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Pittsburgh 2005:
Health and the Environment Conference
Speaker Biographies
Robbie Ali
Robbie Ali, MD, MPH, M.P.P.M., joined the University of Pittsburgh's
Graduate School of Public Health in January 2004 with a joint appointment
in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences and Environmental and Occupational
Health. He worked for 14 years as an emergency physician and participated
in medical and public health projects in Antarctica, Australia, China,
India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, St.
Lucia, and Taiwan. He is Board Certified in Occupational and Environmental
Medicine and received his training at the Harvard School of Public Health.
His collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and the Government of Indonesia
on a health initiative for rainforest-dwelling peoples is part of an
effort to protect endangered orangutans in Borneo. As Director of the
new Center for Healthy Environments and Communities at GSPH, he hopes
it will become a central resource for information and collaboration:
to report on regional trends, to increase the relevance of environmental
health to local communities, and to involve people in improving their
lives and neighborhoods.
Abstract: "Towards
an Inventory of Pittsburgh's Environmental Health"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Myron Arnowitt
Myron Arnowitt has been Western Pennsylvania Director for Clean Water
Action and Clean Water Fund for the past nine years. He has worked for
over 16 years as a community organizer for a variety of neighborhood,
environmental, and social justice organizations in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,
and Chester, PA. For Clean Water Fund, he has worked with several communities
facing drinking water contamination problems, helping residents effectively
advocate for protection of the rivers and aquifers that supply their
drinking water. He has also trained residents living near a cluster of
chemical plants outside Pittsburgh to establish Pennsylvania's first
community air toxics monitoring program. Through Clean Water Action,
he worked to ensure passage of state legislation in Pennsylvania, the
Pesticide Notification Act, that requires school districts to notify
parents and staff of pesticide applications, and to develop plans to
reduce pesticide use. In addition, Mr. Arnowitt has worked with several
Pennsylvania school districts, including the Pittsburgh School District,
in developing Integrated Pest Management policies to promote least toxic
alternatives to chemical pesticide applications.
Abstract: "Organizing
at the Fenceline: Empowering Community Residents through Environmental Monitoring"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Claire Barnett
Mrs. Barnett is founder and Executive Director of the Healthy Schools
Network, Inc., a national not for profit research, education, and advocacy
organization. Her life-long interests in environment and child development
became her sole focus following her younger child's 1990 pesticide injury
at school. The Network was created in 1995 and has since won state and
federal laws and funds to address school environments and helped other
NGOs to address the issues. She has chaired two Study Groups on school
environments for US EPA, moderated the Schools Policy Panel for the prestigious
9th Triennial International Conference on Indoor Air, coordinated testimony
for the 2002 US Senate Hearing on schools, and led two White House Briefings.
In each of the last three years, more than half of all schools honored
by US EPA for improved environments have come from communities seeking
guidance from HSN's Healthy Schools/Healthy Kids Clearinghouse.
Abstract: "Preventing
Harm at School"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Charlotte Brody
Charlotte Brody, a registered nurse, is the Executive Director of Commonweal,
a health and environmental research institute in Bolinas, California
and a founder and the current Co-Chair of Health Care Without Harm's
Purchasing Workgroup. She also serves on the boards of Smith Farm, the
Environmental Working Group, the Advisory Board of the Environmental
Health Strategy Center, the Environmental Stewardship Council of Kaiser
Permanente and the Steering Committee of the Safe Cosmetics Campaign.
Charlotte was the Organizing Director for the Center for Health, Environment
and Justice (CHEJ) from 1994 to 2000 and the Executive Director, Associate
Director and Public Affairs Director of Planned Parenthood in North Carolina
from 1982 to 1994. Before joining Planned Parenthood Charlotte worked
with SNCC: in Detroit, Michigan, in the women's movement and on an underground
newspaper in Boston, with soldiers returning from Viet Nam in Clarksville,
Tennessee, at a free clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, with striking coal
mining families in Harlan County, Kentucky and with cotton textile workers
disabled with occupational disease in the Brown Lung Association and
others seeking unionization in the J.P. Stevens Campaign.
Julia G. Brody
Julia Brody is executive director of Silent Spring Institute and the
principal investigator of the Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment
Study, now in its tenth year. The study is investigating exposures to
endocrine disruptors and mammary carcinogens from air and water pollutants
and common products such as pesticides, detergents, plastics, and cosmetics.
Innovative methods include testing for 89 chemicals in women's homes
and exposure mapping using a geographic information system (GIS). Brody's
ongoing work is supported by the National Cancer Institute, National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Susan G. Komen Breast
Cancer Foundation, among others. Dr. Brody is a nationally recognized
leader in research on breast cancer and the environment. She presented
one of the Distinguished Lectures at the National Cancer Institute in
2002 on research methods in the Cape Cod Study. She was honored by the
Heroes Tribute of The Breast Cancer Fund in San Francisco and received
Boston's prestigious Social Justice Award of Wainwright Bank. She served
in senior environmental policy positions at the Massachusetts Department
of Environmental Management and earlier at the Texas Department of Agriculture.
She earned her PhD at the University of Texas at Austin and her A.B.
at Harvard.
Abstract: "Breast
Cancer and the Environment -- Realistic Hope for Prevention"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Fred Brown
Fred Brown, M.S.W. has been the Interim Executive Director/Research
Policy Analyst for the Pittsburgh Transportation Equity Project (PTEP)/Environmental
Justice Institute (EJI) since 2002. His work focuses on inequitable public
transportation systems and the impact on African American and low income
residents. He co-founded the Youth Policy Institute, which created a
16-week training apparatus for high school students to teach young people
how to take a social issue through a legislative process. Fred has worked
as an adjunct professor, case manager, supervisor, consultant and director
for some of the following agencies: The Mothers to Son Program, Family
Health Council, Inc., The Pressley Ridge School's- Pittsburgh Youth Collaborative,
Community Intensive Supervision Project (CISP) for Allegheny County's
Juvenile Court, Community College of Allegheny College, Point Park College,
Pittsburgh Public Schools, Youth Reach, and Community Human Service Corporation.
Mr. Brown's administrative expertise is in the area of program design,
implementation and evaluation, diversity training, and cultural competency.
Abstract: "Working
with At-risk Populations Using the Environmental Justice Institute Triangulation
Model"
Jane Browning
Jane Browning, Executive Director of the Learning Disabilities Association
of America, initiated the LDA Healthy Children Project in August of 2002.
The project promotes grassroots prevention activities, focusing on links
between environmental neurotoxicants and learning and other developmental
disabilities. As Executive Director of the President's Committee on Mental
Retardation, Ms. Browning organized an International Conference on Poverty
and Disability in 2000. The program examined the ways in which the conditions
of poverty - including increased exposures to lead and pesticides - impact
negatively on fetal and child development and offered tools and resources
for reducing the risks. She also organized The Arc 1993 National Summit
on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Prevention.
Abstract: "The
Learning Disabilities Association of America Model for Environmental Health
Advocacy"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Adolfo Correa
Adolfo Correa, MD, MPH, PhD, is a medical epidemiologist with the National
Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Correa received his MD degree from
the University of California San Diego, and a Master of Public Health
and a PhD in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and
Public Health. He trained in pediatrics at San Francisco General Hospital
and the University of California San Francisco, and was a member of the
faculty in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins School of
Hygiene and Public Health before joining CDC in 1998. He is an adjunct
faculty member of the Departments of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins and
Emory Schools of Public Health. During the past few years, his research
at CDC has focused on surveillance and epidemiology of birth defects,
including development of methods for environmental tracking.
Abstract: "Environmental
Birth Defects Tracking"
Presentation: PowerPoint, PDF
William U. Couzens
William U. (Bill) Couzens is founder and president of Next Generation
Choices Foundation. He writes and speaks on the lack of regulation to
protect children and schools from off-target agricultural pesticide drift
in his home state of Virginia . Previously a marketing operations specialist,
consultant to business and non-profits, Couzens understands complicated
and challenging messages. Couzens has also served on a variety of community
boards including founding a program for free mammograms. Couzens works
from both Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Middleburg, Virginia.
Abstract: "The
Power to Choose, The Power to Change and The Power to be Heard: The History
and Mission of Next Generations Choices Foundation - Presenting Models for
Advocacy"
Devra Lee Davis
Devra Lee Davis, PhD, MPH, is the Director of the Center for Environmental
Oncology of the University of Pittsburgh's Cancer Institute and Professor
of Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology of the Graduate School
of Public Health. Her work, When Smoke Ran Like Water, published
by Basic Books, was designated a National Book Award Finalist for 2002.
Davis served on the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, 1994-99.
As the former Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health in
the Department of Health and Human Services, she counseled leading officials
in the U.S., United Nations, World Health Organization and World Bank.
From 1983- 1993, she served as Executive Director of the Board on Environmental
Studies and Toxicology and Scholar in Residence at the National Academy
of Sciences, National Research Council. The Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change of the United Nations Climate Convention tapped Davis
to serve as a Lead Author on their assessment of climate mitigation policies
and she co-chaired an Expert Workshop on assessing the public health
and other impacts of climate policies sponsored by the OECD, IPCC, EPA,
and Resources for the Future.
Abstract: "When
Smoke Ran Like Water -- What Past Pollution Episodes Teach Us About the Future"
Steffi Domike
Steffi Domike, M.F.A., is Coordinator of the Collaborative on Health
and the Environment in Pennsylvania and former Director of the Master
of Art in Digital Technology Program at Chatham College. Since 2000,
she has been focused on messaging environmental health concerns and has
collaborated with Ann T. Rosenthal on a series of environmental art works
addressing history, ecology and memory. From 1999-2004, she curated a
number of eco-art shows and collaborated with the group subrosa on performances
critiquing new reproductive technologies. In the 1980s and 90s she produced
a number of award-winning documentaries, including The River Ran Red
which was voted the 1993 WQED Viewer's Choice, and received the 1994
CINE Golden Eagle. Steffi worked as an electrician's apprentice from
1976-1981 at the USX Clairton Coke Works and led local organizing for
unemployed benefits after Pittsburgh area plant shutdowns in the early
1980s. She received her B.A. in Economics from Reed College and her M.F.A.
from Carnegie Mellon University.
Neil Donahue
Neil Donahue, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical
Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, where he has been since 2000.
He is part of the Air Quality Group, an interdisciplinary grouping of
five faculty members and over 30 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.
A native of Pittsburgh, Professor Donahue received an AB in Physics from
Brown University in 1985, followed by a PhD in Meteorology from MIT in
1991. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher and research scientist at
Harvard 1991-2000, focusing on the theory and measurement of kinetics
for reactions involved in stratospheric ozone depletion as well as lower
atmospheric pollution. Dr. Donahue has been involved with field studies
from the Pacific Ocean to Schenley Park, laboratory measurements ranging
from fundamental reaction dynamics to complex simulations of atmospheric
reactions, and theoretical studies from quantum mechanics of individual
chemical reactions to computer models of global atmospheric chemistry.
The common theme connecting research in his group is the fate of hydrocarbons
in the Earth's atmosphere. Current research includes studies of oxidation
mechanisms that lead to the production of organic particulate matter
in the atmosphere as well as studies of the processing of that organic
particulate matter after it is formed.
Abstract: "Sources
of Fine Particulate Matter in Pittsburgh: Emissions, Transport, and Chemistry"
Ellen Dorsey
Ellen Dorsey, PhD, is program officer for the Environment Programs
at The Heinz Endowments. Before coming to The Endowments in 2003, she
was Executive Director of the Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham College,
with programs focused on women, the global environment, and human health.
The Rachel Carson Institute co-sponsored a conference, Women Assessing
the State of The Environment (WASTE), in collaboration with the Women's
Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), preparing a policy agenda
for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002. Dorsey previously
founded and directed the Just Earth! Human Rights and Environment Program
of Amnesty International USA. A former Fulbright Scholar in South Africa,
Dorsey has published in the areas of sustainable development, women's
health rights, and human rights.
Abstract: "Calling
for Prevention & Precaution"
Nancy Evans
Nancy Evans is health science consultant for The Breast Cancer Fund
and editor of State of the Evidence: What is the Connection Between
Chemicals and Breast Cancer? Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991,
Nancy became a leader in the grassroots breast cancer movement. She has
written and spoken about breast cancer issues locally, nationally and
internationally. Nancy is also co-producer with Allie Light and Irving
Saraf of the documentary films Rachel's Daughters: Searching for the
Causes of Breast Cancer, Children and Asthma, and the forthcoming documentary,
Childhood Obesity. She also serves on the editorial board of American
Journal of Nursing.
Abstract: "State
of the Evidence: What Is the Connection Between Environment and Breast Cancer"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Rachel Filippini
Rachel Filippini is the Executive Director of the Group Against Smog
and Pollution (GASP) located in Pittsburgh. She has been with the organization
since 2001 and took on the role of Executive Director in 2004. The thirty-five
year old organization has been a diligent watchdog, educator, litigator,
and policy-maker on many environmental issues, with a focus on air quality
in the Pittsburgh region. She has a degree in Environmental Studies from
the University of Pittsburgh. Much of her past experience has centered
on environmental education, ranging from indoor air quality issues to
nature instruction, in both community and school settings.
Michelle Gagnon
Michele Gagnon is Director of the Environmental Health Initiative at
the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) based in Washington,
DC. The goal of the initiative is to expand collaborative efforts throughout
the developmental disability network and environmental health communities
to build a diverse, educated constituency of parents, service providers,
professionals, and advocates with disabilities to support environmental
education, expanded research, progressive policy, and exemplary disability
services. Prior to joining AAMR, Ms. Gagnon served as the Environment
Project Manager with the National Association of Attorneys General focusing
on environmental policy, legislation, and enforcement of environmental
statutes. Ms. Gagnon also worked with the National Committee for Science
and the Environment and the World Wildlife Fund. She has a background
in Public Health with a concentration in Environmental Health from George
Washington University and a Bachelor's degree from the University of
Maryland, College Park.
Abstract: "Pollution,
Toxic Chemicals and Developmental Disability"
Bernard D. Goldstein
Dr. Goldstein, MD, is the Dean of the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate
School of Public Health. From 1986-2001, he served as the Director of
the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, a joint
program of Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry
of New Jersey - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School where he was the Chair
of the Department of Environmental and Community Medicine from 1980-2001.
He is a physician, board certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and
Toxicology. Dr. Goldstein is past president of the Society for Risk Analysis,
vice president of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment,
and a member of the NIH National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences
Council. He was Assistant Administrator for Research and Development,
U.S. EPA 1983-1985. His past activities include Member and Chairman of
the NIH Toxicology Study Section and EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory
Committee; Chair of the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Role of
the Physician in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the National
Research Council Committees on Biomarkers in Environmental Health Research
and Risk Assessment Methodology and the Industry Panel of the World Health
Organization Commission on Health and Environment.
Abstract: "The
Unity of Health and the Environment"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Shelley A. Hearne
Shelley Hearne, Dr.P.H., is the Executive Director of Trust for America's
Health and a Visiting Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg
School of Public Health where she teaches on public health infrastructure,
policy and advocacy. She was the Executive Director of the Pew Environmental
Health Commission at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Hearne is a past- Chair of the
American Public Health Association's Executive Board. She has served
on many national organizations, including as the Vice President of the
Council on Education for Public Health - the accreditation body for public
health schools and the US EPA's Children's Health Protection Advisory
Committee, where she chaired their working group designated to identify
five rules, regulations or policies that should be revised to better
protect children. Dr. Hearne has previously worked as a Program Officer
at The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Acting Director of the NJ Department
of Environmental Protection's Office of Pollution Prevention and as a
research scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Shelley
holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry and environmental studies with
honors from Bowdoin College and a doctorate in environmental health sciences
from Columbia University's School of Public Health.
Abstract: "Chronic
Disease Tracking Systems and Policy Implications"
Teresa Heinz
Teresa Heinz has long been recognized as one of the nation's premier
environmental leaders. After assuming the reins of The Heinz Endowments
in 1991, she directed the creation of a grantmaking program in the environment.
In 1995, she announced one of the largest grants ever made to the environment,
a $20 million gift to create the H. John Heinz III Center for Science,
Economics and the Environment, a unique attempt to bring together representatives
of business, government, the scientific community and environmental groups
to collaborate on the development of mutually acceptable yet scientifically
sound environmental policies. She is vice chair of the national nonprofit,
Environmental Defense, and was one of 10 representatives from non-governmental
organizations attached to the US Delegation to the UN Conference on Environment
and Development (Earth Summit) in Brazil in 1992. She has endowed a professorship
in environmental management at the Harvard Business School and a chair
in environmental policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Since 1995, she has sponsored annual conferences designed to inform women
about the relationship of health and environmental issues to their daily
lives. As a member of the Earth Communications Office Advisory Board,
she has helped to pioneer an internationally acclaimed public service
campaign promoting citizen environmental action in countries around the
globe. She is a co-founder and board member of the Alliance to End Childhood
Lead Poisoning and a trustee of the Winslow Foundation, which is active
primarily in the environment. In addition to her philanthropic leadership
in the environment through The Heinz Endowments, Teresa Heinz promotes
responsible environmental policymaking as chairman of the Heinz Family
Philanthropies. She also is the creator of the prestigious Heinz Awards,
an annual program recognizing outstanding vision and achievement in five
areas, including the environment.
Diane Heminway
Diane Heminway, USWA Environmental Projects Coordinator since 1999.
For ten years prior, she was the Assistant Director of NY State's Citizens'
Environmental Coalition, a 10,000 member organization focused primarily
on addressing and preventing toxic exposures. A former respiratory therapist,
Ms. Heminway became involved in environmental health issues in 1984 after
an industrial accident caused her children to be exposed a toxic chemical.
She since has served on dozens of local, state, and federal committees,
including the National Research Council's Committee on Innovative Groundwater
Remedial Technologies. She has worked closely with COSH groups, served
on the board of environmental organizations, and is a certified OSHA
instructor. She has developed and conducted training workshops on health
and safety, groundwater and environmental law as it pertains to the workplace.
Ms. Heminway has published several articles and papers and has been a
guest speaker at various state and national forums convened by environmental
groups, health organizations, colleges, labor unions, NIOSH, EPA, and
the National Research Council.
Abstract: "Re-engaging
Workers: Beyond Occupational Health"
Ronald Herberman
Ronald B. Herberman, M.D., came to Pittsburgh in 1985 from a 19-year
career at the National Cancer Institute to establish UPCI, a comprehensive
cancer center specializing in innovative approaches to cancer treatment.
Dr. Herberman is Director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
(UPCI), Associate Vice Chancellor for Cancer Research, Hillman Professor
of Oncology and Professor of Medicine and Pathology at the University
of Pittsburgh. His work at the National Cancer Institute began in 1966
as a clinical associate in the Immunology Branch. In 1971, he became
head of a cellular and tumor immunology Section at the Institute. During
his tenure, a new category of lymphocytes was discovered in Dr. Herberman's
laboratory and termed natural killer (NK) cells. Since then, much of
Dr. Herberman's research has focused on the characterization of these
natural effector cells and on their role in resistance to cancer growth.
In 1975, Dr. Herberman was selected as the Chief of the Laboratory of
Immunodiagnosis, and from 1981-83, his responsibilities were expanded
to include the Biological Response Modifiers Program. He served for two
years as the program's Acting Director. Dr. Herberman has been given
the Award for Excellence in the Sciences by the governor of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania and the Lifetime Science Award, Institute for Advanced
Studies in Immunology and Aging, and most recently, the Lifetime Achievement
Healthcare Hero Award for the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Jan Jarrett
Jan Jarrett is vice president of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future,
a.k.a. PennFuture. Prior to taking the position at PennFuture, Jarrett
was coordinator for the Pennsylvania Campaign for Clean Affordable Energy.
The Campaign brought together diverse organizations that shared common
public interest goals in the restructuring of the state's electric utility
industry and sought to develop a healthy renewable energy industry in
Pennsylvania. For 10 years, she worked for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's
Pennsylvania office as its Grassroots Coordinator. Jarrett is a current
member of the board of directors and the past president of the Pennsylvania
Organization for Watersheds and Rivers, and a member of the board of
directors for the Pennsylvania League of Conservation Voters and the
Pennsylvania Conservation Voters Education League. She is also the Pennsylvania
delegate to the State Environmental Leadership Project.
Abstract: "Building
Citizen Networks and Participation"
Philip J. Landrigan
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, is a pediatrician and Chair of the Department
of Community and Preventive Medicine of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine
in New York City. Dr. Landrigan obtained his medical degree from Harvard
in 1967. He interned at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital. He completed
a residency in Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital Medical Center in
Boston. He obtained a Master of Science in occupational medicine and
a Diploma of Industrial Health from the University of London. From 1970
to 1985, Dr. Landrigan served as an epidemiologist with the Centers for
Disease Control. His service included a tour in the global campaign for
smallpox eradication, and he served as a CDC field epidemiologist in
El Salvador and in northern Nigeria. Dr. Landrigan is a member of the
Institute of Medicine. He is Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal
of Industrial Medicine. He has chaired committees at the National
Academy of Sciences on Environmental Neurotoxicology and on Pesticides
in the Diets of Infants and Children. In 1997 and 1998, Dr. Landrigan
served as Senior Advisor on Children's Health to the Administrator of
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He was responsible at EPA for
helping to establish a new Office of Children's Health Protection. Dr.
Landrigan has been involved since 1999 in development of the National
Children's Study, a major prospective epidemiological study that will
follow 100,000 American children from conception to age 21 years in order
to identify preventable environmental causes of disease and developmental
dysfunction. Dr. Landrigan is a retired Captain in the Medical Corps
of the United States Navy.
Abstract: "Environmental
Threats to the Health of Children: New Epidemiologic Approaches"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Kathy Lawson
Kathy Lawson, Coordinator of the Learning Disabilities Association
of America's Healthy Children Project, is a Pittsburgh native whose background
is in accounting and software training for small businesses. The Healthy
Children Project, started up under Kathy's direction in 2002, translates
scientific knowledge about the impact of environmental toxins on fetal
and child brain development into accessible information for consumers
seeking to protect themselves and their families. The Project relays
this information through a website, resource materials, training programs,
speakers' bureaus, exhibit display boards, and videotapes to grassroots
audiences through local projects sites. Kathy has become a lay expert
in the field of environmental child health. She has testified at EPA
hearings as the only health-affected advocate in a room full of industry
representatives; participated with the LDA Research Committee chair in
an international conference on environmental neurotoxicity; and written
many letters on government initiatives from the local to the Federal
level.
Michael Lerner
Michael Lerner, PhD, is President and Founder of Commonweal, a health
and environmental research institute in Bolinas, California. He is co-founder
of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE). He is also
president of Smith Farm Center for the Healing Arts in Washington, D.C.,
and of the Jenifer Altman and Mitchell Kapor Foundations. He has served
as Board chair of the Health and the Environmental Funders Network, and
of the consultative Group for biological Diversity. He is the co-founder
of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program and author of Choices in Healing [MIT
Press]. He is a co-founder of Health Care Without Harm, a national organization
working to eliminate toxic exposures in the healthcare industry. Michael
Lerner received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public
health in 1983.
Jo Ann Meier
Jo Ann Meier, M.Ed., is the Executive Director of the Susan G. Komen
Breast Cancer Foundation in Pittsburgh. She earned her Bachelors Degree
in 1980 from the University of Pittsburgh and her Masters Degree in Education
from the University of Pittsburgh in 1984. Prior to accepting the position
of Executive Director of the local Komen Foundation she held the position
of Volunteer Coordinator at Family House. Diagnosed in 1999 with breast
cancer, Jo Ann has become an advocate for early diagnosis speaking to
numerous groups throughout the year. She is committed to working collaboratively
with other organizations as we explore the connections between breast
cancer and the environment.
Elise Miller
Elise Miller, M.Ed., is founder and executive director of the national
Institute for Children's Environmental Health based in Freeland, Washington.
In addition, Ms. Miller serves on the national board of directors of
the Children's Environmental Health Network as well as the professional
advisory boards of the Learning Disabilities Association of America,
the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, and the Healthy Schools Network,
Inc. From 1993-98, Ms. Miller served as Executive Director of the Jenifer
Altman Foundation, a private foundation in northern California with interests
in sustainable development, environmental health, mind-body health, and
issues affecting disadvantaged children. In 2001, she completed a three-year
Fetzer Fellowship for her work with emerging leaders on sustainable development
and environmental health issues. She received her Masters degree in Education
from Harvard University in 1992 and her Bachelor's degree with high honors
from Dartmouth College in 1985.
Monica Moore
Monica Moore is Co-Director of Pesticide Action Network North America,
one of five Regional Centers of PAN International. She has worked on
pesticide, human rights and environmental health issues since 1980, including
co-founding PAN in 1982. PAN advocates ecologically sound practices in
place of pesticide use, and campaigns to eliminate exposures to pesticides
known to cause significant acute and chronic health damage. Monica oversees
program development at PAN North America, which recently launched a program
combining community monitoring of pesticide air and water contamination
with analytical and advocacy work to reduce pesticide body burdens and
increase corporate accountability. Pilot projects are underway in California
and seven other states; collaborations in additional states will be added
as appropriate methods are refined and resources secured. Monica holds
an M.S. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University
of California at Berkeley.
Abstract: "A
Tale of Two Neurotoxins"
Pete Myers
With a doctorate in the biological sciences from the University of
California, Berkeley, Pete Myers is founder and CEO of Environmental
Health Sciences, an organization engaged in advancing public understanding
of environmental links to health. From 1990 through the end of 2001,
Myers served as Director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation. Prior posts
include Senior Vice President for Science at the National Audubon Society
and research scientist at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Along with co-authors Dr. Theo Colborn and Dianne Dumanoski, he wrote Our
Stolen Future, a book that explores the scientific basis of concern
for how contamination threatens fetal development. Currently he is on
the boards of the Jenifer Altman Foundation, the Public Education Center
and board chair of the National Environmental Trust.
Abstract: "Environmental
Exposures Altering Gene Expression: New Opportunities for Disease Prevention"
Herbert L Needleman
Herbert L Needleman is professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and has been studying the
effects of lead at low dose on children's behavior for 30 years. He was
a Fellow with the American Academy of Pediatrics from 1986 to 1994 and
he was Founder and Chairman of the board of the Alliance to End Childhood
Lead Poisoning from 1990 to 1994. From 1976-1981, he was on the Pennsylvania
Governor's Advisory Board on Lead Paint Poisoning and from 1984 to 1990,
he was a Medical Consultant with the Allegheny County Health Department's
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. His memberships include:
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Ambulatory Pediatric
Society, the Society of Toxicology, and the American Pediatric Society.
Abstract: "Lead
and Crime: A Little-known Effect"
Kenneth Olden
Kenneth Olden, PhD, ScD, LHD, is Section Chief of the Laboratory of
Molecular Carcinogenesis, Metastasis Group, National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences (NIEHS). He was named the third director of the NIEHS
and the second director of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) on June
18, 1991. Dr. Olden held those positions until April 2005. Dr. Olden
is a cell biologist and biochemist by training, and has been active in
cancer research for almost three decades. He was director of the Howard
University Cancer Center and professor and chairman of the Department
of Oncology at Howard University Medical School (1985-1991), Washington,
D.C., before coming to NIEHS. He joined Howard in 1979 as Associate Director
for Research after a stint at the National Institutes of Health, first
as a senior staff fellow, second as an expert, then a research biologist
in the Division of Cancer Biology and Diagnosis, National Cancer Institute.
Abstract: "The
Need for Innovative Technologies in Environmental Health"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Ted Schettler
Ted Schettler has a medical degree from Case-Western Reserve University
and a masters degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public
Health. He is science director of the Science and Environmental Health
Network and co-chair of the Human Health and Environment Project of Greater
Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility. Dr. Schettler is co-author
of Generations at Risk: Reproductive Health and the Environment,
which examines reproductive and developmental health effects of exposure
to a variety of environmental toxicants. He is also co-author of In
Harm's Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development, which discusses the
impact of environmental exposures on neurological development in children.
He has served on advisory committees of the US EPA and National Academy
of Sciences. He is on the medical staff of Boston Medical Center and
has a clinical practice at the E. Boston Neighborhood Health Center.
Abstract: "Overview
of Existing and Emerging Science"
Viv Shaffer
Vivienne Shaffer is the Education and Museum Director of the Rachel
Carson Homestead Association, where her primary responsibility is to
develop educational programs and resources aimed at reducing children's
exposure to pesticides. She is a former classroom teacher with a M Ed
from the Museum Leadership Program of the Bank Street College of Education.
For the past 17 years she has specialized in designing recreational learning
experiences and planning interdisciplinary curricula for widely diverse
audiences, including people with disabilities and special needs. Before
coming to RCHA in 2002, she served as director of two historic house
museums in Brooklyn and Staten Island and worked in the Education department
at the South Street Seaport Museum.
Glenn F. Smartschan
Glenn Smartschan, Ed.D., has worked in public schools in Pennsylvania
for 35 years. His has been a teacher, coach, principal, central office
administrator and superintendent of schools. From 1990-2003 Dr. Smartschan
served as superintendent in the Mt. Lebanon School District just south
of Pittsburgh. It was during that time that the district adopted a comprehensive
program of Integrated Pest Management. Dr. Smartschan teaches as an adjunct
professor and serves as a "Consultant for Planning and Accountability" for
the Tri State Area School Study Council at the University of Pittsburgh.
He is also an educational planner for the architectural firm of Burt
Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates.
Abstract: "Implementation
of IPM in a School Setting"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Amy M. Stiffey
Amy Stiffey is the Community Services Manager for Healthy Home Resources
and is responsible for building community collaborations and managing
the lead hazard reduction and education programming. Ms. Stiffey is certified
by the state Department of Labor and Industry as a lead supervisor. Prior
to coming to Healthy Home Resources, Amy worked in environmental compliance
and then public relations for Duquesne Light Company. She holds her BS
in Biology and MA in Organizational Communications and is a trained mediator
and facilitator.
Abstract: "Family-based
Community Service for Indoor Environmental Health Hazards"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Evelyn O. Talbott
Evelyn Talbott, Dr. P.H., MPH, is Professor of Epidemiology at the
Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh. She is an
epidemiologist, with over 20 years experience conducting health studies
of environmentally exposed communities. She was Principal Investigator
of a large cancer morbidity and mortality follow-up study of the population
residing around Three Mile Island. In addition, she established a registry
for the 942 women who consumed contaminated milk products as a result
of a pesticide grain contamination in Arkansas in 1986. Currently she
is co-principal investigator for a Department of Energy funded investigation
into the feasibility of conducting a retrospective study of the relationship
of Health effects of PM10 from coal fired power plants in Allegheny County.
Dr. Talbott is primary instructor for the Introduction to Environmental
Epidemiology Course at the University and has authored a textbook by
that name. She has recently worked with several townships in Northeastern
PA on projects including an epidemiological assessment of a distressed
community in Hazelton, PA exposed to a gasoline spill and the Neville
Island Health Study.
Abstract: "Air
Pollution and Daily Cardiopulmonary Hospital Admissions: An Analysis of Data
from Pittsburgh, PA"
Presentation: PowerPoint
Carol Utay
Dr. Carol Utay, is currently the Executive Director of Total Learning
Centers with their main offices in Wexford, PA. The goal of Total Learning
Centers is to help all students achieve their goals. To meet this objective
there are many professionals at Total Learning Centers including school
psychologists, Speech./Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapist,
Sensory Integration Specialist, Certified Expert Teachers, and more. "Dr.
Carol's" doctorate is in Education from Texas A&M, her master's degree
is in curriculum and reading and her B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh
is in elementary education. She has authored many books, curriculum guides,
and has monthly columns in two local magazines. She and her husband Dr.
Joe Utay, School Psychologist and professor at Indiana University works
tirelessly, always ready to speak to local groups to help students.
Abstract: "Identification
and Treatment of Learning Disabilities"
Roger C. Westman
Roger Westman, PhD, is the Manager of the Air Quality Program of the
Allegheny County Health Department in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has
been with the Program since 1974. He has served as an Executive Board
Member and Treasurer of the national Association of Local Air Local Air
Pollution Control Officials and was their representative to the national
Standing Air Emissions Work Group. He is also a Board member and former
Treasurer of the Mid-Atlantic Region Air Management Association, and
will serve as its Chair in 2005.He is the recipient of the Catalyst Award
for Excellence from the Carnegie Science Center in 2001, and the 2004
S. Smith Griswold Award for outstanding government agency member in air
pollution control from the Air and Waste Management Association.
Abstract: "The
Roles, the Rules and Implementation for US Air Quality"
Richard Wiles
Richard Wiles, senior vice president, directs EWG's programs. He is
a former senior staff officer at the National Academy of Sciences' Board
on Agriculture, where he directed scientific studies, including two that
resulted in landmark reports: Regulating Pesticides in Food: The Delaney
Paradox and Alternative Agriculture. Wiles is a leading expert
in environmental risks to children, and under his direction, EWG has
become one of the most respected environmental research organizations
in the country. EWG's exposure and risk assessment methods are recognized
as state of the art, and have been used by the EPA and the National Research
Council. Wiles holds a BA from Colgate University and an MA from California
State University at Sacramento.
Abstract: "Engaging
the Public"
R. Thomas Zoeller
R. Thomas Zoeller is Professor of Biology at the Morrill Science Center
of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research is focused on
understanding the role of thyroid hormone in brain development, with
a special emphasis on the fetal cerebral cortex, and on identifying the
mechanisms by which environmental chemicals may interfere with thyroid
hormone signaling. Dr. Zoeller earned his B.S. in Biology at Indiana
University in Bloomington in 1977, followed by a M.S. and PhD in Neuroendocrinology
at Oregon State University in Corvallis. He then joined the Laboratory
of Cell Biology at the National Institute of Mental Health where he began
to work on the molecular biology of neuroendocrine regulation with a
focus on the reproductive and thyroid axes. He moved for a brief period
to the Laboratory of Neurochemistry before accepting a faculty position
at the University of Missouri- Columbia in 1988. Dr. Zoeller moved to
the University of Massachusetts in 1994. He was a member of the U.S.
EPA's Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee workgroup
in the mid-1990's.
Abstract: "Thyroid
Hormone in Brain Development" |
