Speaker Profiles

Melvin Andersen, Ph.D.
Dr. Melvin Andersen is Director, Computational Biology Division, CIIT-Centers for Health Research.  He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry (Brown University, Providence, RI; 1967) and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; 1971). Over the past 34 years, he held positions in toxicology research and research management in the federal government (Department of Defense and EPA), private industry (Vice-President, ICF Kaiser Consulting), and academia (Professor of Environmental Health, Colorado State University).  His main research interest has been development of biologically realistic models of the uptake, distribution, metabolism, and biological effects of drugs and toxic chemicals and use of these models in risk assessment. He has received several awards for professional contributions, including the Herbert Stokinger Award (American Conference of Industrial Hygienists, 1988), the Kenneth Morgareidge Award (International Life Sciences Institute, 1989), the George Scott Award (Toxicology Forum, 1993), and the Frank R. Blood (1982), Achievement (1984), and Arnold J. Lehman (2004) Awards from the Society of Toxicology. Dr. Andersen is board certified in toxicology and industrial hygiene and is a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences. In June 2002, Dr. Andersen was recognized as a ‘highly cited’ scientist by the Institute for Scientific Information.

James R. Baker, Jr., M.D.
Dr. Baker joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1989 and is currently a Professor of Medicine and Division Chief of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in the Department of Internal Medicine, Professor of Pathology and Director of the Histocompatibility Laboratory in the Department of Pathology, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering at the University of Michigan. In July, 1998 Dr. Baker was appointed Director of the U-M's newly organized Center for Biologic Nanotechnology and in 2001 was inaugurated as the first recipient of the Ruth Dow Doan Endowed Professorship in Biologic Nanotechnology. Following the success of the Center for Biologic Nanotechnology, in April 2005, U-M's Board of Regents formed the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences (M-NIMBS) and appointed Dr. Baker as its first Director. Under his leadership, M-NIMBS will merge academic expertise and institutional resources across the university to develop and market applications for nanotechnology in medicine, the biological sciences and the environment. Dr. Baker's research includes the application of nanomaterials to cellular engineering, drug delivery and gene transfer, and is supported by over $35 million dollars in federal grants and contracts. These studies have produced new vector systems for gene transfer using dendritic polymers with potential to revolutionize pharmaceutical therapy. Dr. Baker’s work with synthetic lipid and polymeric nanostructures has resulted in the development of a new class of antimicrobial agents with activity against bacteria, spores, fungi and viruses. These projects led to two start-up biotechnology companies, NanoBio Corporation and Avidia Therapeutics, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan where Dr. Baker serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of both corporations. Dr. Baker is recognized as both a national and international leader in the fields of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and Biologic Nanotechnology and has attained significant recognition and awards for his work including the 2001 U-M Dean's Innovation Award, given to faculty members whose innovations radically improved or transformed clinic outcomes, educational processes, or research processes. Dr. Baker serves on the editorial boards of three noteworthy journals and is one of three editors of the National Nanotechnology Initiatives’ Research Directives. Dr. Baker has chaired numerous study sections for the National Institutes of Health and serves on many internal and external advisory boards and committees including the Nanotechnology Technical Advisory Group (N-TAG) of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) for the Executive Office of the President of the United States, the advisory to a sub-committee of the Defense Intelligence Agency and in 2006 begins a 5 year appointment as a Director of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology (ABAI).

Matthew Boulton, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Matthew L. Boulton is faculty in the Department of Epidemiology and is Associate Dean for Practice focusing his efforts on developing a comprehensive strategy for the University of Michigan School of Public Health to improve the public health workforce, establish the academic health department model, and enhance applied research. He is the Director of both the public health/preventive medicine residency in the School of Public Health and the university-wide bioterrorism preparedness initiative, which aims to coordinate training and research activities in this area across the entire campus. In this role, he also provides oversight guidance to the Michigan Center for Public Health Preparedness and the Michigan Public Health Training Center. He is the former Chief Medical Executive and State Epidemiologist for the Michigan Department of Community Health where he served as the lead scientist/epidemiologist from 1998-2004 and was responsible for all communicable disease control and surveillance, immunizations, vital records and health statistics, and environmental exposure monitoring for acute and chronic human health effects. His current research is focused on applied epidemiology field investigations, maternal child health, building national epidemiology capacity and improving the public health workforce.

John Butenhoff, Ph.D.
Dr. Butenhoff is a Corporate Scientist in Toxicology within the Medical Department of 3M Company. He is currently responsible for the toxicological and health risk assessment programs associated with legacy perfluorinated alkyl acids that were produced by 3M prior to 2002. Dr. Butenhoff has been an employee of 3M since 1976 and has held technical and management positions in Industrial Hygiene, Toxicology, and Corporate Product Responsibility. He received his A.B. in Biology from Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA and his M.S. in Occupational Health and Ph.D in Toxicology from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Butenhoff is currently an adjunct professor in the graduate program in Toxicology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Butenhoff holds professional board certifications by the American Board of Toxicology and the American Academy of Industrial Hygiene.

Teresa S. Bowers, Ph.D.
Dr. Bowers has nearly 20 years of experience in exposure modeling, mathematical and geochemical modeling, and the application of this information to risk-based environmental strategies and development of site-specific cleanup levels. She is the author of more than 40 journal articles on these and other topics. Her areas of expertise include modeling of blood lead and urine arsenic levels resulting from exposure to environmental sources of lead and arsenic. She is the author of an adult blood lead model now being used by EPA, and she has worked on a number of sediment sites involving PCB contamination where she has developed unique statistical approaches to calculating soil cleanup levels. She is frequently invited to speak on these topics by both industry and government groups. Prior to joining Gradient, Dr. Bowers held research and visiting faculty positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, where she taught courses in resource geology and applied thermodynamics.

Edward Calabrese, Ph.D.
Edward J. Calabrese is a board-certified toxicologist who is professor of toxicology at the University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health, Amherst. Dr. Calabrese has researched extensively in the area of host factors affecting susceptibility to pollutants, and is the author of over 550 papers in scholarly journals, as well as more than 10 books, including Principles of Animal Extrapolation; Nutrition and Environmental Health, Vols. I and II; Ecogenetics; Multiple Chemical Interaction; Air Toxics and Risk Assessment; and Biological Effects of Low Level Exposures to Chemical and Radiation. He has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and NATO Countries Safe Drinking Water committees, and on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Dr. Calabrese also serves as Chairman of the Biological Effects of Low Level Exposures (BELLE) and as Director of the Northeast Regional Environmental Public Health Center at the University of Massachusetts.

Michael DeVito, Ph.D.
Michael DeVito is the Chief of the Pharmacokinetics Branch in the Experimental Toxicology Division of the National Health & Environmental Effects Research Laboratory of the Office of Research and Development at the US Environmental Protection Agency. He has a M.S. and Ph.D. in Toxicology from the Joint Graduate Program in Toxicology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He did post graduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the US Environmental Protection Agency. His research efforts focus on developing quantitative cumulative risk models to describe the relationship between exposure, dose and response for dioxins, endocrine disruptors and pesticides.

Adam Finkel Sc.D.
Dr. Adam M. Finkel is currently Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) School of Public Health, and Visiting Professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. From 2000 to 2003, Dr. Finkel was Regional Administrator for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Denver, Colorado, responsible for regulatory enforcement, compliance assistance, and outreach activities in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. From 1995 to 2000, he was Director of Health Standards Programs at OSHA headquarters, and was responsible for promulgating and evaluating regulations to protect the nation’s workers from chemical, radiological, and biological hazards. Dr. Finkel has published more than 35 articles on risk assessment and management in the scientific, legal, and popular literature, and was co-editor of the book Worst Things First? The Debate over Risk-Based National Environmental Priorities (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1994). Dr. Finkel holds an Sc.D. in environmental health sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health, a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, an A.B. in biology from Harvard College, and is a Certified Industrial Hygienist.

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, M.P.H.
Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty is executive vice president and chief operating officer of USEC Inc. In that role, she has responsibility for USEC’s day-to-day operations, including oversight of production and regulatory affairs. Ms. Gordon-Hagerty joined USEC from the National Security Council (NSC) staff, where, since 1998, she served as director for combating terrorism, overseeing the federal government’s readiness and response to acts of terrorism. She also served as the NSC’s liaison to the Homeland Security Council. Prior to joining the White House NSC staff, she served for six years at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where she held positions overseeing several DOE programs including emergency management, operational emergency response and the safety of the country’s nuclear weapons program. Prior to her tenure at DOE, she was a professional staff member of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ms. Gordon-Hagerty has been awarded several citations, including the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service, the United States Secret Service Director's Honor Award and the Secretary of Energy’s Special Recognition Award. She holds a master's degree in health physics and a bachelor of science degree, both from the University of Michigan. USEC Inc. (NYSE: USU), a global energy company, is the world’s leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

John Graham, Ph.D.
John D. Graham, Ph.D., is serving for President Bush as Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. His responsibilities include coordination of regulatory review, paperwork reduction, statistical policy and information policy in the Federal government. Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Dr. Graham founded and led the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis from 1990 to 2001. Dr. Graham is on leave from the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health, where he taught graduate students the methods of risk analysis and cost-benefit analysis. Dr. Graham earned his BA from Wake Forest University, his MA from Duke University and his Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon University. He served as a pre-doctoral fellow at the Brookings Institution and as a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Graham has written seven books and more than 100 scientific articles and is best known for his scholarship on automotive safety and environmental policy. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is an avid golfer and bridge player.

John L. Henshaw, M.P.H
John L. Henshaw, a certified industrial hygienist with over 30 years experience in safety, health, environmental and quality assurance is President of Henshaw and Associates, Inc. a safety and health professional services firm of Florida. He was nominated by President George W. Bush on June 13, 2001 and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 3, 2001 to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). As U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, he headed up the Agency’s efforts to ensure worker safety and health in the United States by working with employers and employees to create better working environments. Currently there are more than 115 million workers at 7.1 million worksites in the United States. In Fiscal Year 2004, OSHA has an authorized staff of 2,220, including 1,123 inspectors. The agency's appropriation is over $460 million. Prior to becoming the OSHA administrator, he served as Director, Environment, Safety and Health for Astaris LLC, a joint venture between Solutia and FMC Corp. Prior to that he was Director, Environment, Safety and Health for Solutia Inc, and Corporate Director, Quality & Compliance Assurance for Monsanto Company. John has over 30 years experience and leadership in environment, safety and health in the chemical industry and government. He joined Monsanto in 1975 after receiving his Masters in Environmental Health Administration and Industrial Health from the University of Michigan. Mr. Henshaw also has served as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins, a member of the EPA National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Advisory Board, the University of Michigan School of Public Health Alumni Board of Governors, University of Michigan and St. Louis University Advisory Boards and many other national, local and international technical, professional and trade associations boards in the fields of occupational health (industrial hygiene), safety and environment management. He served on the Registrar’s Accreditation Board (RAB) Board of Directors and the Joint RAB-ANSI Board for environmental programs. In addition, John chaired the $1.5 million AIHAF National Endowment Campaign and served as President of the American Industrial Hygiene Association with over 12,000 members worldwide. He has presented nationally and internationally on environmental, safety, health and quality issues, and has published numerous papers, articles and text chapters on occupational health and safety.

Olivier Jolliet, Ph.D.
Since 1999, Olivier J. Jolliet is assistant professor in sustainable development at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology-Lausanne (EPFL). His research focuses on the development of environmental assessment methods to determine action priorities, especially for bio-materials and for land planning. Emphasis is given to Life Cycle Impact Assessment and to the fundamental modeling of pollutant transport, fate and exposure in air, water, soil and food. The interdisciplinary teaching of Professor Jolliet relates the technological and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Born in 1959 in Switzerland, Olivier J. Jolliet graduated in Physics at the EPFL in 1983. He then developed and commercialized the HORTICERN model to predict energy consumption in greenhouses, obtaining his PhD in Physics at the EPFL in 1988. In parallel with his PhD, he set up and taught new courses in building physics at the Geneva Engineers’ School. From 1989 to 1991, he carried out research on optimization of humidity and water balances, at the Silsoe Research Institute, Great Britain. In 1992, Olivier J. Jolliet initiated the European concerted action on life cycle assessment (LCA) for agriculture, working at the Swiss Federal Research Station of Tänikon. From 1993, he was project leader and lecturer at the Rural Engineering Department of the EPFL. He developed new methods for life cycle impact assessment and provided a frame to evaluate consistently the impact of toxics, including fate and exposure. In 1997, he was visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), carrying out research and teaching on the environmental optimization of materials at the Materials Systems Laboratory. He is presently vice-chairman of the SETAC-Europe working group on impact assessment in LCA, chairing the work on toxicity (Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry). Dr. Olivier Jolliet will join the Faculty of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center in the Fall of 2005.

Gina Kolata, M.S.
Gina Kolata is a science reporter for The New York Times and the best-selling author of Clone: The Road to Dolly and the Path Ahead (1998), Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic in 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It (1999) and the The Quest for Truth about Exercise and Health (2003). Before joining the Times in 1987, Kolata was a senior writer for Science magazine. Kolata graduated from the University of Maryland and studied molecular biology at the graduate level at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before returning to the University of Maryland to complete a master's degree in applied mathematics. She has also written articles for a wide variety of magazines, including Smithsonian, Ms., Glamour, GQ, and Psychology Today. Flu was a national best-seller and won the 2000 Book Award from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. She has received numerous awards for her writing, including two Howard W. Blakeslee awards from the American Heart Association, two William Harvey awards from the Squibb Company, and an award from the American Medical Writers Association. Kolata was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in investigative reporting in 2000.

Rita Loch-Caruso, Ph.D.
Rita Loch Caruso is a toxicologist with a research focus in female reproductive toxicology and, in particular, mechanisms of toxicity related to adverse pregnancy outcomes such as premature birth. Her laboratory is investigating how environmentally persistent toxicants, such as lindane, PCBs, PBDEs and DDT, modify uterine, placental and amnion functions that regulate parturition. In addition to university-related activities, she has served on numerous local, state and national committees including the City of Ann Arbor Environmental Commission, NIH grant review panels, and the Institute of Medicine Committee on Understanding Premature Birth and Assuring Healthy Outcomes.

David Losee, J.D.
Mr. David Losee is an Environmental and Land Use attorney at Halloran & Sage LLP. His practice includes environmental litigation and litigation avoidance, and counseling owners and operators of facilities and numerous financial institutions regarding hazardous waste remediation, compliance, permitting, and waste management issues. Most recently he has been lead counsel in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency & Audit Policy Program. This groundbreaking initiative is a compliance program that offers regulated entities unique incentives to comply with EPA regulations. In addition to his private practice, Mr. Losee was appointed to the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council of the National Institutes of Health in 2002. He joins four other non-scientific members of the Council who are leaders in the fields of public policy, law, health policy, economics, management and environmental justice appointed to the Council. Mr. Losee earned his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1968 and received his J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1971.

John H. Marburger III, Ph.D.
 Dr. John H. Marburger, III, Science Adviser to the President and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, was born on Staten Island N.Y., grew up in Maryland near Washington D.C. and attended Princeton University (B.A., Physics 1962) and Stanford University (Ph.D. Applied Physics 1967). Before his appointment in the Executive Office of the President, he served as Director of Brookhaven National Laboratory from 1998, and as the third President of the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1980-1994). He came to Long Island in 1980 from the University of Southern California where he had been a Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering, serving as Physics Department Chairman and Dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences in the 1970's. In the fall of 1994 he returned to the faculty at Stony Brook, teaching and doing research in optical science as a University Professor. Three years later he became President of Brookhaven Science Associates, a partnership between the university and Battelle Memorial Institute that competed for and won the contract to operate Brookhaven National Laboratory. While at the University of Southern California, Marburger contributed to the rapidly growing field of nonlinear optics, a subject created by the invention of the laser in 1960. He developed theory for various laser phenomena and was a co-founder of the University of Southern California's Center for Laser Studies. His teaching activities included "Frontiers of Electronics," a series of educational programs on CBS television. Marburger's presidency at Stony Brook coincided with the opening and growth of University Hospital and the development of the biological sciences as a major strength of the university. During the 1980's federally sponsored scientific research at Stony Brook grew to exceed that of any other public university in the northeastern United States. During his presidency, Marburger served on numerous boards and committees, including chairmanship of the governor's commission on the Shoreham Nuclear Power facility, and chairmanship of the 80 campus "Universities Research Association" which operates Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. He served as a trustee of Princeton University and many other organizations. He also chaired the highly successful 1991/92 Long Island United Way campaign. While on leave from Stony Brook, Marburger carried out the mandates of the Department of Energy to improve management practice at Brookhaven National Laboratory. His company, Brookhaven Science Associates, continued to produce excellent science at the lab while achieving ISO14001 certification of the lab's environmental management system, and winning back the confidence and support of the community.

Edith Parker, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
Edith Parker is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and an Associate Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health where she has been on faculty since 1995. Dr. Parker received her Master’s inPublic Health and her Doctorate in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health. Dr. Parker has authored or co-authored more than 45 journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Parker’s research focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of community-based participatory interventions to improve health status and has most recently focused on environmental health. She was the principal investigator of the intervention component of the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) /Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded “Michigan Center for the Environment and Children’s Health (MCECH)” and the NIEHS funded “Community Organizing Network for Environmental Health project”, which is a neighborhood and policy level intervention.

Dennis Paustenbach, Ph.D
Dr. Dennis Paustenbach is currently the President of ChemRisk, a human and ecological risk assessment consulting firm with four offices nationwide. He was previously the President of McLaren-Hart, a 600 person consulting environmental engineering firm and was a Vice President at Exponent (formerly Failure Analysis Associates). He was the founder of ChemRisk, the largest risk assessment consulting firm in the U.S. during the 1990’s and has resurrected the firm as of June 2003. He earned a BS in Chemical Engineering, an MS in industrial hygiene/toxicology, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology. He is board-certified in toxicology, industrial hygiene, and safety and has more than 20 years of experience in risk assessment, environmental engineering, ecotoxicology, and occupational health. Dennis has specialized in exposure assessment and dose reconstruction for much of the past 15 years and has published about 40 articles and 7 book chapters on the topic. He has presented guest lectures and short courses on exposure assessment throughout the United States and at least five other countries. He has been an adjunct professor at several universities and was a visiting scholar at the Center for Risk Analysis at Harvard. Dennis has directed consulting activities for nearly 700 risk assessments and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts in this and related fields. He is the editor of the most popular text book on risk assessment, “Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: Theory and Practice.” Dr. Paustenbach was identified as the best Risk Practitioner within the SRA in 1998 and was awarded the Arnold J. Lehman award by the Society of Toxicology in 2002 in recognition of his contributions to the field of risk assessment. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Children’s Health.

Paul Slovic, Ph.D.
Paul Slovic is president of Decision Research and a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. He studies human judgment, decision making, and risk analysis. Dr. Slovic received a B.A. degree from Stanford University, an M.A. and Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan, and honorary doctorates from the Stockholm School of Economics and the University of East Anglia. He is past president of the Society for Risk Analysis and in 1991 received its Distinguished Contribution Award. In 1993, Dr. Slovic received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, and in 1995 he received the Outstanding Contribution to Science Award from the Oregon Academy of Science.

Victor Strecher Ph.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Victor J. Strecher graduated in 1983 with an M.P.H. and Ph.D. in Health Behavior & Health Education from the University of Michigan. After positions as Assistant and Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Dr. Strecher moved back to the University of Michigan, where he became Professor of Health Behavior & Health Education and Director of Cancer Prevention and Control in the University of Michigan's Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Strecher's academic interests include evaluative research of health behavior change interventions for health promotion, disease prevention and disease management; he has been principal investigator on over $10 million in research grants. Grant-funded studies have included, among others, several computer-tailored print interventions, including tailored materials to callers of the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service (CIS); tailored materials for cigarette smoking cessation, mammography, and dietary fat reduction; tailored materials for patients in the emergency room; and tailored materials to HMO members based on a comprehensive health risk appraisal. Computer-based interactive multimedia interventions include a program for genetic counseling on BRCA1 and BRCA2 (breast cancer genes) and programs to teach women about their risks of breast cancer.

Michaela Zint, Ph.D.
Michaela Zint, PhD, is an associate professor of Environmental Education & Communication at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment and at the School of Education. Her research focuses on how environmental education can best encourage individuals to act in ways that will contribute to environmental quality.  Zint has a specific interest in risk education, which seeks to inform youth about, and motivate them to participate in, decisions involving environmental health and ecological risks.