About the TAB

Technical Advisory Board Members listed in alphabetical order.

Margrit von Braun, Ph.D., P.E.

Administrative Dean and Founder, Environmental Science Program, University of Idaho. Dr. von Braun is Dean of the College of Graduate Studies and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Science at the University of Idaho.

She received her BS in Engineering Science and Mechanics at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1974, her MCE in Civil Engineering at the University of Idaho in 1980, and her Ph.D. in Civil/Environmental Engineering in 1989 at Washington State University. She was awarded the College of Engineering Outstanding Faculty Award in 1992. Dr. von Braun was a Kellogg National Leadership Fellow from 1993 to 1996. Her research areas include human health risk assessment, hazardous waste site characterization with a focus on sampling dust contaminated with heavy metals, and risk communication. She is establishing a network of international graduate students involved in assessing risks to community health from waste sites in the developing world.

Pat Breysse, M.D.

Director of the Division of Environmental Health Engineering Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Pat Breysse is currently the Director of the ABET accredited Industrial Hygiene Program and is the Associate Director of the Center for Childhood Asthma in the Urban Environment. In this context, most of Dr. Breysse’s research concentrates on exposure assessment with a resulting emphasis on public health problem solving particularly in the workplace. Exposure assessment research includes pollutant source characterization, exposure measurement and interpretation, development and use of biomarkers of exposure/dose/effect, and evaluating relationships between sources, exposures, doses and disease. Dr. Breysse’s research contribution has included investigations of electron microscopic methods for asbestos analysis, and the development and evaluation of optical and electron microscopic analytical methods for synthetic vitreous fibers exposure assessments.

Timothy Brutus, M.Sc.

Risk Management Specialist for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection

Timothy Brutus is the Risk Management Program Manager for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection at the Downstate Reservoirs. The Risk Management Program for the Downstate Reservoirs assures consistent water quality and supply to New York City and surrounding boroughs while ensuring the operation‚s staff safety by managing engineering and administrative controls at these facilities. Tim‚s educational background includes a geochemistry and environmental engineering degrees, with specific expertise in metals geochemistry and technology development and application. Tim‚s educational and employment background has been focused on arsenic geochemistry, investigating various sources of arsenic, both natural and anthropogenic in various media and explaining the complex geochemistry i nvolved. Prior to the work currently being carried out at NYC DEP, Tim has designed and applied technologies for various LNAPL and DNAPL contaminated sites, including soil vapor extraction, in-situ chemical oxidation, and air sparging applications. Tim is also a guest lecturer and contributor to other non-profit organizations.

Jack Caravanos, Ph.D., CIH, CSP

Director, MS/MPH program in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Hunter College

Jack Caravanos is Professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York where he directs the MS and MPH program in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. He received his Master of Science from Polytechnic University in NYC and proceeded to earn his Doctorate in Public Health (Env Health) from Columbia University’s School of Public Health in 1984. Dr. Caravanos holds certification in industrial hygiene (CIH) and industrial safety (CSP) and prides himself as being an “environmental health practitioner”. He specializes in lead poisoning, mold contamination, asbestos and community environmental health risk. Dr. Caravanos has extensive experience in variety of urban environmental and industrial health problems and is often called upon to assist in environmental health assessments (i.e. lead/zinc smelter in Mexico, health risks at the World Trade Center, ground water contamination in NJ and municipal landfill closures in Brooklyn). Presently he is on the technical advisory panel of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Brooklyn-Queens Aquifer Feasibility Study (a NYC Department of Environmental Protection sponsored community action committee evaluating health risks associated with aquifer restoration).

Denny Dobbin, M.Sc.

President of the Society for Occupational and Environmental Health

Mr. Dobbin has over 40 years occupational hygiene experience as an officer in the US Public Health Service and as an independent.  His assignments included seventeen  years with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (and its predecessors) where he managed research programs and developed policy including a two year assignment with the U.S. Congress in the Office of Technology Assessment.  He worked on toxic chemical issues at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He managed a Superfund grant program for model hazardous waste worker and emergency responder training for ten years at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, U.S. National Institutes of Health.  Since 1997 he has worked independently on occupational, environmental and public health policy issues for non-profit, labor and other non-governmental organizations.

Mr. Dobbin is the president of the Society for Occupational and Environmental Health, an international society and is past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics. He is past  Chair of the Occupational Health and Safety Section, American Public Health Association. He was the 1998 honoree for the OHS/APHA Alice Hamilton award for life-time achievement in occupational health.  He is an elected fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, an international occupational and environmental health honor society. Mr. Dobbin is a member of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists where he served as recording secretary of the Physical Agents Threshold Limit Value committee and chaired the Computer and Nominating committees. He has participated in the American Academy of Industrial Hygiene, the National Public Health Policy Association and Society of Risk Assessment. He is a Certified Industrial Hygiene (ret). 

Mr. Dobbin holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Idaho, and a M.Sc. in Occupational Hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.

Josh Ginsberg, Ph.D.

Director of Asia Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society

As Director of Asia Programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, Josh Ginsberg oversees 100 projects in 16 countries. He received a B.S. from Yale, and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton. Dr. Ginsberg spent 17 years as a field biologist/conservationist working in Asia and Africa on a variety of wildlife issues. He has held faculty positions at Oxford University, University College London, is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, and is the author of over 40 reviewed papers and three books on wildlife conservation, ecology and evolution.

David J. Green

Owner and CEO of Phoenix Soil, LLC; United Retek of CT LLC; American Lamp Recycling, LLC; Green Globe, LLC; and Jayjet Transportation, LLC.

David Green received his M.ed in chemistry and has owned and operated hazardous waste remediation companies since 1979. His companies have conducted in-situ and ex-situ treatments of hazardous materials on over 16,700 sites in the US, China, UK, and central Europe. The technologies incorporated include, low temperature thermal desorption, solidification/stabilization and chemical treatment. Mr. Green serves as Chairman of the Local Emergancy Planning Commision and the Director of Operations for the Connecticut’s Department of Homeland Security USAR Team.

David Hanrahan, M.Sc.

Director of Global Programs, Blacksmith Institute

David Hanrahan oversees the technical design and implementation for Blacksmith of over 40 projects in 14 countries. Prior to joining Blacksmith, Mr. Hanrahan worked at the World Bank for twelve years on a broad range of environmental operations and issues, across all the Bank’s regions. During much of this time he was based in the central Environment Department where he held technical and managerial positions and participated in and led teams on analytical work and lending operations, including Acting Head of the department for a number of years. Before joining the World Bank, he had twenty years of experience in international consultancy, during which time he also earned post-graduate degrees in policy analysis and in environmental economics. His professional career began in Britain in water resources for a major international engineering consultant. He then moved to Australia to build the local branch of that firm, where he helped to develop a broad and varied practice for public and private sector clients. He later returned to the UK and became Development Director for an environmental consultancy and subsequently Business Manager for a firm of applied economics consultants. In 1994 he was recruited by the World Bank to join its expanding Environment Department.

David Hunter, Sc.D.

Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard University School of Public Health

Dr. Hunter received an M.B.B.S. (Australian Medical Degree) from the University of Sydney. He continued his formal education at Harvard University, receiving his Sc.D. in 1988. Dr. Hunter is a Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Hunter is involved with several large, populationbased cohort studies, including the Nurses’ Health Study (I and II), Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and the Physicians’ Health Study. Among the goals of these large cohort studies is to investigate gene-environment interactions, including the impact of lifestyle factors, on disease causation. Disease endpoints of interest for some of these cohorts include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis. He is also involved in long running studies of nutritional influences on HIV progression in Tanzania.

Eric Johnson

Member of the Board of Trustees, Green Cross Switzerland

Eric Johnson has a broad perspective on the environment and chemical contamination. He began his career as an editor of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Week magazines. He then became involved in the selection, assessment and remediation of industrial sites. One of his major projects was the remediation and conversion of a former aluminum smelter to alternate land-use. Mr. Johnson was an early adopter of life-cycle assessment. That, combined with his experience in environmental impact assessment, led to his 1996 appointment as editor of Environmental Impact Assessment Review – a leading peer-reviewed journal in the field. Mr. Johnson has analyzed numerous environmental issues that touch on the chemical industry including: alternative fuels, brominated flame retardants, CFCs and replacements, ecolabels (for detergents, furniture polishes, hairsprays and personal computers), GHG emissions and trading, plastics recycling, PVC and the chlorine-chain, REACH, socially-responsible investing, tri-butyl tins and TRI and environmental reporting. In 1994 he organized the first Responsible Care conference for plant managers in Europe. Currently his main work is in comparing the carbon footprints of various sources of energy. He has worked internationally, concentrating mainly on the US and Europe. Mr. Johnson is an active member of the Board of Green Cross Switzerland.

Donald E. Jones

Founder of Quality Environmental Solutions, Inc.

Donald Jones is the founder of Quality Environmental Solutions, Inc. and was previously Director of the IT Corporation national program for clients with hydrocarbon- related environmental problems and development of environmental management programs. He has served as an elected Board of Health member and was appointed as Right-To-Know and Hazardous Waste Coordinator in the State of Massachusetts. Mr. Jones currently serves on the Local Water Board, as technical consultant to the local Facilities Board and provides editorial review of technical papers and publications for the National Ground Water Association.

Mukesh Khare, Ph.D.

Professor, Environmental Engineering & Management, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Former Atlantic LNG Chair (Professor) in Environmental Engineering, University of West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad & Tobago.

Dr. Mukesh Khare is Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. Professor Khare received his PhD from the Faculty of Engineering (Specialized in Air Quality) from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK in 1989. He has published more than 45 refereed articles to date in professional journals, 30 articles in refereed conferences/ seminars, and two books: Modelling Vehicular Exhaust Emissions, WIT Press, UK; Artificial Neural Networks in Vehicular Pollution Modelling, Springer, USA. Additionally, he has published nearly 20 technical reports on research/consultancies conducted for government agencies and private industries. Dr Khare continues to serve as peer reviewer for several government ministries grants programs and state programs and consultant/advisor to the Government of NCR Delhi. He is also serving as casual reviewer to many journals and publishing houses in and outside the country. Professor Khare is on the editorial board of International Journal of Environment and Waste Management and is guest editing one of its special issues on Urban Air Pollution, Control and Management.

Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., M.Sc.

Director, Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, Chair, Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, and Director, Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Dr. Landrigan is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is Editor-in- Chief of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine and previously was Editor of Environmental Research. From 1988 to 1993, Dr. Landrigan chaired a National Academy of Sciences Committee whose final report— Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children—provided the principal intellectual foundation for the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. From 1995 to 1997, Dr. Landrigan served on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veteran’s Illnesses. From 1997 to 1998, Dr. Landrigan served as Senior Advisor on Children’s Health to the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He was responsible at EPA for establishing a new Office of Children’s Health Protection. From 1970 to 1985, Dr. Landrigan served as a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service. He served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and then as a Medical Epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. In his years at the CDC, Dr. Landrigan participated in epidemiologic studies of measles and rubella; directed research and developed activities for the Global Smallpox Eradication Program; and established and directed the Environmental Hazards Branch of the Bureau of Epidemiology. Dr. Landrigan obtained his medical degree from the Harvard Medical School in 1967. He interned at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital and completed a residency in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston. He obtained a Master of Science in occupational medicine and a Diploma of Industrial Health from the University of London.

Ian von Lindern Ph.D

CEO and Chairman, Terra Graphics Environmental Engineering, Inc.

Dr. Ian von Lindern received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering (1971) from Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA; and his M.S. in Biometeorology and Atmospheric Studies (1973) and Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering (1980) from Yale University, New Haven , CT. Dr. von Lindern has 30 years of environmental engineering and science experience in Idaho. He has directed over 30 major environmental investigations, involving solvent contamination of groundwater in the Southwest, an abandoned petroleum refinery, secondary smelters and battery processors, landfills, uranium mill tailings, and several major lead sites including: Dallas, TX; the Niagara and Riverdale Projects in Toronto, Canada; the Marjol Battery Site in Throop, PA; ASARCO/Tacoma, WA; East Helena and Butte/Anaconda in MT; Anzon Industries in Philadelphia, PA and the Rudnaya Pristan-Dalnegorsk Mining District, Russian Far East. Through TerraGraphics, Dr. von Lindern has worked continually for Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on various projects since the company’s inception in 1984. He has been the lead Risk Assessor for the Bunker Hill Superfund Site in north Idaho, communicating associated risk issues at many public meetings in the community. In the last few years, Dr. von Lindern directed and completed the Union Pacific Railroad “Rails-to-Trails Risk Assessment;” the exhaustive Five-Year Review of the Populated Areas of the BHSS; the Human Health Risk Assessment for the Basin; and several other technical tasks. Dr. von Lindern has served as a U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Member on three occasions: the Review Subcommittee for Urban Soil Lead Abatement Demonstration Project, 1993; the Subcommittee Assessing the Consistency of Lead Health Regulations in U.S. EPA Programs, Special Report to the Administrator, 1992; and the Review Subcommittee Assessing the Use of the Biokinetic Model for Lead Absorption in Children at RCRA/CERCLA Sites, 1988. He also served on the U.S. EPA Clean Air Scientific Advisory

Ira May

Geologist, U.S. Army Environmental Center

Ira May has worked as a geologist with the U.S. Army Environmental Center for more than twenty years. He has extensive experience with the clean up of hazardous waste sites at army facilities throughout the United States. Mr. May serves as a reviewer for the Groundwater magazine, a publication of the National Ground Water Association and is Vice Chairman of the Long Term Monitoring Committee of the Geotechnical Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers.

Anne Riederer, Sc.D.

Co-Director, Global Environmental Health Program Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

Anne Riederer is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and co-directs the Global Environmental Health Masters in Public Health Program. She received her B.S. in Neuroscience from Brown University in 1989, an M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 1991, and an Sc.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from Harvard School of Public Health in 2004. Her research focuses on assessing exposures of children and women of childbearing age to developmental neurotoxins, including pesticides, heavy metals, and other environmental contaminants. From 1998-2004, Dr. Riederer held a U.S. Superfund Basic Research Program Training Fellowship to study lead, mercury and PCB exposures at the former Clark Air Base, Philippines. From 1991-1998, she worked for Hagler Bailly Consulting on air, water and waste regulatory program development for the Philippines, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Mexico, Egypt for various bi- and multilateral development agencies. She directed the company’s Manila, Philippines office from 1994-1998.

Stephan Robinson, Ph.D.

Director of the International Disarmament Program, Green Cross Switzerland

Stephan Robinson holds a PhD in experimental nuclear physics from Basel University. In 1994, he joined Green Cross Switzerland where he served until spring 2008 as International Director of its Legacy of the Cold War Programme. The Programme addresses the full implementation of arms control and disarmament agreements; the safe and environmentally sound destruction of weapons arsenals; the conversion and clean-up of military facilities and lands; reduced environmental impacts of military practices; improvements in the areas of public health, education, and social infrastructure in regions affected by military legacies; stakeholder involvement on military-environmental issues; and the building of a civil society.

Since 1995, the facilitation of chemical weapons destruction in both Russia and the U.S. has been a focus point of the Legacy Programme, which includes the operation of a network of twleve local and regional public outreach offices, the organisation of a Russia National Dialogue on chemical weapons destruction, but also practical community projects aiming at improving emergency preparedness and the health infrastructure. Other activities include the clean-up of a major oil spill at a nuclear missile in the Baltic area; the scientific investigation of a site of former chemical weapons destruction (open pit burning site) in the Penza area; different risk assessments of military facilities; an inventory of the Soviet nuclear legacy; and epidemiological studies of public health impacts by chemical weapons storage. In that function, Stephan Robinson has been regularly in Eastern Europe for on-site visits of projects and for meetings with various groups of stakeholders from government officials to local citizens.

Since summer 2008, he serves as international dire tor ad interim of Green Cross International’s Water Programme where he deals with issues like equitable access to transboundary waters to avoid future conflicts due to water shortage, or projects dealing with polluted water and obsolete pesticides.

Paul Roux

Chairman, Roux Associates, Inc. (www.rouxinc.com)

Paul Roux is the CEO/founder of Roux Associates, Inc., a successful environmental consulting firm that ranked among the top 200 Environmental Consulting Firms in the July 2004 Engineering News Records. He has over 30 years of experience as a hydrogeologist and serves on the Board of Registration at the American Institute of Hydrology.

Leona D. Samson, Ph.D.

Ellison American Cancer Society Research Professor; Director, Center for Environmental Health Sciences; Professor of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Leona Samson received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University College, London University, and received postdoctoral training in the United States at UCSF and UC Berkeley. After serving on the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health for eighteen years, she joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 as a Professor of Biological Engineering and the Director of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Samson’s research has focused on how cells, tissues and animals respond to environmental toxicants. Dr. Samson has been the recipient of numerous awards during her career, including the Burroughs Wellcome Toxicology Scholar Award (1993-98); the Charlotte Friend Women in Cancer Research Award (2000); the Environmental Mutagen Society Annual Award for Research Excellence (2001). In 2001, Dr. Samson was named the American Cancer Society Research Professor, one of the most prestigious awards given by the society. The ACS Professorship was subsequently underwritten by the Ellison Foundation of Massachusetts. In 2003, she was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, and she will become the President of the Environmental Mutagen Society in 2004.