several NIH panels, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease Research, Autism Speaks, and the United Kingdom Parkinson’s Disease Society.

Future Meetings

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