SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD

Robin Dodson is a Research Scientist at Silent Spring Institute, a nonprofit organization that researches the links between the environment and women’s health, especially breast cancer. Her expertise is in exposure assessment and indoor air pollution. She is currently working on developing innovative exposure assessment methods for cohort studies and intervention studies aimed at reducing indoor pollution.

Dr. Dodson completed her doctorate in environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health where she designed and conducted an exposure study in the Boston area focusing on residential and personal exposures to volatile organic compounds, such as chloroform from heated tap water, benzene from attached garages, and formaldehyde from home furnishings. She developed models to evaluate the potential impacts of chemicals on residential exposure in secondary areas, such as basements, attached garages, and apartment hallways. She also developed a personal exposure model based on time-weighted microenvironmental concentrations to determine how people are exposed to volatile organic compounds. In addition, she evaluated methods for leveraging existing residential concentration data to model residential concentrations for potential study populations. As a graduate student, she also contributed to two studies focusing on asthma in lower-socioeconomic-status urban residences in the Boston area.

Prior to her graduate work, Dr. Dodson worked at Menzie-Cura and Associates, where she contributed to both human and ecological risk assessments. In addition to her doctorate, Dr. Dodson holds a bachelor’s in environmental studies from Bates College and a master’s in environmental science and risk management from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Dodson was nominated for the SAB by the Toxics Use Reduction Institute

Dr. Christy Foran is a Research Biologist with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Environmental Laboratory (ERDC EL).  She has been a member of the Laboratory’s Risk and Decision Science Team since 2009.

Dr. Foran’s research interests run the range of environmental toxicology, including endocrine disruption to policy analysis and decision support. She was a faculty member of the Department of Pharmacology at The University of Mississippi (1998 -2001), as well as the Department of Biology at West Virginia University (2001-2009) where she was granted tenure in 2007.  She maintains adjunct appointments in both departments.  Her academic research focused Environmental Toxicology, specifically fish physiology and reproduction and the impacts of contaminants including endocrine disrupting chemicals.  She earned a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard University in 2008, where she studied science and technology policy and environmental economics.  Her research at ERDC EL involves integration of judgment and prioritization with modeling and research to inform decision making.  These projects use toxicology, risk characterization and modeling to inform remedial action, adaptive management and allocation of resources.  She has published more than 50 papers and book chapters since 1994 ranging from toxicology to decision analysis.

Dr. Foran was educated at The University of Texas at Austin (B.S. Zoology 1992), Cornell University (Ph.D. 1998, Neurobiology and Behavior) and Harvard University (M.P.A. 2008, Kennedy School of Government).

Dr. Foran was nominated to the SAB by the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.

Dr. Christy Foran is a Research Biologist with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Environmental Laboratory (ERDC EL). She has been a member of the Laboratory’s Risk and Decision Science Team since 2009.

Dr. Foran’s research interests run the range of environmental toxicology, including endocrine disruption to policy analysis and decision support. She was a faculty member of the Department of Pharmacology at The University of Mississippi (1998 -2001), as well as the Department of Biology at West Virginia University (2001-2009) where she was granted tenure in 2007. She maintains adjunct appointments in both departments. Her academic research focused Environmental Toxicology, specifically fish physiology and reproduction and the impacts of contaminants including endocrine disrupting chemicals. She earned a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard University in 2008, where she studied science and technology policy and environmental economics. Her research at ERDC EL involves integration of judgment and prioritization with modeling and research to inform decision making. These projects use toxicology, risk characterization and modeling to inform remedial action, adaptive management and allocation of resources. She has published more than 50 papers and book chapters since 1994 ranging from toxicology to decision analysis.

Dr. Foran was educated at The University of Texas at Austin (B.S. Zoology 1992), Cornell University (Ph.D. 1998, Neurobiology and Behavior) and Harvard University (M.P.A. 2008, Kennedy School of Government).

Dr. Foran was nominated to the SAB by the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.

Dr. Gurney, Professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Physics at Simmons University is an expert in the field of Green Chemistry Education, where he has been actively developing curricula since 2001. He focuses his teaching and research on the applications of green chemistry and finding solutions for everyday problems using materials that are “benign by design,” and the research and development of research-integrated undergraduate curricula.

As the Principal Investigator and Director of the Undergraduate Laboratory Renaissance Program, funded by the W. M. Keck Foundation and the National Science Foundation, Dr. Gurney studied the effectiveness of an entirely project-based, research-integrated, greener, organic chemistry laboratory experience as one component of a completely re-engineered, undergraduate laboratory curriculum. Dr. Gurney is also highly active in the development of greener polymeric systems capable of closed-loop molecular recycling, Dr. Gurney’s research has been funded by the NSF OISE (#1031394), the Semiconductor Research Corporation Educational Alliance-Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, the W. M. Keck Foundation, the Presidential Fund for Faculty Excellence at Simmons College.

Dr. Gurney is one of the ten founding faculty Board Members for the Green Chemistry Commitment. Currently, Dr. Gurney is the Director of the Summer Undergraduate Research Program at Simmons (SURPASs), and is leading the development and delivery of Simmons Mentored Assistantships in Research Training – a competency-based, undergraduate research program in STEM, providing undergraduate research opportunities through a tiered mentoring approach for undergraduates at Simmons University.

Dr. Gurney was nominated for the SAB by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Denise Kmetzo is the Principal of Collaborative Risk Solutions LLC and an experienced health risk assessment and toxicology consultant. She conducts and manages complex risk assessments within a variety of regulatory frameworks, models fate and transport of contaminants, evaluates chemical exposures, communicates potential for health risks, and performs product safety assessments. Ms. Kmetzo has served as an expert witness in legal cases involving exposure to contaminants, toxicology, and product liability. Ms. Kmetzo assesses exposure, toxicity, and risk within a variety of settings, and evaluates exposure to chemicals in products and multiple environmental media, including soil, groundwater, non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL), air, surface water, sediment, fish, and produce. Ms. Kmetzo has previously held consulting positions at Roux Associates, Inc. and Woodard & Curran, research scientist and safety positions at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a scientist position at York Analytical Laboratories.

Ms. Kmetzo is active in professional groups, and has served or is currently serving on the Technical Practices Committee (co-chair) and Regulations Committee of the Licensed Site Professional Association. She has also participated in regulatory workgroups related to risk assessment and vapor intrusion.

Ms. Kmetzo’s education includes a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry and Music from Middlebury College and a Master of Public Health from Boston University. She is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.

Ms. Kmetzo was nominated for the SAB by the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.

Heather Lynch, MPH is a Senior Toxicologist and Senior Project Manager at Gradient, an environmental consulting firm in Cambridge, MA. She received an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from Knox College and a Master of Public Health Degree in environmental health from the Boston University School of Public Health. Her areas of expertise include systematic review and weight of evidence methodologies, controlled human exposure study design, and the toxicology of heavy metals (e.g., arsenic and lead) and perfluoroalkyl substances.

Ms. Lynch’s primary responsibilities at Gradient include critical review of toxicology and epidemiology studies for regulatory comment, human health risk assessment, and litigation project support. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications on various risk assessment topics in collaboration with colleagues at Gradient.

Prior to joining Gradient, Ms. Lynch worked at the non-profit Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, writing and updating informational materials for the public on a wide range of environmental health and justice issues. She also worked as a toxicologist for the environmental consulting firm ICF International, working predominantly on large, chemical-specific risk assessments for several programs within the US EPA National Center for Environmental Assessment.

Ms. Lynch was nominated for the SAB by the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.

Dr. Helen Poynton is an Associate Professor of Ecotoxicology & Undergraduate Program Director in the School for the Environment at UMass Boston. She holds BS in biochemistry from Temple University and studied molecular toxicology for her PhD at UC Berkeley, where she developed novel, genomic-based tools to detect contaminant exposures. She worked as post-doc at the US Environmental Protection Agency to develop molecular based tools to understand the exposure and effects of nanomaterials and joined the faculty of UMass Boston in 2010.

Dr. Poynton’s research focuses on a broad range of emerging contaminants including pharmaceuticals, nanomaterials, and pesticides. Within these chemical classes she is interested in applying genomics to better understand sub-lethal effects of environmental pollutants and the consequences of adaptation to pollution. She led a multi-investigator team to sequence the genome of an important sediment dwelling animal, Hyalella azteca, and published a well-received genome paper in 2018. She has recently been involved with collaborative initiatives to identify ways evolution can inform risk assessment and better bridge the disciplines of evolution and toxicology. She is also a co-PI on a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Project in Vieques, PR where she will apply her molecular experience to uncover past pollution exposures. Her research has been funded broadly by the National Science Foundation, US EPA, NOAA SeaGrant, and California Fish and Wildlife.

In addition to her research, Dr. Poynton teaches courses in Global Environmental Change, Marine Pollution, and Environmental Toxicology. She is also the director of the Coastal Research in Environmental Science and Technology (CREST) Research Experience for Undergraduates program at UMass Boston. She believes that providing students with hand-on, authentic research experiences as undergraduates is instrumental to diversifying STEM.

Dr. Poynton was nominated for the SAB by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Dr. Alicia Timme-Laragy is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Alicia is a developmental toxicologist and uses zebrafish, cell culture, and molecular biology in her research to understand the role of oxidative stress in early life xenobiotic exposures and the impact on pancreas development and later-life metabolic health.

Dr. Timme-Laragy was nominated for the SAB by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

Ryan M. Bouldin holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering with an emphasis in Green Chemistry. He believes strongly that his work reflects more than just mixing chemicals to make new materials. While the goal of creating new materials is to incorporate them into new products, he believes those products should be nourishing to the communities that both create and use them. They must be safe and effective for both workers and consumers. This creates demand up supply chains for materials and processes that are ethical, economically viable, and beneficial for people and the planet. This belief is the philosophy of his work at Bentley.