Committee

Committee Member Bios

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William H. Farland (Chair) is currently the Senior Vice President for Research and Engagement at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. He is also a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at that institution. In 2006, Dr Farland was appointed Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science in the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD). He had served as the Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator since 2001. In 2003, Dr. Farland was also appointed Chief Scientist in the Office of the Agency Science Advisor. He served as EPA's Acting Science Advisor throughout 2005. Formerly, he was the Director of the ORD's National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) which had major responsibility for the conduct of chemical-specific risk assessments in support of EPA regulatory programs, the development of Agency- wide guidance on risk assessment, and the conduct of research to improve risk assessment. Dr. Farland's 27 year federal career was characterized by a commitment to the development of national and international approaches to the testing and assessment of the fate and effects of environmental agents. Dr. Farland holds a Ph.D. (1976) from UCLA in Cell Biology and Biochemistry. Dr. Farland served on a number of executive- level committees and advisory boards within the Federal government. In 2005-2006, he chaired the Executive Committee of the National Toxicology Program (NTP). He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, a public member of the American Chemistry Council's Strategic Science Team for its Long Term Research Initiative (ACC/LRI) and a member of the Programme Advisory Committee for the WHO's International Programme on Chemical Safety. In 2002, Dr. Farland was recognized by the Society for Risk Analysis with the "Outstanding Risk Practitioner Award," and in 2005 was appointed as a Fellow of the Society. In 2006, he received a Presidential Rank Award for his service as a federal senior executive. In 2007, he was elected as a Fellow, Academy of Toxicological Sciences. He continues to teach and publish and has been a member of the Editorial Board for Risk Analysis, Environmental Health Perspectives and Chemosphere.

Tina Bahadori is the Managing Director for the Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI) program at the American Chemistry Council (ACC). Through the LRI, ACC members sponsor research designed to advance scientific knowledge concerning the potential impacts of chemicals on human health. The 2009-2015 LRI Research Strategy focuses on research to interpret health implications of data from the new technologies for toxicological testing that are revolutionizing risk-based decision-making; innovative tools to characterize biologically relevant environmental exposures and their implication for health risks; and, improved assessments of susceptible populations, by understanding genetic influences and gene-environment interactions. Dr. Bahadori is the President (2009-2010) of the International Society of Exposure Science (ISES). She currently serves as an expert and reviewer on a number of scientific panels for the National Academy of Sciences, Environmental Protection Agency, and several major particulate matter studies. She was also a member of the Chemical Exposure Working Group on the National Children's Study and is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. Prior to joining ACC, Dr. Bahadori held positions at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Arthur D. Little Inc. She holds a D.Sc. in Environmental Science and Engineering from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Caroline "Cal" L. Baier-Anderson is a Health Scientist with Environmental Defense Fund and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. In her current position as Health Scientist for Environmental Defense Fund, Dr. Baier-Anderson provides technical and scientific support on chemical regulatory policy, air toxics, and nanotechnology. As an Assistant Professor, she teaches a course in risk assessment, drawing on her experiences as an industry consultant conducting risk assessments on chemicals found in drinking water. She has also consulted for the State of Delaware on air toxics health risks. She currently serves on the NRC Committee on Contaminated Drinking Water at Camp Lejeune. Dr. Baier-Anderson studied at the University of Maryland, Baltimore where she also provided technical outreach assistance to communities living adjacent to hazardous waste sites. Much of the technical assistance focused on working with the EPA and the US Army on the cleanup of Superfund sites at Aberdeen Proving Ground. She earned her Ph.D. in Toxicology in 1999 from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Kim Boekelheide is Professor of Medical Sciences in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Brown University. His research examines fundamental molecular mechanisms by which environmental and occupational toxicants induce testicular injury. Current projects include the study of co- exposure synergy using model testicular toxicants and the effects of in utero endocrine disruptor exposure on steroidogenesis and a predisposition to cancer. He is Director of the Brown University Superfund Basic Research Program. Dr. Boekelheide has served on various NRC committees, including the Committee on Toxicity Testing and Assessment of Environmental Agents (which produced Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century), the NAS Subcommittee on Fluoride in Drinking Water, and the Committee on Gender Differences in Susceptibility to Environmental Factors: A Priority Assessment. He is a Councilor of the Society of Toxicology, a past member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Toxicology Program, and has been a member of various expert panels (bisphenol A, phthalates, bromopropanes) of the National Toxicology Program Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction. Dr. Boekelheide received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Pathology from Duke University.

Ann Bostrom is Associate Dean of Research and Professor at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs of the University of Washington. She joined the Evans School faculty in 2007. Dr. Bostrom has research interests in risk perception, communication and management, and in environmental policy and decision making under uncertainty. Her research focuses on mental models of hazardous processes (how people understand and make decisions about risks), and has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Current projects investigate parental decision making about children's environmental health, seismic risk perceptions and decision making in port systems, warning decisions for extreme weather events, and mental models of climate change. Dr. Bostrom previously served on the faculty at Georgia Tech from 1992 - 2007, most recently as Associate Dean for Research at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and Professor in the School of Public Policy. Dr. Bostrom co-directed the Decision Risk and Management Science Program at NSF from 1999 - 2001, during which time she organized and presented at national and international meetings on research and science policy. Dr. Bostrom is the risk communication area or associate editor for Risk Analysis, the Journal of Risk Research, and Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, and a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis. She has authored or contributed to numerous publications, including Risk Communication: A Mental Models Approach, and Risk Assessment, Modeling and Decision Support: Strategic Directions, as well as NRC and EPA Science Advisory Board and Board of Scientific Counselor reports. She is currently serving on the NRC Committee on Review of the FDA's Role in Ensuring Safe Food and the NRC Committee on Review of the Tsunami Warning and Forecast System and Overview of the Nation's Tsunami Preparedness. Dr. Bostrom earned her Ph.D. in policy analysis from Carnegie Mellon University in 1990, and an M.B.A. from Western Washington University.

George P. Daston has been employed at Procter & Gamble Company since 1985, where he is Victor Mills Society Research Fellow. Dr. Daston has spent his entire career in research to understand the effects of exogenous chemicals on biological systems, especially the developing embryo, fetus and child. His research interests include teratogenic mechanisms, in vitro methodologies, and risk assessment. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, reviews and book chapters, and has edited three books. Dr. Daston's professional activities include serving as Councilor of the Society of Toxicology (2001-03); President (1999-2000) of the Teratology Society; member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (1995-98); member of the EPA Board of Scientific Counselors (2002-08); member of the U.S. National Toxicology Program Board of Scientific Counselors (2003-06, Chair in 2006); member of the National Children's Study Advisory Committee (2003-06); and member of EPA's Endocrine Disrupter Screening and Testing Advisory Committee (EDSTAC). He has served on several NRC committees, including the Committee on Developmental Toxicology, Committee on Research Opportunities and Priorities for EPA, and the Subcommittee on Arsenic in Drinking Water. Dr. Daston has served on the organizing committees for numerous government and private sector-organized workshops on reproductive toxicity, risk assessment, and non-animal alternatives. He chaired NIEHS/ICCVAM working groups evaluating the state of validation of the Frog Embryo Teratogenesis Assay - Xenopus (FETAX) assay for teratogen screening and receptor binding and transcriptional activation assays for estrogens and androgens. Dr. Daston is Editor-in-Chief of Birth Defects Research: Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology. Dr. Daston is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Developmental Biology Program at the University of Cincinnati and Children's Hospital Research Foundation. Dr. Daston received his Ph.D. from the University of Miami and post-doctoral training at the U.S. EPA's laboratories in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Susan J. Fisher is a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco Institute for Regeneration Medicine that studies human embryonic and extraembryonic development and biomedical mass spectometry. Her group studies the mechanisms used by the trophoblast cells of the human placenta to invade the uterus during normal pregnancy. They also use information about molecular aspects of cytotrophoblast function in normal pregnancy to search for defects that are associated with pregnancy complications. The Fisher lab has also begun studying the earliest stages of human development using human embryonic stem cells as a model system. They recently discovered that the cells exhibit apical-basal type polarization and are currently investigating how this highly specialized phenomenon is related to pluripotency. Their recently funded grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is focused on constructing a fate map of the human embryo and she is working on a national epigenomics project. Finally, her laboratory is using mass spectrometry-based approaches for proteome analyses: developing assays for environmental toxicology, examining salivary proteome for diagnostic potential, and developing mass spectrometry-based methods to identify early tumor biomarkers in body fluid. Dr. Fisher has chaired the NIH study section of Reproductive Biology, received the NICHD (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Sadler Award, an NIH MERIT award, as well as a number of university awards. Dr. Fisher has earned her Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Kentucky-Lexington.

Shuk-mei Ho is the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Chair; Director and Professor of the Department of Environmental Health; Director of the Center for Environmental Genetics; and Co-Leader of the Cincinnati Cancer Consortium, in the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine. An expert in hormonal carcinogenesis, Dr. Ho's research focuses on the significance of hormones and endocrine disruptors on carcinogenesis in the prostate, ovary, endometrium and mammary gland. Her research utilizes innovative genomic, epigenomic, proteomic, and bioinformatic approaches for the discovery of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, novel signaling pathways, mechanism-based therapeutics and interventions, and translational strategies for predicting patients' responses. Her current programs center on developmental origins of complex diseases including cancer, effects of cadmium and polyaromatic hydrocarbon, oxidative stress, and inflammation-mediated cellular changes. She has served as the Scientific Counsel Member of the National Toxicology Program between 2001and 2004, President-Elect of the Society of Basic Urological Research in 2005, Integration Panel Member of the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Program since 2007, and is the recipient of the 2007 Women in Urology Award for Excellence in Urologic Research. She has been invited to chair numerous National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense study sections and strategic committees. Dr. Ho has published over 140 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. Her current and past research projects have been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, the Department of Defense, and a number of private foundations.

Stephen M. Rappaport received his B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1969 and his Ph.D. in environmental sciences and engineering from the University of North Carolina in 1973. Between 1976 and 1990 he was professor of environmental health at the University of California, Berkeley. He left Berkeley in 1990 to join the faculty of the University of North Carolina, and in 2006 he returned to his former position at Berkeley. Professor Rappaport is director and principal investigator of the Berkeley Center for Exposure Biology, a multidisciplinary program that brings together Berkeley researchers from public health, chemistry, and electrical engineering to develop a new generation of biomarkers and biosensors for environmental epidemiology. He is a pioneer in the emerging field of 'exposure biology', and much of his current research involves the development and application of blood protein adducts as biomarkers of exposure to toxic chemicals arising from inhalation, ingestion, and endogenous processes. He has used environmental measurements and biomarkers to elucidate the metabolism of benzene, styrene, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in exposed people and to quantify interindividual variability in biomarker levels due to genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors. Prof. Rappaport has also published extensively in areas related to the assessment of long-term chemical exposures for purposes of controlling workplace hazards and of investigating exposure-response relationships. He has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and has collaborated extensively with investigators throughout the world.

Ivan Rusyn is Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He directs the Laboratory of Environmental Genomics and the Carolina Center for Computational Toxicology in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC. He also serves as Associate Director of the Curriculum in Toxicology and is a member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility, Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, and the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences. Dr. Rusyn served on several working groups convened by the National Research Council and the WHO/IARC. Dr. Rusyn's laboratory has an active research portfolio funded by the National Institutes of Health and the US EPA with a focus on the mechanisms of action of environmental toxicants and the genetic determinants of the susceptibility to toxicant- induced injury. The Rusyn lab applies molecular, biochemical, genetic and genomics approaches to understanding the mechanisms of environmental agent-related disease. His studies on health effects of environmental agents resulted in more than 75 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Rusyn received his M.D. (with honors) from Ukrainian State Medical University in Kiev and his Ph.D. in Toxicology from UNC-Chapel Hill. He also trained at the University of Dusseldorf in Germany and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Margaret Spitz is Professor and former Chair of Epidemiology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. During her career at MD Anderson, Dr. Spitz has conducted innovative molecular and genetic epidemiology research, has become internationally recognized for her research on cancer prevention, and has made a significant commitment to mentoring women in science. The research led by Dr. Spitz focuses on inter-individual variation in susceptibility to tobacco carcinogenesis. Dr. Spitz became one of eight inductees into the inaugural Greater Houston Women's Chamber of Commerce, in the Science, Technology, Engineering or Math category in 2008. Dr. Spitz served on the NRC National Cancer Policy Forum from 2005-2008 and on the NRC Committee on Developing Biomarker-based Tools for Cancer Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment: The State of the Science, Evaluation, Implementation, and Economics from 2006-2007. Dr. Spitz is an established epidemiologist working on cancer and new approaches to prevention. Dr. Spitz earned her M.P.H. at the University of Texas System and her M.D. at the University of Witwatersrand.

Martin L. Stephens is Vice President of the Animal Research Issues Section at The Humane Society of the United States. Dr. Stephens serves on the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, the Steering Group for the 7th World Congress on the Use of Animals and Alternatives in the Life Sciences, and the management teams of AltTox and Altweb, websites devoted to alternative methods of toxicity testing. He served on the NRC committee that produced Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century, as well as on the Scientific Advisory Committee on Alternative Toxicological Methods for the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods, and committees at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Stephens has extensive experience in animal protection and in vitro testing sciences. He earned a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Chicago.

Helmut Zarbl is Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). He is a member of the Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), a joint Institute of UMDNJ and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is also the Director of the NIEHS Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease at EOHSI, is the Associate Director for Public Health Science at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Previously, he was a member of the Divisions of Human Biology and Public Health Sciences at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHRCR), where he was Director and a Principal Investigator for the NIEHS sponsored FHFRC/University of Washington Toxicogenomics Research Consortium. Dr. Zarbl's research has focused largely on toxicogenomics and functional genomics, carcinogenesis, molecular and cellular biology, and toxicology. Specifically this has included work to understand molecular mechanisms of chemical carcinogenesis, chemoprevntion, and the genetic basis for differential susceptibility to mammary carcinogenesis using both animal and in vitro model systems. Recent studies include the role of circadian rhythm in cancer risk and prevention. His studies in the area of toxicogenomics include the development and application of standards for DNA microarray experiments, and phenotypic anchoring of response of human cells, model organisms (yeast) and target organs (rodents) to toxicants, providing insights into dose and temporal responses, as well as mechanisms of action. Dr. Zarbl is also actively involved in technology development, including his patented work on RNAi and its application to the development of novel platforms for functional genomics (with Engineering Arts, Inc). Dr. Zarbl served on the NRC committee that produced Application of Toxicogenomic Technologies to Predictive Toxicology and Risk Assessment. Previously he was an Assistant and Associate Professor at M.I.T. He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from McGill University.

Lauren Zeise is Chief of the Reproductive and Cancer Hazard Assessment Branch of the California Environmental Protection Agency. She oversees or is otherwise involved in a variety of California's risk assessment activities, including cancer and reproductive toxicant assessments; development of frameworks and methodologies for assessing cumulative impact, nanotechnology, green chemistry/safer alternatives, and susceptible populations; the California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program; and health risk characterizations for environmental media, food, fuels and consumer products. Dr. Zeise's research focuses on human interindividual variability and risk. She was the 2008 recipient of the Society of Risk Analysis's Outstanding Practitioners Award and is a National Associate of the National Research Council. She has served on various advisory boards and committees of the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Technology Assessment, World Health Organization, and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. She has also served on a variety of NRC and IOM committees and boards, including the committee that produced Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and Strategy, Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment, and Understanding Risk: Informing Decisions in a Democratic Society. Dr. Zeise received her Ph.D. from Harvard University.