CONCURRENT DEGREE: THE POLICY CONNECTION - ROBERT DUFF
Robert Duff (MS, Toxicology, 1993) directs the Offi ce of Environmental Health Assessments in the Washington State Department of Health. He leads a team of toxicologists, epidemiologists, risk assessors, health educators, and other environmental health specialists who investigate human exposures to environmental contaminants. Based on these assessments, his team provides guidance to regulatory agencies (including their own) on ways to reduce or eliminate exposures of concern to human health.
Not content to be an offi ce-bound bureaucrat, Duff believes his position requires advocacy on emerging issues in environmental health. As the department’s 2006 commencement speaker, he told the graduating class, "The time is past, or maybe never has been, when practicing good science is all that is asked of us. We are here for something more. We are here because we value our health and our environment. In the end, we are here for the future."