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2006 VCCEP Peer Consultation Core Panel
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Core
panel members are experts with sufficiently broad areas of
expertise to qualify them for service on most or all of the VCCEP
panels. Core panel
members add continuity to the peer consultation program and will
be asked to commit to serve on panels for one year. A
brief biography is provided below for each of the 2006 panel members.
Dr. John
Christopher is a staff toxicologist with the Department of Toxic
Substances Control, California Environmental Protection Agency.
In this position he reviews, critiques, and approves
assessments of risk to human health and ecological risk
assessments at military facilities and other hazardous waste sites
and permitted facilities in Prior to his
current position with the State of Dr.
Christopher earned a B.S in Biology from Dr. Christopher is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology and a former member of this Board. He has served as President and held several other offices in the Risk Assessment Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology and also in SOT’s Northern California Chapter. He is a peer reviewer for Toxicological Sciences, Risk Analysis, Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, and CRC Critical Reviews in Toxicology. Dr.
John DeSesso is a charter member of the technical staff of
Mitretek Systems, an independent, not-for-profit company that was
formed from several parts of The MITRE Corporation. Dr.
DeSesso is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Biomedical
Research Institute at Mitretek Systems. Dr.
DeSesso has extensive experience in reproductive and developmental
toxicity, risk assessment, ecological risk assessment, and the use
of bioavailability in risk assessments. Dr. DeSesso received his Ph.D. in Anatomy and Teratology from the
Medical College of Virginia at Dr.
DeSesso is currently a faculty member at Georgetown University
School of Medicine, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and
Science, San Diego State University/Graduate School of Public
Health, and the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center. He
is an active member of numerous scientific societies where he has
held various office positions including but not limited to: Dr. DeSesso has been an active member of the peer-review process reviewing manuscripts for major journals and grant proposals on a national and international level (e.g., U.S. EPA, United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, NIH, NIEHS). He has been invited frequently to serve as the Chairman of scientific sessions at national and international scientific meetings, especially those involving mechanisms or amelioration of developmental toxicity and ecological risk assessment. He has served as an invited faculty member or invited participant on many panels, refresher courses, and working groups that have been sponsored by a variety of federal agencies (e.g., USEPA, FDA, NIEHS) and professional societies (e.g., Teratology Society, Toxicology Forum, American College of Veterinary Pathologists, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, American College of Toxicology). Also, Dr. DeSesso is published extensively in the above areas of expertise, with publications both public and private numbering well over 100. Dr. Michael
Dourson directs Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA),
a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the best use of toxicity data
for estimating risk assessment values. TERA's
projects include the development of complex risk assessments, such
as soluble nickel salts; research into improvements of risk
methods, such as differential sensitivity of children and adults
to chemical toxicity, organizing peer review and consultation
meetings for risk assessment topics and documents; and education
and outreach on risk assessment values through lectures and data
bases, including the International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER). Before
founding TERA in 1996, Dr. Dourson held leadership roles in
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for fifteen years; as
chair of EPA's Reference Dose (RfD) Work Group, charter member of
the EPA's Risk Assessment Forum and chief of the group that helped
create the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) in 1986. Dr.
Dourson received his Ph.D. in Toxicology from the Dr. Dourson
has served on numerous expert panels, such as EPA’s peer review
panels for IRIS assessments and its Risk Assessment Forum, TERA’s
International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER)
independent peer reviews and consultations, FDA’s Science Board
Subcommittee on Toxicology, the NSF’s Health Advisory Board, and
SOT’s harmonization of cancer and non-cancer risk assessment. Dr.
Dourson has also organized over 16 symposia for 9 different
organizations on a variety of topics, including: effective risk
communication; chromium; information resources for toxicology and
environmental health; risk assessment of essential trace elements;
risk characterization; EPA’s IRIS; role of toxicology in
tomorrow’s risk assessment practice; techniques for quantifying
uncertainty in risk assessment; statistical and dose response
models in risk assessment; workshop on benchmark dose methodology;
basics of risk assessment; improvements in quantitative noncancer
risk assessment; and neurotoxicity risk assessment. Dr. Dourson is
a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology and served on its
Board as President, Vice President, and Treasurer. He
is currently Secretary for the Society for Risk Analysis. He
has also served as president of the Dose-Response Specialty Group
of the Society for Risk Analysis, of the Society of Toxicology's
Specialty Section on Risk Assessment and of the Ohio Chapter of
the Society for Risk Analysis. He
is currently on the editorial board of three journals. Dr
Dourson has published more than 100 papers on risk assessment
methods, has co-authored over 100 government risk assessment
documents, and has made over 90 invited presentations.
Dr. Pertti
(Bert) Hakkinen is on the staff of the European Commission at the
EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Dr. Hakkinen
earned a B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Dr. Hakkinen
is a member of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) and a charter
member of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) and the
International Society of Exposure Analysis (ISEA). He
proposed the idea for the Residential
Exposure Assessment. A Sourcebook, developed and published in
2001 via the expertise and involvement of members of SRA’s
Exposure Assessment Specialty Group, ISEA members, and many
others. Dr. Hakkinen
received SRA's Outstanding Service Award in 1996.
He was on the editorial board of Toxicology and was
a co-editor and co-author of the latest edition of Information
Resources in Toxicology. Further,
he is a co-editor and co-author of the upcoming new edition of the
Encyclopedia of Toxicology. Dr.
Hakkinen has authored and co-authored numerous other publications,
including ones on consumer product exposure and risk assessments,
consumer risk perceptions, toxicological interactions, respiratory
tract toxicology, and computer software and databases.
Dr.
Elaine Cohen Hubal is currently the Acting Associate Director for
Human Exposure Modeling in the Human Exposure and Atmospheric
Sciences Division of the U.S. EPA’s National Exposure Research
Laboratory (NERL). In
this position, she has worked to develop and direct NERL’s human
exposure modeling research program.
This research program is designed to develop modeling tools
and conduct modeling analyses to characterize and estimate human
exposure to environmental pollutants and to reduce uncertainty in
risk assessments for the general population and for highly-exposed
subpopulations. A
significant focus of the lab’s human exposure research program
is on understanding and characterizing children’s residential
exposures to environmental contaminants.
She previously worked as a chemical engineer for the
Research Triangle Institute, and Dr.
Hubal received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Dr.
Hubal has served on a variety workgroups, panels, and committees.
She currently serves as a member of EPA’s Risk Assessment
Forum Cumulative Risk Assessment Technical Panel, the Study Design
Working Group for the National Children’s Study, ILSI Health and
Environmental Sciences Institute Biomonitoring Workshop Steering
Team, and the Occupational and Environmental Exposures of Skin to
Chemicals (OEESC) 2005 Program Committee.
Dr. Hubal’s current research interests focus on
characterizing exposure-to-dose relationships and enhancing
quantitative risk assessment through application of computational
tools and a systems approach. Her general research interest is on
reducing uncertainty in risk assessment with a specific focus on
children’s exposure. She
has designed and conducted studies to evaluate dermal exposure
assessment approaches and collect exposure factor data in support
of the Food Quality Protection Act.
She has developed and worked with a variety of
computational models to describe the simultaneous mass transport
and reaction of inhaled gases in the airway lining.
Dr. Hubal has also worked on the development of a modeling
platform to predict contaminant fate and transport of
environmental pollutants to perform exposure assessments in
support of the Hazardous Waste Identification Rule, and conducted
research in the area of industrial pollution prevention by
developing a framework to evaluate the environmental impact of
pollution prevention activities that directly relates the energy
requirements to process air, water, and solid waste emissions.
Dr.
Hubal has published in the areas of children’s exposure and
human health risk modeling.
Dr. Sam Kacew is a Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular
Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, as well as a scientist of the Dr. Kacew received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the Dr. Kacew has served on numerous expert panels and committees, including
membership on the National Advisory Committee on Environmental
Contaminants and the Implications for Child Health and the
National Academy of Sciences ( Dr. Kacew is on a number of grant committees and has served as an
external referee for grants and fellowships for a wide variety of
organizations and government agencies.
He is currently the Editor-in-Chief the Journal of
Toxicology and Environmental Health, North American Editor of Toxicology
and Environmental Chemistry, an Associate Editor for Toxicology
and Applied Pharmacology, an assistant editor for TOMES (Micromedex,
Inc.), Guest Editor for Toxicology
and Applied Pharmacology special issue on Toxicological
Reviews in Fetal Childhood Development, as well as a member of the
editorial board of a number of other journals.
Dr. Kacew has over 140 publications in peer-reviewed
journals and books in the area of toxicology, risk assessment, and
children’s health. He
has also served as an editor for a number of books on toxicology
and children.
Dr.
Chad Sandusky is currently Director of Research and senior
toxicology advisor to the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine (PCRM), a non-profit organization that promotes good
nutrition, conducts clinical trials and promotes nonanimal
experimental methods in medical and scientific research.
For PCRM, Dr. Sandusky coordinates the review and
preparation of comments on the EPA’s High Production Volume
Challenge Program (HPV) and Voluntary Children’s Chemical
Evaluation Program (VCCEP) chemical assessments.
As such, he stresses the weight-of-evidence approach in
these assessments and the development of exposure scenarios as key
to the success of these programs. He is actively engaged in
identifying methods which use alternatives to animal testing to
meet the needs of the safety assessments, including tests
undergoing validation at the Dr.
Sandusky was the past Manager of Toxicology and Risk Assessment at
ENVIRON and has extensive experience at both the EPA and ENVIRON
in pesticide toxicology as well as exposure and risk assessments.
For example, he evaluated the toxicology of pesticides and
extrapolated these effects in risk assessments; directed the
dietary exposure and risk assessments for agrochemicals and other
potentially toxic residues in foods using the TAS Dietary exposure
software; served as toxicology team leader and senior author of
numerous EPA documents, including Registrations Standards and
Position Documents; and since the passage of the FQPA in August
1996, coordinated the review and assessment of numerous
agrochemicals to address the full range of new requirements,
including: assessing aggregate exposure from multiple pathways
(e.g., drinking water and residential use),
cumulative exposure to chemicals with a common mode of
action, accounting for potential sensitivity to infants and
children, and assessing the potential for endocrine disruption.
Dr.
Sandusky received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the
Dr.
Kimberly M. Thompson is Associate Professor of Risk Analysis and
Decision Science in the Departments of Health Policy and
Management and Society, Human Development and Health at the
Harvard School of Public Health. She is the Director of the Kid
Risk Project that seeks to improve the lives of children by using
analytical methods to characterize children's risks and strategies
to reduce those risks. Dr.
Thompson directs a professional education course on Probabilistic
Risk Analysis: Assessment, Management, and Communication, and she
seeks to effectively integrate technological, social, political,
legal, and economic issues into risk analyses that inform public
policy and improve decision making.
Her research interests focus on the issues related to
developing and applying quantitative methods for risk assessment
and risk management, and consideration of the public policy
implications associated with including uncertainty and variability
in risk characterization. Over
the last decade, for both private and public clients Dr. Thompson
has consulted on computer applications, projects concerning
environmental quality, fate and transport of toxic chemicals in
the environment, analysis of remedial alternatives at landfills
and abandoned sites, efforts to characterize uncertainty and
variability in risks, and development of white papers for the EPA
on topics related to children’s risks.
Dr. Thompson’s most recent consulting includes work with
the MIT Lincoln Laboratory as part of an integration team studying
the development of a national health surveillance and biodefense
system, and her recent book Overkill focuses on
microbiological risks in what she calls this “Age of Risk
Management.” Dr.
Thompson received a Sc.D. in Environmental Health from Dr.
Thompson has written over 30 peer-reviewed journal publications in
the areas of human health modeling, probabilistic risk assessment,
children’s health and risk communication.
She has also reviewed manuscripts for over a dozen
journals, including the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental
Health, Risk Analysis, Health Policy, and the Journal of the
American Medical Association.
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