Biographic Information of Committee Members
David C. Dorman (chair) is a professor of toxicology in the Department of Molecular Biosciences of North Carolina State University. The primary objective of his research is to provide a refined understanding of chemically induced neurotoxicity in laboratory animals that will lead to improved assessment of potential neurotoxicity in humans. Dr. Dorman’s research interests include neurotoxicology, nasal toxicology, pharmacokinetics, and cognition and olfactory in military working dogs. He served as a member of the National Research Council Committee on Animal Models for Testing Interventions Against Aerosolized Bioterrorism Agents, as member and chair of two Committees on Emergency and Continuous Exposure Guidance Levels for Selected Submarine Contaminants and the Committee to evaluate Potential Health Risks from Recurrent Lead Exposure to DOD Firing Range Personnel, and as a member of the Committee to Review EPA’s Draft IRIS Assessment of Formaldehyde. He received his D.V.M. from Colorado State University. He completed a combined Ph.D. and residency program in toxicology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology and the American Board of Toxicology.
Peter Beak has made fundamental contributions to organic chemistry that have provided unifying concepts and opened new areas of investigation. His work has clarified the effect of molecular environment on structure-stability relationships, provided new reactions that are widely used for chemical synthesis, and identified novel reactive intermediates. His current research involves the determination of reaction trajectories in atom-transfer reactions and investigations of asymmetric reactions. He has held editorships, lectureships, and leadership positions in professional organizations. He has received a number of awards, lectured around the world, and served as research advisor for more than 100 graduate and postdoctoral students who are making significant independent contributions to their fields. Dr. Beak is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1957 and his Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 1961 and then joined the faculty at Illinois. Dr. Beak’s research interests are in synthetic, structural, and mechanistic organic chemistry, new reaction processes, synthetic methodology, and reactive intermediates.
Eric J. Beckman is the George M. Bevier Professor of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. He is also a co-director of the Mascaro Sustainability Initiative, a center of engineering that focuses on the design of sustainable communities. Dr. Beckman’s two main research areas are the use of carbon dioxide as either a solvent or raw material and polymer chemistry and processing. Recent work has focused on emulsion and dispersion polymerization on CO2, copolymerization of CO2 and cyclic ethers to form polycarbonates, generation of hydrogen peroxide in CO2, and the extraction of heavy metals using CO2 technology among other related studies. Dr. Beckman received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980. After a period of employment with both Monsanto Plastics and Resins and the Union Carbide Corporation, Dr. Beckman went on to earn a Ph.D. in polymer chemistry and processing from the University of Massachusetts in 1988. As a postdoctoral student, Dr. Beckman held a research
appointment at Battelle’s Pacific Northwest Laboratory.
Jerome J. Cura is an ecological risk assessor and senior scientist for Woods Hole Group, Inc. in Falmouth, Massachusetts. He is an adjunct professor at Cape Cod Community College, where he teaches Fundamentals of Oceanography. He is an expert in the area of ecological risk analysis. He has conducted ecological risk analyses in various freshwater systems, marine and estuarine habitats, and terrestrial environments. He has developed guidance for conducting risk assessments at dredging sites for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, and he chaired the International Navigation Association’s (PIANC) workgroup that developed international guidance. Dr. Cura’s experience includes conducting assessments at CERCLA and RCRA sites (industrial and government facilities), providing technical advice on the design and execution of human health and ecological risk assessments, and providing expert testimony for law firms. Industry and government organizations frequently invite him to lead or participate in environmental conferences or symposia. Dr. Cura is a member of the Science Collaborative, a network of senior level environmental scientists. He was a founding partner of Cura Environmental and Menzie-Cura & Associates, Inc. Dr. Cura has published more than 30 peer-reviewed book chapters, technical papers, journal articles, and conference proceedings in the areas of risk assessment, environmental decision making, marine ecology, and dredged material disposal evaluation methods. Dr. Cura received his B.A. in biology from the College of the Holy Cross in 1971, his M.S. in biology from Northeastern University in 1974, and his Ph.D. in biological oceanography from the University of Maine in 1981.
Anne Fairbrother has more than 30 years of experience in ecotoxicology, wildlife toxicology, contaminated site assessment, and regulatory science. She has conducted small- and large-area (>100 sq. mile) risk assessments at contaminated sites in tropical, desert, and mountain ecosystems, determining risk thresholds for plants and wildlife. She provided consultation on future development of mine pit lakes, assessed the risk to livestock from use of wastewater on irrigated pasture during mine closure operations, and conducted several assessments of risk to terrestrial and aquatic organisms from mercury. She also assessed risks to wildlife at sites contaminated with organic chemicals, including DDT, PCBs, dioxins, and petroleum hydrocarbons in Delaware, Texas, Oregon, Washington, and California. Dr. Fairbrother has supported industry groups and government agencies in compiling and reviewing literature and industry reports in support of U.S., Canadian, and European regulatory processes for pesticide and chemical risk management. She has testified in front of boards of review and science advisory boards, and prepared expert testimony on environmental risks of pollutants for legal cases within the U.S. Dr. Fairbrother has published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, reflecting her expertise in wildlife toxicology, immunotoxicology, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and ecological risk assessment. She serves on numerous scientific boards, expert panels, and editorial boards in support of scientific and regulatory issues. A veterinarian and certified wildlife biologist, Dr. Fairbrother served as president of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians, and Wildlife Disease Association (WDA). She is the recipient of the WDA Distinguished Service Award (2002), and a gold medal for commendable service from EPA. Dr. Fairbrother holds an adjunct professorship at Oregon State University, Department of Environmental, and Molecular Toxicology. She earned her D.V.M. from University of California-Davis and her Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin.
Nigel Greene is an associate research fellow with Pfizer Global Research Company, specializing in compound safety prediction. His specific duties include establishing and managing a group of Ph.D. level scientists using computational modeling and analysis to help predict the safety profile of early discovery programs and aid in chemical series and compound selection prior to first in vivo studies by using chemical properties and in vitro assay profiles. Dr. Greene’s other activities include mining internal and public databases of gene expression data to explore biological mechanisms of toxicity and helping in the development of new in vitro assays for safety profiling by conducting in vitro experiments to try to confirm the computational hypotheses derived from these transcriptional databases. Dr. Greene holds a Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry from the University of Leeds (1994) and a B.S. in chemistry and computational science from the University of Leeds (1991).
Carol J. Henry is a professorial lecturer at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, and an advisor and consultant to public and private organizations. Her focus is on issues surrounding toxicology, public and environmental health, risk assessment and risk management, research management strategies, green chemistry, engineering technology, and sustainable practices. She was previously vice president of industry performance programs at the American Chemistry Council; director of the Health and Environmental Sciences Department at the American Petroleum Institute; associate deputy assistant secretary for science and risk policy at the U.S. Department of Energy; and director of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) at the California Environmental Protection Agency. She is a diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology, certified in general toxicology. She was chair of the Federal Advisory Committee for the National Children’s Study from 2010-2012. She is a member of the Joint Committee on the ANSI NSF Green Chemistry Institute Greener Chemical Products and Processes Standard Initiative, the Environmental Health Perspectives Editorial Board, and the National Research Council’s Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology. She is an elected councilor for the American Chemical Society (ACS) and serves on the ACS Committee for Environmental Improvement. Dr. Henry received her undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota and doctorate in microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Helen Holder is a master engineer at Hewlett-Packard (HP), where she leads the Global Environmental Materials (GEM) team. In her current role, she evaluates and qualifies materials for use in HP products, including plastics and additives, solders, fluxes, printed circuit board surface finishes, and other electronic materials. In this role, she has introduced environmental and human health criteria into technical specifications to complement traditional performance, cost, safety, and reliability requirements in materials selection. Ms. Holder started her career at HP in 1993, and has worked in a variety of manufacturing, materials, and procurement roles within the company. She received her B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her master’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was an HP resident fellow.
James E. Hutchison joined the faculty at the University of Oregon (UO) in the fall of 1994. He now holds the Lokey-Harrington Chair in Chemistry. His research interests are in green chemistry, materials chemistry, and nanoscience. He led the development of the UO’s nation-leading curriculum in “green” (environmentally benign) organic chemistry, launched the university’s pioneering center in greener nanoscience, and is a member of the Governing Board of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute. He is a member of the leadership team for the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) and founded, and now directs, the ONAMI’s Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative (SNNI). He is the author of more than 100 refereed publications, three book chapters, and a textbook (“Green Organic Chemistry: Strategies, Tools, and Laboratory Experiments”). Dr. Hutchison received a B.S. from the University of Oregon in 1986, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford University in 1991, and completed postdoctoral studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1992 to 1994.
Greg Paoli serves as principal risk scientist and chief operating officer at Risk Sciences International, a consulting firm specializing in risk assessment, management, and communication in the field of public health, safety, and risk-based decision support. Mr. Paoli has experience in diverse risk domains, including toxicological, microbiological, and nutritional hazards, air and water quality, adaptation to climate change, safety of engineering devices, as well as emergency planning and response for natural and man-made disasters. He specializes in risk assessment methods, the development of risk-based decision-support tools, and comparative risk assessment. Mr. Paoli has served on a number of expert committees devoted to the risk sciences. He was a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Improving Risk Analysis Approaches used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which produced the 2009 report, Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment. He serves on an NRC Standing Committee on the use of public health data at the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service, and has served on several expert committees convened by the World Health Organization. He serves on the Standards Council of Canada Technical
Committee on Risk Management and served on advisory committees of the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy. Mr. Paoli completed a term as councilor of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) and is a member of the Editorial Board of Risk Analysis. Recently, Mr. Paoli was awarded the Sigma Xi - SRA Distinguished Lecturer award. Greg holds a B.A.Sc. in electrical and computer engineering and a M.A.Sc. in systems design engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Julia B. Quint is retired from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), where she was a research scientist and chief of the Hazard Evaluation System and Information Service (HESIS), an occupational health program. She has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Southern California. Throughout her career as a public health scientist, Dr. Quint has initiated, developed, and contributed to projects, programs, and policies focused on protecting workers, communities, and the environment from toxic chemicals and promoting the development and use of safer alternatives to toxic chemicals. She has served on a number of scientific advisory committees, including committees of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on tetrachloroethylene, health impact assessment, and review of the Department of Labor’s Site Exposure Matrix Database, the Cal/OSHA Health Expert Advisory Committee, and the Cal/EPA’s Green Ribbon Science Panel. She currently serves on the Scientific Guidance Panel of the California Biomonitoring Program, the CDC/NIOSH World Trade Center Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee, the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health, the Environment’s From Advancing Science to Ensuring Protection Advisory Group, the National Healthy Nail Salon Alliance Research Advisory Committee, and the CDPH Environmental Health Tracking Advisory Group. Dr. Quint has authored many peer-reviewed scientific articles and reports, and is the recipient of several awards for her work in public health.
Ivan Rusyn is a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering in the Gillings School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He directs the Laboratory of Environmental Genomics and the Carolina Center for Computational Toxicology. He also is a member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility, Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, and the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences. Dr. Rusyn served on several working groups convened by the National Research Council and the WHO/IARC. Dr. Rusyn’s laboratory has an active research portfolio funded by the National Institutes of Health and the EPA, with a focus on the mechanisms of action of environmental toxicants and the genetic determinants of the susceptibility to toxicant-induced injury. The Rusyn laboratory applies molecular, biochemical, genetic, and genomic approaches to understanding the mechanisms of environmental agent-related disease. His studies on health effects of environmental agents resulted in more than 135 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Rusyn received his M.D. (with honors) from Ukrainian State Medical University in Kiev and his Ph.D. in toxicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also trained at the University of Dusseldorf in Germany and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kathleen Shelton is director of Crop Protection Research and Development. She is responsible for the leadership of the business discovery and development efforts, globally, and for ensuring that the business has a full and valuable pipeline of new products. In June 2013, she was selected by the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) Board of Directors as a member of the Emerging Issues Committee. Dr. Shelton is also director of Central Research and Development, Enabling Technologies, and is responsible for leading the organizations that provide analytical, computational, and pilot scale services across DuPont. Dr. Shelton has worked at DuPont in various capacities since 1993. Recently, she was detailed to Geneva, Switzerland, where she led European advocacy efforts related to REACH (registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemical substances) implementation and chemicals management, including participation in the Product Stewardship Programme Council of the European Chemical Industry Association (CEFIC) and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM, part of the United Nations Environmental Programs). Dr. Shelton has a B.S. in biology from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Hahnemann University (now part of Drexel University).
Joel A. Tickner is an associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Sustainability of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and a program director in The Lowell Center for Sustainable Production. He is interested in the development of innovative scientific methods and policies to implement a precautionary and preventive approach to decision making under uncertainty while advancing assessment and adoption of safer substitutes to chemicals and products of concern. His teaching and research interests include regulatory science and policy, risk assessment, pollution prevention, cleaner production, and environmental health. Dr. Tickner has served on several advisory boards and as an expert reviewer, most recently for the California Green Chemistry Initiative, the EPA’s National Pollution Prevention and Toxics Advisory Committee, the NAS Panel on the Science for EPA’s Future, and the First National Precautionary Principle Conference Advisory Committee. He is the recipient of several honors and awards, including the University of Massachusetts President’s Award for Public Service, the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable Champion Award, and the North American Hazardous Waste Managers Policy Leader Award. Dr. Tickner earned an Sc.D. in cleaner production and pollution prevention from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Adelina Voutchkova is an assistant professor of chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at George Washington University. Dr. Voutchkova has substantial experience in the areas of molecular design, toxicology, and green chemistry. Her work aims at developing rational guidelines for the design of industrial chemicals that are acutely and chronically safe for a variety of aquatic families of species, including fish, crustaceans, and algae. Specific projects include the development of product design guidelines for chronic mammalian toxicity and the utilization of spectroscopic data to inform safer molecular design, with specific interests in minimizing skin sensitization from personal care products. Dr. Voutchkova earned her B.A. from Middlebury College and Ph.D. from Yale University in 2008.
Martin Wolf is director, Product Sustainability & Authenticity, for Seventh Generation Inc. In this capacity, Mr. Wolf is responsible for ensuring the sustainable design of products at Seventh Generation Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of ecological household and personal care products. He has more than 40 years of experience in industrial and environmental chemistry, initially performing environmental fate and metabolism studies for agricultural chemicals and later studying the occurrence of hazardous chemicals in the environment, conducting life cycle studies of industrial processes, and designing more sustainable household cleaning products. In addition to his work for Seventh Generation, he serves as chair of the Sustainability Committee, and has served as chair of the Strategic Advisory Committee (2009-2011), vice chair of the Sustainability Committee (2010-2012), and vice chair of the Asthma Task Group and the American Cleaning Institute (formerly the Soap & Detergent Association). Mr. Wolf received a 2010 EPA Environmental Merit Award for his work. He holds a master’s degree in chemistry from Yeshiva University and a bachelor’s in chemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
