Science Seminars for Journalists

Wendy Heiger-Bernays, PhD is an Associate Professor in Environmental Health at Boston University. Her work reflects her education in molecular toxicology and her professional experience in regulatory toxicology and risk assessment. Her interests center on understanding how environmental toxicants adversely affect people's health and how risks associated with these exposures can be quantified. She is collaborating with researchers at Wellesley College to understand patterns of migration of contaminants in soils in community gardens and risks associated with these agents, with the objective of translating this research into cost-effective remediation of soil. Dr. Heiger-Bernays is a member of the BUSPH team investigating flame retardants in which she is focusing on understanding the risks associated with exposure to the chemicals. In the classroom, Dr. Heiger-Bernays combines the scientific perspective with a practical emphasis. Her teaching focuses on providing MPH and doctoral students the core concepts required of environmental health professionals. She serves on technical advisory committees for toxicological issues at both the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the US Environmental Protection Agency and as chair of her local board of health.

Kim Boekelheide, MD, PhD 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. He is Director of the Brown University Superfund Research Program and Formative Center for Children's Environmental Health. Dr. Boekelheide has served on numerous NRC committees, including the Standing Committee on Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions (2008 - 2011), and the Committee on Toxicity Testing and Assessment of Environmental Agents (which produced Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century). He is a past Councilor of the Society of Toxicology, and a past member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Toxicology Program.

Terrence Gray, PE is the Assistant Director for Air, Waste and Compliance at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. In that position, he oversees the Offices of Air Resources, Waste Management, Emergency Response, Compliance and Inspection, and Technical & Customer Assistance and directs the implementation of the regulatory compliance, technical assistance, and enforcement programs. Terry has been with DEM for over twenty-three years. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University, a Master of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from Northeastern University, and Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Rhode Island. Mr. Gray is a registered professional engineer in Rhode Island.

Mary Hixon, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Brown University. She received her B.A. degree with honors in Biology from Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio in 1989 and completed her graduate work in Toxicology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (PhD, 1998). In 2004, she joined the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Brown University as an assistant professor. Her current research focuses on three major areas of study which include: 1) signal transduction pathways activated by toxicant exposure in both the male and female reproductive system; 2) gene products regulated by these pathways in the male and female reproductive system; and 3) their consequences on germ cell survival in both the male and female reproductive system. She teaches courses on Environmental Health and Disease and in Reproductive Toxicology.

Meg Kissinger is a winner of the 2009 Grantham Prize Award of Special Merit. She is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's investigative reporter focusing on health and welfare. She and two of her colleagues won the 2008 Sigma Delta Chi award and the Society of American Business Writers and Editors Award for a series of articles on the government's failure to screen for dangerous chemicals in household products. The series also won the 2008 John B. Oakes Award. Kissinger has spent the last year breaking new ground on the failures of the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration to regulate toxic chemicals. She was a finalist for the 2007 Selden Ring and Investigative Reporters and Editors awards for her reports on the filthy and dangerous housing conditions in Milwaukee County for people with mental illness. That series won the Mental Health America Award for best news repoting. In her 25 years in the newsroom, Kissinger has written about abuses in the nursing home industry, the scam of the door-to-door magazine sales industry and the travails of an oncologist who unwittingly discovered his own end-stage cancer. She graduated from DePauw University.

Blake Morrison is part of the USA TODAY team that won the 2009 Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment. He is an investigative reporter and the Deputy Enterprise Editor at USA TODAY. He has worked at the nation's largest newspaper since October 1999. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he began covering aviation security and broke stories on problems with the air marshal program, airport checkpoints and cargo security. He now reports and helps direct investigations and projects. Before joining USA TODAY, Morrison worked at the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press. There he worked as an investigative reporter and was part of the team that covered a cheating scandal involving the University of Minnesota men's basketball team. Morrison teaches reporting and writing courses at the University of Maryland. He has guest lectured at Louisiana State University and the University of Wisconsin and he co-wrote the memoir How to Cook Your Daughter.

Henrik Selin, PhD is Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of International Relations at Boston University. Prior to his current faculty position, he spent three years as a Wallenberg Research Fellow in Environment and Sustainability at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Selin conducts research and teaches classes on global and regional politics and policy making on environment and sustainable development. His book Global Governance of Hazardous Chemicals: Challenges of Multilevel Management was published by MIT Press in 2010. He is also the co-editor of Changing Climates in North American Politics: Institutions, Policymaking and Multilevel Governance (MIT Press in 2009, with Stacy VanDeveer) and Transatlantic Environment and Energy Politics: Comparative and International Perspectives (Ashgate in 2009, with Miranda Schreurs and Stacy VanDeveer). In addition, Selin is the author and co-author of more than two dozen peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters as well as numerous reports, reviews, and commentaries. For more information, see his web site: http://people.bu.edu/selin.

Lenny Siegel has been Executive Director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight since 1994. He is one of the environmental movement's leading experts on both military facility contamination and the vapor intrusion pathway, and for his organization he runs two Internet newsgroups: the Military Environmental Forum and the Brownfields Internet Forum. He has been a member of several advisory and technical committees. He is a member of: Moffett Field (former Moffett Naval Air Station) Restoration Advisory Board; Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council's work team on Permeable Reactive Barriers; National Research Council's Committee on Future Options for Management in the Nation's Subsurface Remediation Effort; National Research Council Committee to Review the Health and Safety Risks of High Containment Laboratories at Ft. Detrick; National Research Council Committee to Review and Assess Closure Plans for Chemical Agent Disposal facilities in Utah; California Brownfields Revitalization Advisory Group; and California Department of Toxic Substances Control External Advisory Group.

Gregory Wellenius, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Community Health at Brown University. Dr. Wellenius is interested in studying environmental determinants of cardiovascular disease. His work has focused on studying the effects of ambient air pollution on the risk of stroke and heart failure, with an eye towards understanding the changes in cardiovascular physiology that underlie the observed changes in risk. To accomplish this, Dr. Wellenius uses tools from the fields of epidemiology, environmental health, and toxicology to: 1) evaluate the association between environmental exposures and disease, 2) identify segments of the population that may be particularly susceptible to the effects of ambient air pollution, 3) identify the components of ambient air pollution responsible for the observed associations, and 4) elucidate the pathophysiologic mechanisms for the observed effects. Dr. Wellenius served as a member of the writing group for the US Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 Integrated Science Assessment for Particulate Matter.