Appendix C

Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members and Workshop Speakers

Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., DABT, ATS, is the former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Toxicology Program (NTP). After retirement, she was granted scientist emeritus status and still maintains a laboratory. As a board-certified toxicologist, Dr. Birnbaum served as a federal scientist for 40 years. Prior to her appointment as NIEHS and NTP director in 2009, she spent 19 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she directed the largest division focusing on environmental health research. Dr. Birnbaum has received many awards and recognitions. In 2016, she was awarded the North Carolina Award in Science. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health. She was also elected to the Collegium Ramazzini, an independent, international academy comprised of internationally renowned experts in the fields of occupational and environmental health and received an honorary doctor of science from the University of Rochester and a Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Illinois. She has also received honorary doctorates from the University of Rhode Island; BenGurion University, Israel; and Amity University, India; the Surgeon General’s Medallion 2014; and 14 Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards, which reflect the recommendations of EPA’s external Science Advisory Board, for specific publications. She has also received numerous awards from professional societies and citizens’ groups. Dr. Birnbaum is an active member of the scientific community. She was vice president of the International Union of Toxicology, the umbrella organization for toxicology societies in more than 50

countries, and former president of the Society of Toxicology, the largest professional organization of toxicologists in the world. She is the author of more than 1,000 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, abstracts, and reports. Dr. Birnbaum’s own research focuses on the pharmacokinetic behavior of environmental chemicals, mechanisms of action of toxicants including endocrine disruption, and linking of real-world exposures to health effects. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, the School of Public Health of Yale University, the Gillings School of Global Public Health, the Curriculum in Toxicology, and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as in the Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health Program at Duke University where she is also a Scholar in Residence. A native of New Jersey, Dr. Birnbaum received her M.S. and Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Michael J. Blackwell, D.V.M., M.P.H., FNAP, currently serves as the director of the Program for Pet Health Equity at the University of Tennessee. His mission is to improve access to veterinary care, especially for families with limited means. Previous to this position, Dr. Blackwell served as: dean, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee; chief of staff, Office of the Surgeon General of the United States; deputy director, Center for Veterinary Medicine, Food and Drug Administration; and chief veterinary officer, U.S. Public Health Service. During 23 years on active duty with the U.S. Public Health Service, he achieved the rank of assistant surgeon general/rear admiral. Dr. Blackwell has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Distinguished Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, and two Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Medals. He is the 2020 recipient of the Avanzino Leadership Award and the 2021 Senator John Melcher, DVM Leadership in Public Policy awardee.

Adam Boyko, Ph.D., M.S., is an associate professor in biomedical sciences at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, conducting research on canine genetics. He is also cofounder and chief science officer of Embark Veterinary, a dog DNA testing company founded in 2015 and incubated at the Cornell McGovern Center, and a trustee for the Morris Animal Foundation. His research focuses on complex trait mapping, bioinformatics, statistical genetics, inference of evolutionary forces and demographic history from genomic data, and understanding the evolutionary process of domestication and rapid adaptation. Prior to joining the faculty at Cornell, Dr. Boyko received undergraduate degrees in computer science and evolutionary ecology from the University of Illinois as well as a master’s in computer science and a doctorate in biology at Purdue. He also worked as a postdoc and research

associate at Cornell and Stanford, studying computational biology and population genomics.

Matthew Breen, Ph.D., C. Biol, FRSB, is a professor of genomics and the Oscar J. Fletcher Distinguished Professor of Comparative Oncology Genetics in the Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences at the North Carolina State University (NCSU) College of Veterinary Medicine. He is also a member of the NCSU Comparative Medicine Institute (CMI), the Center for Human Health and the Environment, and the Genetics and Genomics Initiative, as well as the Duke Cancer Institute, and the Cancer Genetics Program at the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Breen is a member of the NCSU Research Leadership Academy. Dr. Breen’s research focuses on genetics, genomics, and the comparative aspects of animal and human health. The lab uses a range of genetic and genomic technologies for evaluating changes to genome structure that occur in canine cancers. With these data the lab aims to improve outcomes for canine cancer patients and also advance our understanding of the comparable cancers in people. In addition, the lab is assessing the impact of environmental exposures on animal health, as a sentinel for human health. He was a charter member, and serves on the board of directors, of the Canine Comparative Oncology and Genomics Consortium (CCOGC), a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization established to promote the role of the dog in comparative biomedical research, and also serves on the board of directors of the Canines-N-Kids Foundation, a 501(c)(3) committed to finding a cure to the devastating cancers that canines and children face and have in common. He is member of the steering committee of the National Cancer Institute’s Integrated Canine Data Commons and serves on the Data Governance Advisory Board of that initiative. Dr. Breen was appointed to the National Academies expert committee tasked with planning a public workshop to examine the role of companion animals as sentinels of shared environmental exposures that may impact human aging and cancer. Dr. Breen has served on scientific review committees for organizations including the National Institutes of Health, the AKC Canine Health Foundation, and the Morris Animal Foundation. He is a regular reviewer for numerous scientific funding agencies and journals and serves on the editorial board of several journals.

Danielle Carlin, Ph.D., DABT, is a program administrator with the Superfund Research Program (SRP). Her position consists of providing guidance and advice to grantees applying for SRP P42 Center grants, and serving as the lead liaison between SRP trainees and the various training opportunities offered by SRP. She also oversees the xenobiotic metabolism and asbestos grant portfolios (e.g., R01s). Her current research interests include chemical mixtures, combined exposures, metals, asbestos, and xenobiotic metabolism.

Prior to her current position, she was a postdoctoral researcher for 4 years at the University of North Carolina: 2 years within the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics, studying aerosolized drugs/vaccines for treatment and prevention of tuberculosis and 2 years within the Curriculum in Toxicology, conducting her research at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in Research Triangle Park, NC, where she studied the toxicological effects of exposure to Libby amphibole asbestos in the rat model. Her areas of expertise include cardiopulmonary/reproductive physiology and inhalation toxicology/pharmacology. She received her Ph.D. in 2005 from Kansas State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Anatomy and Physiology. She also has a B.S. and an M.S. in animal science from New Mexico State University.

Marta Castelhano, D.V.M., MVSc, received her doctor of veterinary medicine and master of veterinary science degrees from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Serving as an associate research professor at Cornell University, the director of the Cornell Veterinary Biobank (CVB), and at the Dog Aging Project Biobank, she has over 15 years of experience in the standardized collection, processing, storage, and distribution of high-quality biospecimens and associated data. Dr. Castelhano is a member of the Education and Training Committee at the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER), where she creates educational opportunities for biobankers worldwide, and has contributed to the writing of the fourth edition of the ISBER Best Practices: Recommendations for Repositories. A frequent speaker at biobank conferences and symposiums, Dr. Castelhano was invited by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) to represent the U.S. position in biobanking as an ISO expert and delegate. With her contribution, ISO 20387: General Requirements for Biobanking was the first ISO standard created specifically for biobanks. In April 2019, Dr. Castelhano led the CVB through third-party conformity assessment by the American Association of Laboratory Accreditation to become the first biobank in the world to receive accreditation to the ISO 20387 standard. She also serves in the ISBER COVID-19 task force, assessing the needs of biobankers worldwide during the pandemic, to inform the next generation of standard documents and to create targeted improvement opportunities, particularly for biobanks with limited resources.

Yuxia Cui, Ph.D., is a health scientist administrator at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Dr. Cui oversees the exposure science and the exposome grant portfolio that is focused on emerging technologies toward improved exposure and risk assessment in environmental health research. These include sensor technologies, ’-omics-based approaches,

computational and informatics-based methodologies, as well as other innovative approaches to enable an integrated view and better understanding of the exposome. Dr. Cui currently serves as the program officer for the laboratory network of the Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource. She is also a member of the National Institutes of Health Common Fund Metabolomics Program leadership team and oversees the day-to-day operations of the program. Dr. Cui received training in molecular toxicology and transcriptomics and received her doctorate in environmental toxicology from Duke University.

Myrtle A. Davis, D.V.M., Ph.D., is the vice president of discovery toxicology at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). Myrtle joined BMS from the National Cancer Institute, where she was the chief of the Toxicology and Pharmacology Branch of the Developmental Therapeutics Program. Dr. Davis has previous experience as a research advisor in the Drug Safety group of Lilly Research Laboratories. In both roles, she contributed critical expertise to the advancement of several drugs candidates and to the understanding of toxicological mechanisms. She also has several years of academic experience as an associate professor in the Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland. Dr. Davis is currently responsible for leading the scientific efforts in discovery toxicology to provide target and molecular hazard identification and risk assessments for issues identified in discovery research. She also leads and oversees the investigative toxicology efforts needed to support mechanistic understanding of compound- or target-mediated toxicities in discovery and development. Dr. Davis is a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences, an active member of the Society of Toxicology (recently elected as vice president–elect for the Society), and a member of the Society of Toxicologic Pathology. She is currently serving on the Board of Scientific Councilors of the National Toxicology Program, and she is a reviewer for the Assay Development and Screening Technologies Laboratory of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. She is an associate editor for Toxicological Sciences and Toxicologic Pathology, and she is editor-in-chief of the ILAR Journal (Institute for Laboratory Animal Research of the National Academy of Sciences). Dr. Davis attended Tuskegee University where she pursued a BS degree in chemistry and mathematics followed by a doctorate of veterinary medicine. She then received her Ph.D. in toxicology from the University of Illinois and obtained postdoctoral training in toxicologic pathology at the University of Maryland before starting her academic career.

James DeGregori, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics (faculty since 1997) and deputy director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center. He has degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (B.A., microbiology) and the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (Ph.D., biology), and received postdoctoral training at Duke University. He holds the Courtenay and Lucy Patten Davis Endowed Chair in Lung Cancer Research. His lab studies the evolution of cancer, in the context of their adaptive oncogenesis model, with a focus on how aging, smoking, Down syndrome, and other insults influence cancer initiation and responses to therapy. In this model, mutations face fitness landscapes that vary with age or genetics, or following carcinogen exposure. These fitness landscapes are highly dependent on the state of the tissue microenvironment in which stem cells reside. The lab has developed this cancer model based on classic evolutionary principles, and has substantiated this model by theoretical, experimental, and computational studies. Additional studies in the lab seek to identify metabolic and signaling vulnerabilities in cancer, with a focus on acute myeloid leukemias, which can be exploited for the development of more effective therapies. For all of these studies, the lab leverages a variety of tools, including computational biology, genomics, metabolomics, cell biology, and biochemistry, leveraging both mouse models and human samples.

Nicole Deziel, Ph.D., M.H.S., is an associate professor in environmental health sciences at the Yale School of Public Health and a member of the Yale Cancer Center and the Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology. Over the past 15 years, her research has involved applying existing and advanced statistical models, biomonitoring techniques, and environmental measurements to provide comprehensive and quantitative assessments of exposure to combinations of traditional and emerging environmental contaminants. Dr. Deziel’s work involves the use of large administrative datasets in conjunction with detailed field-based studies. Her exposure assessment strategies aim to reduce exposure misclassification for epidemiologic studies, advancing understanding of relationships between exposure to environmental chemicals and risk of adverse health outcomes, particularly among women and children. She served as principal investigator of a study funded by the American Cancer Society evaluating co-exposures to multiple flame retardants, pesticides, and other persistent pollutants and thyroid cancer risk in adult women, and is now leading a project studying environmental exposures and pediatric thyroid cancers. She is also leading an interdisciplinary team of investigators on a project titled “Drinking water vulnerability and neonatal health outcomes in relation to oil and gas production in the Appalachian Basin,” which is evaluating whether exposure to water contaminants from the process of hydraulic fracturing is associated with adverse human developmental and teratogenic effects. Dr. Deziel serves as associate editor for the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology and is on the editorial board of Environment International. She is also a member of the National Academies of Sciences Standing Committee the Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions.

Mark Dunn, M.B.A., is the executive vice president of the American Kennel Club (AKC) and is the managing director of AKC Reunite. Founded in 1884, the AKC is the oldest all-breed dog registry in the United States and the largest in the world. Mr. Dunn leads the AKC’s efforts to meet the needs of breeders and dog owners. He also works with pet-industry leaders and international registry organizations to do good things for dogs and the people who love them, around the world. As part of those responsibilities, Mr. Dunn oversees AKC’s DNA Program. The AKC has for more than 20 years harnessed the power of genotyping technology to ensure the integrity of its registry and to assist breeders with the accuracy of their breeding records. Mr. Dunn joined the AKC in 2009 as director of internal consulting. Previously he was director of engineering and quality at Qualex, a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak, and has over 20 years’ experience leading operations, engineering, and business development teams.

Janice A. Dye, D.V.M., Ph.D., M.S., is a scientist within the EPA’s Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment. She is a board-certified veterinary internist whose clinical interests include comparative respiratory diseases, lung function testing, and airway cell biology as well as general internal medicine and infectious disease. Using animal model, animal sentinel, and in vitro cellular approaches, the purpose of her toxicological research is to increase understanding of mechanisms by which exposure to air pollutants, environmental agents, and nonenvironmental factors may contribute to increased susceptibility to developing adverse respiratory, cardiometabolic, or endocrine health outcomes.

Gary L. Ellison, Ph.D., M.P.H., is on detail to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), where he has served as acting director of the Division of Extramural Research and Training since January 2021. His position of record is chief of the Environmental Epidemiology Branch (EEB) in the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, at the National Cancer Institute. There, he oversees a program of extramural research focused on modifiable factors and risk of cancer. Dr. Ellison leads a group of program officers within EEB with expertise that spans all domains of the exposome, including the general external (e.g., broader social and policy context), specific external (e.g., lifestyle factors, environmental pollutants, chemical, physical, and infectious agents), and internal environments (e.g., microbiome, biomarkers of effect, early damage). Dr. Ellison has served as an ex-officio member of the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council, a congressionally mandated body that advises the secretary of Health and Human Services

(HHS), director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the director of the NIEHS on matters relating to research, research training, and career development supported by the NIEHS. He has received the NIH Director’s Awards for the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill Response (2011); the NIH Working Group for the US-China Biomedical Research Cooperation Program (2013); and the GEOHealth Team for conceptualizing and implementing the Global Environmental and Occupational Health (GEOHealth) Program (2018). In 2014, he received an NIH Award of Merit for providing sustained leadership, scientific direction, and programmatic management for the Breast Cancer and the Environment research program.

William H. Farland, Ph.D., ATS, is an independent consultant in toxicology and environmental and public health, and a professor emeritus in environmental and radiological health sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University (CSU). Formerly, Dr. Farland served as vice president for research at CSU from 2006–2013. Prior to that, he had a 27-year federal career at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), serving ultimately as the deputy assistant administrator for science in the Office of Research and Development, and acting agency science advisor in 2005. His tenure at the EPA was characterized by a commitment to the development of national and international approaches to research, testing, and assessment of the fate and effects of environmental agents. Dr. Farland holds a Ph.D. in cell biology and biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. Throughout his career, he has served extensively on executive-level committees and advisory boards within the federal government, academia, and internationally. He is currently the chair of the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, DC.

Caleb Finch, Ph.D., is ARCO Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California (USC), with adjunct appointments in the Departments of Anthropology, Molecular Biology, Neurobiology, Psychology, Physiology, and Neurology. His major research interest is the neurobiology of aging and human evolution. Dr. Finch received his undergraduate degree from Yale in 1961 (biophysics) and Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1969 (biology). His life’s work is on the fundamental biology of human aging, starting in graduate school and continuing since 1972 at USC. His discoveries include oligomeric Abeta, a novel form of neurotoxicity of amyloid peptides in Alzheimer’s disease; the role of shared inflammatory pathways in normal and pathological aging process; and the acceleration of aging processes by air pollution. Dr. Finch was founding director of the National Institute on Aging–funded USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (1984) and contin-

ues as co-principal investigator. He also cofounded Acumen Pharmaceuticals, which develops therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease. Fifteen of his mentored students hold senior positions in universities or pharmaceutical corporations. Dr. Finch has received most of the major awards in biomedical gerontology, including the Robert W. Kleemeier Award (1985), the Sandoz Premier Prize (1995), and the Irving Wright Award (1999). In 2018, the French Academy (EPHE) awarded him the doctorate Honaris causis. He has written six books, most recently The Role of Global Air Pollution in Aging and Disease (Academic Press, 2018). His current lab focus is on gene–environment interactions for brain aging, particularly air pollution components.

Marcia C. Haigis, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Cell Biology and the director of gender equity for faculty in science at Harvard Medical School. She obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and performed postdoctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying mitochondrial metabolism. Dr. Haigis is an active member of the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging Research, and the Ludwig Center at Harvard Medical School. Her research has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of how mitochondria mediate metabolic reprogramming in cancer, including identifying nodes of metabolic vulnerability in the control of fat oxidation in leukemia and metabolic recycling of ammonia to generate amino acids important for tumor growth. Most recently, her work has shed light on our understanding of how diet and environmental factors regulate anti-tumor immunity. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Brookdale Leadership in Aging Award, the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar Award, the American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award, and the National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Program.

Angela Hughes, D.V.M., Ph.D., serves as global science advocacy senior manager at Mars Petcare, where she focuses on educating people about the science behind the human–animal bond, as well as the development of new markers of health and disease in pets. She is a trained veterinary geneticist who pioneered the concept of genetically aligning potential breeding dogs to evaluate genetic diversity and launched this in a first-of-its-kind test called Optimal Selection™. Dr. Hughes completed her veterinary degree, veterinary genetics residency, Ph.D. in genetics, and held an associate clinical professor position at the University of California, Davis prior to joining Mars Petcare. She has been published in multiple academic publications including the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, PLOS Genetics, and PLOS ONE and has contributed chapters for publication in Veterinary Clinics of North America

Small Animal Practice: Pediatrics and several editions of Large Animal Internal Medicine. Dr. Hughes’s special interests include small animal and equine genetics and small animal reproduction and pediatrics.

Roy Jensen, M.D., was appointed director of The University of Kansas Cancer Center in 2004. As a result of a broad-based university, community, and regional effort, The University of Kansas Cancer Center was designated as a cancer center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in July 2012. Dr. Jensen is currently professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, professor of anatomy and cell biology, professor of cancer biology, and the William R. Jewell, MD Distinguished Kansas Masonic Professor, at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Prior to his appointment at Kansas, Jensen was a member of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and a faculty member in Pathology, Cell Biology, and Cancer Biology for 13 years. Dr. Jensen graduated from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1984 and remained there to complete a residency in anatomic pathology and a surgical pathology fellowship with Dr. David Page. Following his clinical training he accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Aaronson. After joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Jensen’s research interests focused on understanding the function of BRCA1 and BRCA2 and their role in breast neoplasia and in the characterization of premalignant breast disease at both the morphologic and molecular levels. He currently has more than 150 scientific publications and has lectured widely on the clinical and molecular aspects of breast cancer pathology. Dr. Jensen has served on numerous grant review panels, study sections, and site visit teams for the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense-Breast Cancer Research Program, the Medical Research Council of Canada, the California Breast Cancer Research Program, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Jensen serves on the Science Policy and Governmental Affairs Committees for the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and is a member of the AACR Pathology Task Force and AACR Publications Committee. He served as a member of the Science Policy Working Group of the American Society for Investigative Pathology, and co-chaired the research committee for C-Change. In 2013, he was elected to the board of directors for the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) and served as the president of AACI from 2018–2020. Dr. Jensen was chair of the NCI’s Subcommittee A from 2018–2020 and also served on the Director’s Working Group for the Board of Scientific Advisors to the National Cancer Institute. Finally, he is the chair of the University of Oklahoma Stephenson Cancer Center External Advisory Board.

Chad M. Johannes, D.V.M., DACVIM (SAIM, Oncology), is an associate professor of oncology at Iowa State University. His industry experience includes serving as a former medical director at Ariana Therapeutics, Inc. and coordination of the launch of Palladia®, the first FDA-approved veterinary cancer therapeutic, during his time with Pfizer Animal Health (now Zoetis). Dr. Johannes’s practice experience includes primary care, specialty care, and academic settings. His areas of research interest include oncology therapeutic development, immunotherapeutics, and the effective management of treatment-related side effects.

Rena Jones, Ph.D., M.S., is an investigator in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics, at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where her intramural research program seeks to identify and clarify the role of environmental exposures in the development of cancer. Dr. Jones’s work relies on the application of geographic information systems and novel approaches to assess environmental exposures, a critical component of cancer epidemiology studies. She takes several approaches to improving long-term environmental exposure estimates, including optimizing the spatial accuracy of residential addresses and exposure sources; characterizing participant mobility and time spent in microenvironments; and incorporating information from surveys, regulatory environmental monitoring data, biomonitoring, and other secondary data sets. Her research program leads several large-scale, multidisciplinary efforts to characterize general population exposure to drinking-water contaminants and point source air pollution. In addition, she co-leads the NCI working groups focused on geospatial analyses and incorporation of new technologies for human exposure assessment in population studies. The novelty and quality of Dr. Jones’s work has been recognized through multiple research awards, including the 2020 NCI Director’s Intramural Innovation Award. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees in epidemiology from the University at Albany, State University of New York.

Kurunthachalam Kannan, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Environmental Pediatrics, at New York University School of Medicine. He has published more than 780 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and 25 book chapters and has coedited a book. Dr. Kannan is the top five most highly cited researchers (ISI) in ecology/environment globally with an H-index of 135 (Google scholar) or 118 (Scopus). He is known for his work on the discovery of perfluorochemicals in the global environment, among several others. Currently his research is focused on biomonitoring of human exposure to organic pollutants. Dr. Kannan has won several medals for

his stellar academic career, gold medals for his top rank in undergraduate academic career throughout, and to name a few, Governor’s gold medal in 1986 and SETAC’s Weston F. Roy Environmental Chemistry award in 1999, New York State Department of Health’s Sturman Award for Excellence in Research in 2019. He has mentored more than 15 master’s and doctoral level students and advised more than 60 postdoctoral research associates in his laboratory.

Norman Kleiman, Ph.D., M.S., works at the intersection of public health, radiation research, and ophthalmology, often using the eye as a model system to study the effects of environmental exposures, and radiation in particular, on human and animal health. For example, National Aeronautics and Space Administration– and Department of Energy–funded research projects were designed to better understand ocular risks, and radiation cataract in particular, underlying eye exposure to low doses of different kinds of radiation, e.g. X-rays and high-energy space radiation, (think, cosmic rays). Related human research in Dr. Kleiman’s laboratory estimates relative risk of radiation cataract in medical professionals, such as interventional cardiologists and associated nursing personnel, following occupational exposure to X-rays during fluoroscopic imaging procedures. A collaborative study with Ukrainian colleagues examines ocular radiation risk in Chornobyl accident cleanup workers. Recently, new projects have examined health risks posed by exposure to radiation, heavy metals, and other environmental hazards in mice, voles, and semi-domesticated dogs living within the Chernobyl exclusion zone. In other areas related to eye pathology, a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)funded project investigates the potential relationship between arsenic exposure and cataracts and recently reported significantly elevated arsenic concentrations in eye tissue. A recently funded NIEHS study examines the potentially carcinogenic heavy-metal risks associated with e-cigarette use. At a mechanistic level, Dr. Kleiman applies molecular and biochemical approaches to examine how environmental toxins, such as those from radiation, heavy metals, or e-cigarette use, cause DNA damage, misrepair, and mutagenesis and how individual genetic determinants influence risk. Overall, these investigations help in formulating appropriate risk policies and aid in development of human exposure guidelines as well as having important therapeutic implications for radio- and/or chemo-sensitive subsets of the human population. Among other responsibilities, Dr. Kleiman is a technical cooperation expert for the International Atomic Energy Agency and serves on scientific committees of the National Council on Radiation Protection and the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

Richard Lea, Ph.D., SFHEA, is currently a reader and associate professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Notting-

ham, UK, and is a professor of reproductive biology as of January 2022. Dr. Lea is chair of the School Committee for Animals and Research Ethics, deputy head of the Division of Global Health, and has been central to the development of the teaching curriculum in veterinary reproduction for over 15 years. Dr. Lea is also the chair of the Society for Reproduction and Fertility and actively promotes public awareness on environmental threats to reproductive health. Dr. Lea has over 30 years’ experience in research into environmental influences on fertility and reproduction. His primary research program concerns the topical issue of environmental chemicals and their effects on mammalian reproductive well-being and his experimental approaches encompass both animal and human studies. Dr. Lea’s primary research programs concern firstly the dog as a sentinel species for human exposure to household and industrial pollutants and secondly, the sheep as ‘real-life’ model for exposure to chemical mixtures in a commonly used agricultural fertilizer. Of note is the demonstration of a 26-year decline in dog semen quality that parallels that widely reported in the human, and maternal exposure linked perturbations in ovine female fetal reproductive development. These programs have been supported by grants awarded by the European Union and national UK charities. Currently, Dr. Lea is the Nottingham (UK) principal investigator on an R01 National Institutes of Health–funded study focused on multigenerational effects in sheep following maternal exposure to environmentally relevant chemical mixtures. Dr. Lea’s complementary research paradigms suggest that the utilization of the sheep and dog in future research provides a means of investigating environmental influences on fertility in a manner complementary to essential human studies.

Amy K. LeBlanc, D.V.M., is a board-certified veterinary oncologist, and senior scientist and the director of the intramural National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) Comparative Oncology Program. In this position she conducts preclinical mouse and translational pet dog studies that are designed to inform the drug and imaging agent development path for human cancer patients, specifically those with osteosarcoma. She directly oversees the NCI Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium, which provides infrastructure necessary to connect participating veterinary academic institutions with stakeholders in drug development to execute fit-for-purpose comparative clinical trials in novel therapeutics and imaging agents. Her program provides support to several extramural NCI-funded initiatives including the Integrated Canine Data Commons and Cancer Moonshot–funded canine immunotherapeutic clinical trials conducted under the PRECINCT network.

Gary W. Miller, Ph.D., serves as vice dean for research strategy and innovation and professor of environmental health sciences at the Columbia Univer-

sity Mailman School of Public Health. He is an international leader on the exposome, the environmental analogue to the genome. Dr. Miller founded the first exposome center in the United States and wrote the first book on the topic. He has helped develop high-resolution mass spectrometry methods to provide an ’-omic-scale analysis of the human exposome. He serves as codirector of Columbia’s Irving Institute Precision Medicine Resource, which supports integration of environmental measures into clinical and translational research projects, and is a member of the National Institutes of Health All of Us Research Program Advisory Panel. Dr. Miller is the founding editor of the new journal Exposome, published by Oxford University Press.

Lisa Moses, VMD, DACVIM, is a veterinarian and animal-focused bioethicist. After nearly 30 years as a practicing veterinary specialist for the MSPCA Animal Medical Center in Boston, Dr. Moses became a faculty member at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Bioethics. Dr. Moses is the chair of both the Animal Ethics Study Group at Yale’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and the Harvard–Yale Animal Ethics Faculty Seminar, and she holds a visiting scientist appointment at The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She completed a fellowship in bioethics at the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics and received her veterinary degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a faculty fellow position at Cummings Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine Center for Animals and Public Policy. Dr. Moses teaches and studies various aspects of veterinary medical and animal conservation ethics, most recently concentrating on research ethics where animals are both the subject and beneficiary of research investigations.

Elaine A. Ostrander, Ph.D., is the chief of the Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics Branch, and a distinguished senior investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health. She has published more than 375 papers and won several awards, including a 2013 Genetics Society of America Medal, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2019. Her lab is interested in understanding the role that genomic variation plays in canine aging, morphology, behavior, and disease susceptibility. Its studies include evolution, genome architecture, breed formation, breed-specific disease, and the genetics of morphologic variation between breeds. Using genome sequencing, her lab shows that most breed-defining traits, such as body size, leg length, and so on, are controlled by small numbers of genes of large effect, and that most are also relevant for human health and biology. The lab’s studies of breed-enriched diseases reveal the genetic underpinnings of disorders such as cancer, and have advanced studies of similar human disorders, while demonstrating the utility of the dog system for studies of human health. Finally, their collaborative studies of aging

reveal conserved changes centering on developmental gene networks, which are sufficient to translate age and the effects of anti-aging interventions across multiple mammals. These studies establish methylation as a cross-species translator of the physiological milestones of aging.

Rodney Page, D.V.M., received his D.V.M. from Colorado State University and completed specialty training in the field of medical oncology in NYC. Dr. Page is board certified in internal medicine and oncology. He was a faculty member at North Carolina State University prior to his appointment at Cornell University as the founding director of The Sprecher Institute for Comparative Cancer Research. In 2005 Dr. Page was appointed chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences. He returned to Colorado as the director of the Flint Animal Cancer Center in 2010. Dr. Page’s research interests have focused on a ‘One Medicine’ approach to cancer. He has served as principal investigator of the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study since 2008 and has led national efforts to bring translational and comparative oncology to a greater audience. He is the 2019 recipient of the AVMA/AKC Career Achievement Award in Canine Research.

Daniel Promislow, D.Phil., is a professor in the Department of Biology and in the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology at the University of Washington. Since receiving his D.Phil. in 1990 at the University of Oxford, he has focused on the study of aging. He began his career on faculty in the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia from 1995–2013, then he moved to the University of Washington. His research uses evolutionary genetics and systems biology approaches to understand how genes and environment shape aging and age-related disease in natural populations. In addition to his lab-based research on Drosophila, Dr. Promislow is principal investigator and codirector of the Dog Aging Project, an National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging U19-funded nationwide research program to understand the determinants of healthy aging in tens of thousands of companion dogs.

Peter Rabinowitz, M.D., M.P.H., is a physician and professor in the University of Washington Schools of Public Health and Medicine. He came to UW 8 years ago to found the UW Center for One Health Research. The center conducts research and training to explore ‘One Health’ connections between the health of humans, animals, and the environments we share with other species. A key mission of the center is to find new ways that humans and animals can safely and sustainably coexist in a changing environment.

Audrey Ruple, D.V.M., M.S., Ph.D., DipACVPM, MRCVS, is an associate professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences in the Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech. Her research focus

is in the area of ‘One Health,’ the intersection of human, animal, and environmental health. She has a particular interest in comparative biomedical aspects of cancer and aging and she uses companion dogs as a model system to better understand why cancers occur and how we can all—humans and animals—age better. Dr. Ruple is a licensed, clinical veterinarian and is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. She obtained her D.V.M., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Colorado State University and is a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in the United Kingdom.

Elizabeth Ryan, Ph.D., received her Ph.D. in toxicology from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and is an associate professor in the Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She leads a multidisciplinary lab team that studies environmental exposures, including those from foods for impacts on gut microbiota, mucosal immunity, and for protection against infectious and chronic diseases. She conducts cancer research in laboratory models, companion animals, and people in connection with cancer control and prevention initiatives at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Her team implements dietary interventions with rice bran and legumes (e.g., beans, cowpeas) to understand the impacts of these nutrient-dense, phytochemical and fiber–rich foods on gut microbiome metabolism. The lab utilizes cutting-edge technologies such as metabolomics to evaluate a suite of microbial and chemical exposures from the diet and environment. Her research on native gut probiotic metabolism of foods and gut associated microbiota in response to dietary interventions across the life span is currently supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the Thrasher Fund.

Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, M.D., was officially sworn in as the 15th director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) on October 17, 2017. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Sharpless served as the director of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina (UNC). Dr. Sharpless was a Morehead Scholar at UNC–Chapel Hill and received his undergraduate degree in mathematics. He went on to pursue his medical degree from the UNC School of Medicine, graduating with honors and distinction in 1993. He then completed his internal medicine residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a hematology/oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Care, both of Harvard Medical School in Boston. After 2 years on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, he joined the faculty of the UNC School of Medicine in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics in 2002. He became the Wellcome Professor of Cancer Research at UNC in 2012. Dr. Sharpless is a member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and is a fel-

low of the Academy of the American Association of Cancer Research. He has authored more than 160 original scientific papers, reviews, and book chapters, and is an inventor on 10 patents. He cofounded two clinical-stage biotechnology companies: G1 Therapeutics and Sapere Bio (formerly HealthSpan Diagnostics). He served as acting commissioner for Food and Drugs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for 7 months in 2019, before returning to the NCI directorship.

Wendy C. Shelton, D.V.M., M.P.H., brings experience in clinical medicine, medical devices, drug development, business development, public health, government policy, and project management. She provides strategic expertise regarding the interrelationships of these sectors. Dr. Shelton began her professional life as a practicing veterinarian after graduating from the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 1981. She was a small-animal practitioner and small-business owner for more than 12 years. In 1993, Dr. Shelton accepted a position on the Board of Directors of Integrated Surgical Systems, developers and manufacturers of the world’s first computer-guided surgical robot, ROBODOC^®. She stayed with the company in numerous capacities (VP, research and development; VP, medical affairs; acting CEO) until it went public. There she gained experience preparing applications for FDA approval, conducting animal and human clinical trials, creating an iso9000 manufacturing facility, and developing a European market for the device. The company was the recipient of the Computerworld-Smithsonian Award for Excellence in Medical IT, and the device was collected by the museum. Dr. Shelton subsequently spent several years combining part-time equine practice and new therapeutic product development, and then earned her master of public health degree from the UC Davis School of Medicine. A brief position at the California Department of Health Services, Department of Infectious Diseases, Office of the Public Health Veterinarian, working on West Nile virus surveillance systems followed. Dr. Shelton was a fully funded Congressional Fellow, sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association and placed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the office of Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut in 2004–2005. While in the senator’s office, she participated in the genesis of Senate Bill 975, or BioShield II, the massive legislative initiative designed to create a countermeasures industry to address both bioterror and naturally occurring public health threats, and was primary author of several titles. From Capitol Hill, Dr. Shelton was recruited to Fabiani & Company, a DC lobbying firm, where she helped build a practice that matched growing life sciences companies with government funding sources. She advised dozens of health care, drug, device, and product companies and academic institutions regarding government and business relations and helped secure over $250 million in grants and contracts

more than 5 years. More recently, Dr. Shelton worked in Silicon Valley developing veterinary applications for in silico biosimulation models. She served as vice president of corporate communications, government relations, and veterinary applications at Entelos Holding Corporation in San Mateo for more than 2 years—engaging Mars Petcare to create a virtual dog. Dr. Shelton is the founding principal of Virtual Beast Consulting (VBC) based in Truckee, California. Areas of focus include promotion of the study of companion animals as research models to improve understanding of human and animal diseases and treatments—the embodiment of the One Medicine/One Health concept. An example of this is the National Cancer Policy Forum’s 2015 workshop titled The Role of Clinical Studies for Pets with Naturally Occurring Tumors in Translational Cancer Research, initiated by VBC’s principal on behalf of the Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University (CSU). Dr. Shelton continues to consult with CSU, providing strategic support for Comparative Oncology and One Health, actively representing Flint in the recently formed CORC—the Comparative Oncology Research Consortium that pairs veterinary schools and National Cancer Institute–designated cancer centers for research funding. Dr. Shelton also represents CSU with the CTSA One Health Alliance, serving on the advocacy subcommittee.

Heather M. Stapleton, Ph.D., is an environmental chemist and exposure scientist in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Her research interests focus on identification of halogenated and organophosphate chemicals in consumer products and building materials and estimation of human exposure, particularly in vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and children. Her laboratory specializes in analysis of environmental and biological tissues for organic contaminants to support environmental health research. Her research projects seek to understand how chronic exposure to chemical mixtures impact human health, with an emphasis on elucidating effects on thyroid hormone dysregulation and associations with thyroid disease. She received an early career award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in 2008, called the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist award, which helped to propel her research career. In 2012 she testified in front of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on human exposure and toxicity on new-use flame retardant chemicals used in commerce and in 2014 she helped to develop a resource for the general public to support free testing for flame retardant chemicals in consumer products. She currently serves as the director for the Duke Superfund Research Center, and as director of the Duke Environmental Analysis Laboratory.

Anne Thessen, Ph.D., is a visiting associate professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She received her Ph.D. in oceanography

and shifted toward data science while working for the Encyclopedia of Life and the Census of Marine Life. Later, she started her own data science consulting company and operated that for 5 years before joining the Translational and Integrative Sciences Lab under Dr. Melissa Haendel.

Frank A. von Hippel, Ph.D., is a professor of environmental health sciences in the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the lead of the One Health Research Initiative at the University of Arizona. Dr. von Hippel was born and raised in Alaska, received his A.B. in biology at Dartmouth College in 1989, and his Ph.D. in integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1996. He taught for Columbia University (1996–1999), the University of Alaska Anchorage (2000–2016), and Northern Arizona University (2016–2021) before moving to the University of Arizona in 2021. Dr. von Hippel has taught ecology field courses in over 20 countries, and has conducted research in the Americas, Africa, and Australia. He conducts research at the nexus of ecotoxicology, mechanisms of toxicity, and health disparities, with a focus on indigenous and underserved communities. Dr. von Hippel is the author of The Chemical Age (University of Chicago Press, 2020; https://frankvonhippel.github.io/pubs.html) and he is the creator and host of the Science History Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/science-history-podcast/id1325288920).

Joseph Wakshlag, Ph.D., M.S., started his academic career receiving a B.S. and M.S. from Montclair State University. He then attended the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine, graduating in 1998. He continued his residency training in both pathology and nutrition, as well as receiving his Ph.D. in pharmacology in 2005. He became a diplomate in the College of Veterinary Nutrition in 2008 and furthered his board certification as a diplomate in the College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation in 2010, and is currently a professor at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. He has been teaching both basic veterinary nutrition and small animal clinical nutrition at the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine for nearly 20 years since his residency in Small Animal Clinical Nutrition. He is the current service chief for clinical nutrition at the college and also does service work for the Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Service at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals. His background in sports medicine and nutrition has produced many publications on working dogs, obesity, canine cancer cell biology, the canine GI microbiome, and arthritis management.

Cheryl Lyn Walker, Ph.D., holds the Alkek Presidential Chair in Environmental Health and is the founder and director of the Center for Precision Environmental Health at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

She also directs the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences P30 Gulf Coast Center for Precision Environmental Health (https://gc-cpeh.org). Dr. Walker has over 200 publications in the scientific literature and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. Her research on gene–environment interactions and environmental epigenomics has led to new insights into how early life exposures reprogram the developing epigenome to alter disease susceptibility across the life course. She has been recognized with the Roy O. Greep Laureate Award from the Endocrine Society, the Leading Edge in Basic Science Award from the Society of Toxicology (SOT), and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American College of Toxicology. In addition to her research accomplishments, she has held significant professional administrative and leadership positions including president of SOT, president of Women in Cancer Research for the American Association for Cancer Research, and as the founding chair of the Systemic Injury from Environmental Exposures Study Section for the Center for Scientific Review of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Walker has also served on the boards of Scientific Advisors and Scientific Councilors of the National Cancer Institute and National Toxicology Program.