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.
John
Christopher
Ph.D.
Biological Science, DABT
California
EPA, Department of Toxic Substances Control
|
Elaine A Cohen Hubal
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering
U.S.
EPA, National Exposure Research Laboratory
|
John
M. DeSesso
Ph.D. Anatomy and Teratology, D.A.B.F.E., D.A.B.F.M.
Mitretek
Systems
Center
for Science
and Technology
|
Sam Kacew
Ph.D.
Pharmacology
University
of Ottawa
|
Michael L. Dourson
Ph.D. Toxicology, DABT
Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment
(Panel Chair)
|
Chad Sandusky
Ph.D. Pharmacology
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
|
Pertti
(Bert) Hakkinen
Ph.D. Comparative Pharmacology and Toxicology
European Commission Joint Research Centre
|
Kimberly M.
Thompson
Sc.D. Environmental
Health
Harvard
University
|
Dr. John
Christopher
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
California
.
He constructs multi-pathway risk assessments to identify
numerical criteria for classifying hazardous levels of metals and
organic chemicals in waste. He
also uses
Monte Carlo
methods in various exposure settings to identify levels protective of
human health. He has
received Certificates of Recognition for contributions resulting
in the successful transfer of a hazardous waste landfill at a
former naval shipyard in
Vallejo
,
CA
, for a prescribed burn to uncover
unexploded ordnance at a former fort in,
Monterey
,
CA
, and also for cleanup of a fleet
industrial supply center in
Alameda
,
CA
.
In addition, he has received a Sustained Superior
Accomplishment Award from California Department of Toxic
Substances Control for risk assessment of metals in hazardous
waste.
Prior to his
current position with the State of
California
, Dr. Christopher conducted risk
assessments for ICF Kaiser Engineers and IT Corporation.
He also worked for research laboratories where he conducted
and managed animal studies.
Dr.
Christopher earned a B.S in Biology from
Georgetown
University,
Washington
DC
, and a M.A. in Pharmacology from
Stanford
University
,
Palo Alto
,
CA
.
He received his Ph.D. in Biological Science from
Oregon
State
University
,
Corvallis
OR
.
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.
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Dr. John DeSesso
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
Virginia
Commonwealth
University
. He
is a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Examiners and the
American Board of Forensic Medicine, specializing in anatomy and
risk assessment, and a Fellow of the
Academy
of
Toxicological Sciences
.
Prior to joining Mitretek Systems, Dr. DeSesso was a Senior
Principal Scientist at MITRE Corporation where he evaluated
chronic studies (with special attention to reproductive toxicity
and teratology) for EPA’s Office of Pesticides, conducted
biostatistical analyses of data and risk assessment techniques,
predicted toxic effects based upon structure-activity
relationships for new chemicals, provided quality assurance of
risk assessments performed by contractors for the U.S. Air Force,
and performed independent research into the mechanisms that
underlie chemically induced birth defects. Dr.
DeSesso’s research focus has been the elucidation of the
mechanisms underlying teratogenesis and designing strategies to
ameliorate the untoward effects.
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:
Academy
of
Toxicological Sciences
,
American
College
of Toxicology,
American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Society for Risk
Analysis, Society of Toxicology, and Teratology Society.
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.
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Dr. Michael
Dourson
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
University
of
Cincinnati
and a B.A. in biology from
Wittenberg
University
. Dr.
Dourson’s research interests include investigating methods to
extrapolate toxicity data garnered on experimental animals or
healthy adults to the appropriate sensitive human population. Topics
such as adversity of effect and characterization of risk are also
of interest.
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.
Back
to Table
Dr.
Pertti (Bert) Hakkinen
Dr. Pertti
(Bert) Hakkinen is on the staff of the European Commission at the
EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in
Ispra
,
Italy
. He is in the JRC’s
Physical and Chemical Exposure Unit of the Institute for Health
and Consumer Protection where he helps develop and manage work
packages for EIS-ChemRisks, the European Information System on
risks from chemicals released from consumer products and articles
(textiles, toys, etc.).
Dr. Hakkinen is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the (
U.S.
)
Mickey
Leland
National
Urban
Air
Toxics
Research
Center
and has served as the vice chair of
this panel since March 2003. Prior
to joining the European Commission’s staff, Dr. Hakkinen was on
the staff of Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA).
Before joining TERA,
he worked at the Procter & Gamble Company to provide global
human exposure and risk assessment support for numerous types of
consumer products and chemicals. While
at Procter & Gamble, he chaired the Exposure Assessment Task
Group of the Chemical Manufacturers Association (now the American
Chemistry Council) for several years, and was a chair of the
American Chemistry Council’s Human Exposure Assessment Technical
Implementation Panel.
Dr. Hakkinen
earned a B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the
University
of
California
,
Santa Barbara
, and received his Ph.D. in
Comparative Pharmacology and Toxicology from the
University
of
California
,
San Francisco
. He
served as a postdoctoral investigator in respiratory toxicology,
and exposure and risk assessment at the Biology Division of the
Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr.
Hakkinen has been an invited expert or reviewer for the U.S. EPA,
Health
Canada
, and other associations to develop
or revise human exposure assessment guidance, resource documents,
and software. He has
lectured on exposure and risk assessment, risk perception, and
risk communication at the
University
of
Cincinnati
and elsewhere.
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.
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Dr. Elaine A Cohen Hubal
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
Camp
Dresser
and
McKee. She also served
as a Predoctoral Fellow at the Chemical Industry Institute of
Toxicology.
Dr.
Hubal received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from
North
Carolina
State
University
and
a S.B. in Chemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
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.
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Dr. Sam Kacew
Dr. Sam Kacew is a Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular
Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, as well as a scientist of the
Institute
of
Population Health
at the
University
of
Ottawa
. His
responsibilities include teaching medical students and graduate
students the techniques required to write and publish peer-review
papers. His current
research involves the effects of chemical contaminants in breast
milk on infants, the role of confounding factors in toxicity
testing, as well as the basis for differences in responsiveness to
chemicals between infants and adults.
Dr. Kacew received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the
University
of
Ottawa
.
He served as a Postdoctoral Fellow for the Medical Research
Council of Canada at the
University
of
Montreal
. Dr. Kacew was certified in 1994 as a Fellow of Academy of
Toxicological Sciences. He
has received numerous awards, including several achievement,
recognition, public communications, and travel awards from the
Society of Toxicology (SOT), the United States-China Foundation,
and the National Science Council of the Republic of China.
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 (
U.S.
) Committee on Toxicology, and
Chair of the National Academy of Sciences Subcommittee on
Iodotrifluoromethane. He
also has served as a chairman for a variety of symposiums, panels,
and committees including the SOT Annual Meeting’s General
Toxicology Session, the Federation of American Societies for
Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, an Assessment Panel for the
Canadian Council on Animal Care, a SOT Symposium on Use of
Moderate Dietary Restriction in Safety Assessment, and a SOT
Symposium on the Role of Diet and Obesity in Endocrine Disruption.
He has presented hundreds of invited lectures for a variety
of federal and state government agencies, colleges and
universities, private companies, and international organizations.
He was an invited participant to the American Society for
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Meeting, the Federation
of American Societies for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, the
International Life Sciences Institute, the Chalk River Nuclear
Labs, Turkey Society of Biochemistry, Society of Toxicology of
Taiwan, and the Korea Society of Toxicology.
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.
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Dr.
Chad Sandusky
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
European
Center
for
Alternative Methods (ECVAM) and the Interagency Coordinating
Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM).
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 has extensive international experience including the
coordination and submission of dossiers for the EU Reauthorization
process under EU 91/414 and presentation of the results to member
states. Dr. Sandusky
also represented the
Institute
of
Food
Technology
at
the Codex Committee for Pesticide Residues (CCPR) in
The
Hague
for
several years. In
addition, he also coordinated preparation and reviews of dossiers
for chemicals approved as GRAS as well as directed the preparation
and submission of Food Contact Notifications (FCNs) to the FDA.
More recently, Dr. Sandusky represented the International
Coalition of Animal Protection Organizations (ICAPO) at the OECD
meetings in
Paris
on
the Existing Chemicals Programme.
Dr.
Sandusky received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the
Emory
University
.
He served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Georgetown
University Schools of Medicine and Dentistry,
Washington
,
D.C.
He is currently a member of the Society of Toxicology, and
was previously affiliated with such organizations as the
International Society of Exposure Analysis and the Society of
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
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Dr.
Kimberly M. Thompson
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
Harvard
University
’s
School
of
Public
Health
.
She received a M.S. and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Thompson has served on several National Academy of
Sciences committees and subcommittees and a number of other expert
review panels. She
has been an invited presenter at a variety of workshops,
conferences, and annual meetings, such as the Boston Mayor’s
Symposium on Youth Development, the Congressional Research
Services Children’s Environmental Risks: Federal Activities in
Perspective Symposium on Risk Assessment and Risk Communication,
and a NIH/NIEHS Workshop on the Role of Human Exposure Assessment
in the Prevention of Environmental Disease.
She also served as the chair of the Exposure Assessment
Specialty Group and is currently a Councilor of the Society for
Risk Analysis.
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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