Workshop Planning Committee
Elaine M. Faustman, Ph.D, DABT
Professor & Director, Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington
ELAINE M. FAUSTMAN is a professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health and directs the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication. Her research interests include understanding molecular mechanisms of developmental and reproductive toxicants, characterizing in vitro techniques for developmental toxicology assessment, and developing biologically based dose-response models for noncancer risk assessment. Her research expertise includes the development of tools for incorporating new scientific findings into risk assessment decisions. Dr. Faustman is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Risk Analysis. She has served on numerous committees for NIEHS (Division of Extramural Research & Training and the NTP Board of Scientific Counselors) and for the World Health Organization (including Environmental Health Criteria Document Committees for modeling dose-response and children’s risk assessment). She has also been involved in National Research Council committees, including the Committee on Spacecraft Exposure Guidelines, Sub Committee for Zinc-Cadmium Sulfide and Upper Reference Levels of Nutrients for the Food and Nutrition Board (IOM) and the Committee on Toxicology. She chaired the NAS Committee on Developmental Toxicology. Dr. Faustman is a PI of a USEPA/NIEHS funded Center for Child Environmental Health Risks Research and a PI of the Pacific Northwest Center for the National Children’s Study. Dr. Faustman received a PhD in toxicology from Michigan State University.
Patricia Cirone, PhD
Affiliate faculty, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Services, School of Public Health, University of Washington
Dr. Patricia Cirone retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection, Region 10 (USEPA) in 2006 where she served as the Chief of the Risk Evaluation Unit for over 20 years. During her tenure at USEPA she received a gold medal for as an author of USEPA’s Ecological Risk Assessment Guidelines. She was a member of USEPA’s Risk Assessment Forum, Tribal Science Council and Science Policy Steering Committee. She is currently an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and a consultant with Ridolfi, Inc. Since retiring from EPA she was invited to teach a workshop on human health risk assessment in South Africa by the South African National Institute of Occupational Health and Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, South Africa. In May 2007, she was asked by USEPA-Region 10, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) to be a member of the ODEQ Human Health Focus Group. The focus group provided advice to ODEQ on their human health water quality criteria. She received her PhD in biology from the Institute of Environmental Medicine, New York University, NY in 1979.
Jamie Donatuto, PhD
Environmental Specialist, Office of Planning Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
Dr. Donatuto has been working as an Environmental Specialist for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, located in La Conner, Washington, since 2000. She writes, enacts and manages environmental health-based investigations. She was the writer and grant manager for the recently completed "Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shellfish Project," an EPA grant that was the largest research project ever funded to a Native American Tribe by the EPA at the time of award. She launched the Swinomish Environmental Education Program, and works extensively with community education and outreach projects. She recently completed her doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia in the interdisciplinary Resource Management and Environmental Studies program. Her thesis was titled, “When seafood feeds the spirit yet poisons the body: Developing health indicators for risk assessment in a Native American fishing community.”
Anna K. Harding, Ph.D.
Professor and Graduate Coordinator, Department of Public Health, Oregon State University
Anna Harding is a Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Public Health, with research expertise in environmental health, including water quality, environmental contamination and population-based risk, and community involvement. She received a PhD in Public Health from Oregon State University. She is the Principal Investigator of the Community Outreach Core for OSU’s NIEHS Superfund Research Program, to investigate PAH exposures associated with traditional cultural practices with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. She previously worked with Barbara Harper and Stuart Harris on an EPA STAR grant to develop environmental exposure scenarios for tribes engaged in subsistence lifestyles, and recently completed a study investigating marine exposures to Oregon surfers. Dr. Harding provided assistance to impacted communities as a faculty member for 12 years with the Technical Outreach Services for Communities Program, the outreach program with the Western Region Hazardous Substances Research Center. During the past ten years, Dr. Harding also worked as a visiting scientist of the Environmental Policy and Risk Management Group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, served on the U.S. EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors, and on the National Academies/National Research Council Committee on Water System Security Research, and as a member of the Oregon Environmental Public Health Tracking Advisory Board.
Barbara Harper, PhD, DABT
Program Manager, Environmental Health, Department of Science and Engineering, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation & Research Associate Professor, College of Public Health, Oregon State University
Dr. Harper is a risk assessor and board-certified toxicologist with 30 years of experience. She received her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. While on the faculty at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, she lectured in toxicology, environmental health, and related topics. She then worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, and taught risk assessment at Penn State Harrisburg. Then she joined Battelle's Pacific Northwest National Lab as a program manager in risk assessment. She served for 6 years on EPA’s Science Advisory Board drinking water committee, and has published papers and reports on tribal health risks from toxics in fish and other resources, tribal exposure pathways, and environmental justice. She was principal investigator on the EPA grant that supported the development of the tribal exposure scenarios, and works with many tribes on toxics issues. This work is evolving into native natural resources (NRDA) and climate change.
Lon Kissinger
Toxicologist, Office of Environmental Assessment, Risk Evaluation Unit, US EPA- Region 10
Lon Kissinger received a masters degree in environmental toxicology from Cornell University before joining the Washington State Dept. of Ecology in 1990. At Ecology, Lon worked on implementation of the Washington Superfund regulation (i.e. the Model Toxics Control Act), air data management and toxics issues, evaluation of seafood consumption rates for risk analysis, proposed revisions of Washington’s sediment management standards, and risk analysis for sediment toxic waste sites. Lon joined EPA Region 10’s Office of Environmental Assessment in 2001 where his main focus has been sediment Superfund site risk assessment. At EPA, Lon has focused on characterizing seafood consumption rates to assess risks for high seafood consuming groups including tribes and Asians/Pacific Islanders. He assisted Ecology in adopting a higher seafood consumption rate for Model Toxics Control Act sites in the Duwamish corridor and Elliott Bay based on data for Asians and Pacific Islanders. Most recently, he has collaborated with EPA’s Office of Research and Development, the Quinault Indian Nation, and the consulting firm Westat in developing a software package to assist tribes in conducting seafood consumption surveys.
Catherine O’Neill
Professor, School of Law, Seattle University
Professor O'Neill was a Ford Foundation Graduate Fellow at Harvard Law School. She came to the Northwest in 1992 as an environmental planner and air toxics coordinator for the Washington State Department of Ecology. From 1994 to1997, she was a Lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law. From 1997 to 2001, Professor O'Neill was Assistant, then Associate Professor at the University of Arizona College of Law. She joined the faculty in 2001. Professor O’Neill’s research focuses on issues of justice in environmental law and policy; in particular, her work considers the effects of contamination and depletion of fish and other resources relied upon by tribes and their members, communities of color and low-income communities. She has worked with the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council on its Fish Consumption Report; with various tribes in the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes on issues of contaminated fish and waters; and with environmental justice groups in the Southwest on air and water pollution issues. Professor O’Neill has testified before Congress on regulations governing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. She has also served as a pro bono consultant to the attorneys for the National Congress of American Indians and other tribes in litigation challenging these mercury regulations. Professor O’Neill is a Member Scholar with the Center for Progressive Reform.
Katie Frevert
Research Translation and Outreach Core Program Manager, Superfund Research Program, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington
Katie Frevert is the manager of the Research Translation and Outreach Core (RTOC) of the University of Washington's Superfund Research Program. Katie works with program investigators to disseminate research findings and new technologies to a spectrum of stakeholders. The RTOC responds to requests from government agency staff and community partners on issues related to hazardous waste site and contamination issues; the core is well positioned to access relevant informational resources. Katie's research background is in limnology. She has a master's degree in education and has directed University of Washington education outreach and curriculum development programs.
Ami Tsuchiya, MPH, MS, RD
Research Scientist, Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington
Ami Tsuchiya is a research scientist at the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication (IRARC) since 2006. She received a M.S. in Environmental Toxicology and a M.P.H. in Public Health Nutrition from University of Washington. She worked with Washington State Department of Health assessing contaminant exposure and fish consumption among Asian women. She is also a registered dietitian and has worked as a nutritionist with local public health departments and clinics. Her current research is in the integration of nutrition and toxicology.
Alison C. Scherer, MS
Research Scientist, Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington
Alison Scherer is a Research Scientist at the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication within the School of Public Health at the University of Washington. She has a Master of Science degree in environmental health, an undergraduate background in environmental science, and experience in science journalism. Her past and current projects include working on the Human Exposure Research Project of the Pacific Northwest Center for Human Health and Ocean Studies, writing manuscripts, developing grant proposals, organizing risk assessment journal clubs, and helping Dr. Elaine Faustman instruct an online masters-level risk assessment and risk management course.
