Governance

2023 HESI Board of Trustees Nominees

• 

  Karissa Adkins, PhD

  Sanofi

  Read Bio

  Karissa Adkins is an experienced toxicologist with broad expertise in both investigative and regulatory toxicology, currently employed at Sanofi pharmaceuticals. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and her PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ.

  Karissa started her pharmaceutical career at Wyeth in Andover, Massachusetts where she was in the Exploratory Toxicology group. She managed the Molecular Toxicology group and served as the preclinical safety representative on various project development teams for antibody and vaccine therapeutics. Following Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth, she became a director of Investigative Toxicology within Pfizer’s Drug Safety Research and Development department in Groton, Connecticut, where she continued to lead and manage an investigative group while still supporting product development teams. Notable during her time at Pfizer is her innovative work in nonclinical pharmacogenomics and support of the licensure of the meningococcal B vaccine Trumenba®. After 15 years at Wyeth and Pfizer, Karissa spent a brief tenure in the Development group in the Drug Safety Research and Evaluation Department of Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she oversaw nonclinical safety support for their vaccine portfolio and served as the Head of Toxicology. She is currently the Global Head of Investigative Toxicology in Preclinical Safety at Sanofi, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, overseeing groups in France, Germany, and the United States, and is a member of the Preclinical Safety leadership team.

  Karissa is a member of the Society of Toxicology and is actively involved in BioSafe, the IQ consortium, IMI, and HESI. Her involvement with HESI dates back to her days at Wyeth and work with the genomics committee (now eSTAR), and has continued throughout her career. She has numerous publications, patents, and speaking engagements to her credit, a highlight of which was having one of her publications awarded the best publication award for 2015 by the Society of Toxicology.

• 

  Warren Casey, PhD

  Vice President of Assembly

  National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

  Read Bio

  Warren Casey is an accomplished scientist and strategic thinker with a proven track record of building and leading teams that successfully solve highly complex problems. He holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and a B.S. in Biochemistry from North Carolina State University (NCSU) and has served as a Diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology since 2007. Currently, Dr. Casey is the Director of Strategic Partnerships in the Division of Translational Toxicology (DTT) at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), where he is responsible for identifying strategic opportunities, recruiting key partners, securing funding, and managing collaborative programs that support the mission of DTT and NIEHS.

  Dr. Casey has held several key leadership positions over his career, including Executive Director of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), Director of the NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Toxicological Methods, and Acting Chief of Predictive Toxicology and Biomolecular Screening Branches. As Executive Director of ICCVAM, he provided strategic and scientific leadership across the U.S. government in modernizing the safety assessment of drugs and chemicals and served as the architect of the “Strategic Roadmap for Establishing New Approaches to Evaluate the Safety of Chemicals and Medical Products in the United States” (Roadmap), an effort that served as the impetus for the FDA’s Predictive Toxicology Roadmap and EPA’s New Approach Methods Workplan. The framework outlined in the Roadmap has now been adopted by multiple organizations and agencies throughout the world. In his role as Acting Branch Chief, he was responsible for the development, validation, and deployment of computational tools and systems toxicology models to predict human-relevant health effects. Dr. Casey continues to serve as the NIEHS representative and scientific advisor on national and international consortia, including Tox21 and ASPIS (Animal-free Safety assessment of chemicals: Project cluster for Implementation of novel Strategies).

  In recognition of his accomplishments, Dr. Casey has received numerous awards, including the NIH Director’s Merit and Special Act awards, the Society of Toxicology’s Enhancement of Animal Welfare Award, a Special Certificate of Appreciation from the EPA Assistant Administrator, GlaxoSmithKline’s highest award for research (Gold Award), and was named as a Distinguished Alumnus by both the NCSU Department of Microbiology and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

  In addition to his career achievements, Dr. Casey was a Captain in the U.S. Army (Top Secret security clearance) and participated in Operation Desert Shield/Storm in Saudi Arabia from 1990-1992. He received the National Defense Service Medal and Southwest Asia Service Medal for combat operations in Operation Desert Storm.

• 

  Dorit Donoviel, PhD

  Center for Space Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine

  Read Bio

  Dorit Donoviel, PhD

  Click here to view Dr. Donoviel’s bio.

• 

  Elke Jensen, PhD

  Dow Chemical Company

  Read Bio

  Elke Jensen, PhD, Senior Risk Assessor, Toxicology & Environmental Research and Consulting, Dow Chemical Company, Midland MI

  Dr Jensen (she/her) is a PhD chemist and has been engaged in risk assessment and regulatory affairs for over 25 years. She started in risk assessment at the US Food and Drug Administration and US Department of Agriculture in dietary exposure assessment and food safety. Dr Jensen moved to the private sector to work at the Dow Corning Corporation in Midland, MI, a leading manufacturer of silicon-based materials such as silicones and silanes (now Dow Silicones). There she gained various aspects of TSCA compliance. After several years, Dr. Jensen returned to her first love, risk assessment, with a renewed emphasis on the use of exposure modeling in exposure assessment. Since the 2016 merger with the Dow Chemical Company, Dr. Jensen continues to serve as a senior risk assessor.

  Dr. Jensen advocates for advancement of exposure science and its use in risk assessment through engagement with various industry and scientific organizations. She currently chairs the American Chemistry Council (ACC) Exposure Assessment Workgroup and is a member of the ACC Long-Range Research Initiative Strategic Steering Team. She has also served as President for the Exposure Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology and is a member of the International Society for Exposure Science and the Society for Risk Analysis.

• 

  Jessica LaRocca, PhD

  Corteva Agriscience

  Read Bio

  Jessica LaRocca, PhD

  Click here to view Dr. LaRocca’s CV.

• 

  Elise Madison Lewis, PhD

  Charles River Laboratories

  Read Bio

  Elise Madison Lewis, PhD, Principal Director of Toxicology, Charles River Laboratories, Inc., Horsham, Pennsylvania

  Dr. Lewis is a native of Alabama, and she received both her Bachelor and Doctorate degrees from The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. As an undergraduate, she was patterning herself to be a medical professional, particularly an Obstetrician. However, she diverged from this path and literally embarked upon a road that is less traveled, the field of toxicology. While in graduate school she was recipient of a Future Faculty Fellowship for minority students, and through her training in the field of toxicology, Dr. Lewis found a way to marry her interests in the medical field with a passion to prevent birth defects from intentional or unintentional exposure to drug products or chemicals. Simply put, she spends much of her time researching human health hazards that could cause embryo-fetal death, birth defects, growth retardation, or functional deficits. Today, Dr. Lewis is employed by Charles River Laboratories, Inc., a contract research organization that focuses on improving human and animal health by advancing the search for drugs from discovery through market approval. Dr. Lewis joined Charles River Laboratories, Inc. in 2001 as a Study Director in the area of Reproductive, Developmental, and Juvenile Toxicology. In this role, she had the opportunity to oversee the technical conduct of nonclinical laboratory studies that are critical to environmental safety and the health care industry, and are necessary prior to consideration of new compounds for regulatory approval as drug products, medical devices, vaccines, pesticides, and other products to which humans might be exposed.

  Over the years, she has successfully navigated her way through the scientific ranks within Charles River to become the Principal Director of Toxicology at the Horsham, Pennsylvania site with additional oversight of Reproductive, Developmental and Juvenile Toxicology specialty services within the East Coast Region of Safety Assessment. Dr. Lewis has authored or co-authored over 100 publications, books, and book chapters in various areas of developmental, reproductive, and juvenile toxicology, and has participated in numerous national and international speaking engagements. She is the co-editor of a book on Nonclinical Pediatric Toxicology that was published in January 2012. In 2021, Dr. Lewis was recognized as a living legend in celebration of Black History Month in the Philadelphia area for her significant contributions to STEM and biomedical research.

  Dr. Lewis is involved in a number of national and international scientific organizations. She is a Past President for the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention (BDRP) and the current past President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). She currently serves on the Chapters Advisory Committee for the national AWIS organization, the nominations committee and constitution and bylaws committee for BDRP, and a BDRP representative for the Scientific Liaison Coalition and Friends of NICHD. She also served as a secretary and mentor for AWIS-PHL, council member of the European Teratology Society, and an ambassador, membership chair, member of the DE&I working group and sponsorship committee for BDRP. She has used her various roles within these scientific organizations to counsel and empower those who will follow in her footsteps and will be the scientific leaders of tomorrow. As a leader, Dr. Lewis has a great interest in investing in the next generation of trainees who are eagerly pursuing education in the area of STEM. She believes that mentors can play an important role in the success of young scientists, and she views herself to be in a unique position to provide career advice to those can benefit from learning about her unique career journey. In addition, she is a member of the Society of Toxicology, European Teratology Society, the American College of Toxicology, Philadelphia Women’s Leaders (The Philadelphia Chapter of the Women Leaders Association) and the Mid-Atlantic Reproductive Toxicology Association.

• 

  Eliana Munarriz, PhD, MBA

  University of Buenos Aires

  Read Bio

  Eliana Munarriz is a researcher and academic with expertise in biological science, toxicology and regulatory science fields. She holds a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” in Italy and a Master’s in Business Administration from the “Torcuato Di Tella University” in Argentina. She also completed her post-doctoral training in toxicology at the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit in the UK and her second postdoctoral studies at the Systems Biology Department at New York University. Since her return to Argentina in 2012, she has been working as a researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and as a Biochemistry Professor at the School of Agriculture of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Her research focuses on molecular and environmental toxicology, specifically using the nematode C. elegans as a biological model for studying the effects of agrochemicals. In addition to her academic work, Eliana has served as a consultant for international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She is a specialist in risk assessment of chemical products and has been involved in the development of pesticide regulations in Latin America. Eliana is an active member of several committees and organizations related to health, environment, and toxicology, including RISK21, GRATC, TEA at the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) where she is also a member of the Board of Trustees, and the Scientific Cooperation in Environment and Health (ICCAS). She has also served as a technical expert in the Committee for the Examination of Chemical Products of the Rotterdam Convention and was appointed as a member of the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Management (JMPM).

• 

  Justin Teeguarden, PhD, DABT

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  Read Bio

  Justin Teeguarden, PhD, DABT

  Click here to view Dr. Teeguarden’s CV.

• 

  Carole Yauk, PhD

  Chair of Board

  University of Ottawa

  Read Bio

  Carole Yauk was the lead scientist of the Genomics Laboratory in the Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau at Health Canada for 18 years. She joined the University of Ottawa’s Department of Biology as a professor in September 2020, where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Genomics and the Environment. She is also an adjunct professor of Biology at Carleton University in Ottawa. Her research broadly focuses on the development and implementation of genomic tools for human health risk assessment of environmental chemicals. Toward this, she is involved in numerous working groups within HESI’s Emerging Systems Toxicology in the Assessment of Risk (eSTAR) and Genetic Toxicology Technical (GTTC) Committees. She has served as a Canadian delegate to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where she is co-leading the development of the OECD Omics reporting framework and involved in the Adverse Outcome Pathway program. She is Past-President of the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society and an editorial board member of several journals focused on mutagenesis and genetic toxicology.

2023 HESI Emerging Issues Committee Nominees

• 

  Ronald Hines, PhD, ATS

  Yale University School of Public Health

  Read Bio

  Dr. Hines is an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale University School of Public Health. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1980. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, he became Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor at the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases and the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In 1989, Dr. Hines was recruited to the Wayne State University School of Medicine as Associate Professor of Pharmacology and an Associate in Pediatrics. In 1995, he was promoted to Professor of Pharmacology. In 1999, Dr. Hines was recruited to the Medical College of Wisconsin as Professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacology and Toxicology, Associate Director of the Children’s Research Institute of the Children’s Hospital and Health Systems, and Co-Section Chief of Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacogenetics, and Teratology. In addition, Dr. Hines was Adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and served as Co-Director for a collaborative NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences Center between the two institutions. In 2012, Dr. Hines accepted the position of Associate Director for Health at the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) in the Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In this position, he managed the Research Core Unit and the three NHEERL health divisions and their diverse research portfolios. He retired from the US Environmental Protection Agency in 2020.

  Throughout his academic career, Dr. Hines’ research was supported by various organizations, including state health departments, private foundations, industry contracts and the National Institutes of Health. He is an Emeritus Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences, an Emeritus Member of the American Society for Pharmacology and Therapeutics, having served as a Councilor on their Executive Council from 2004-2007, and a retired member of the Society of Toxicology where he was elected to the Presidential Chain and served as President from May 1, 2019 through April 30, 2021. He has served on numerous Federal and State science advisory panels and as an Associate Editor or Editorial Board Member for nine peer-reviewed journals. He currently is a member of the Current Topics in Toxicology Editorial Board. He served as a member of the Health Environmental Sciences Institute Board of Trustees from 2002-2013 and the Emerging Issues Committee from 2014-2023, including Chair from 2020-2023. During his career, Dr. Hines approached research questions using a transdisciplinary strategy, assembling and leading research teams with expertise spanning from molecular biology and analytical chemistry to the clinical sciences. Dr. Hines has over 150 publications focused on mechanisms whereby exposure to environmental toxicants and/or drugs alters gene expression and the genetic/epigenetic basis for interindividual differences in exposure response. Over the last 13 years of his academic career, his research turned to elucidating how and through what mechanisms the human enzymes involved in toxicant and drug disposition change during early life stages and the interaction of genetic/epigenetic variation with this normal developmental process. The impact of this body of work has resulted in an h-index of 52 and led to numerous invitations to present his research at national and international meetings, as well as several visiting professorships at institutions around the country.

• 

  Yasunari Kanda, PhD

  National Institute of Health Sciences, Japan

  Read Bio

  Dr. Kanda currently serves as Division head of Pharmacology at National Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS) Japan. His research area is regulatory science, which seeks to apply new approach methodologies (NAM) to the review process and bridge the gap between scientific innovation and safety issues.

  He has coordinated the JiCSA (Japan iPS Cardiac Safety Assessment) consortium, including the development and validation of test methods using iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, and has collaborated with HESI Cardiac Safety Committee, FDA, and Comprehensive In Vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA). He has worked with HESI NeuTox Committee in terms of seizure liability and other projects, such as PBPK, DART and CORA. In addition, he has contributed to OECD guidances (Good In Vitro Method Practice, Developmental Neurotoxicity, and PBPK) as an expert group.

  He is a member of the Board of Directors of Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) and Japanese Pharmacological Society (JPS). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of European Society of Toxicology In Vitro (ESTIV) and the Japanese Society for Alternatives to Animal Experiments (JSAAE) to promote the 3Rs. He serves as the Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports, Cardiovascular Toxicology, Journal of Pharmacological Sciences. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters related to assessing the safety and effectiveness of drugs and chemicals.

  He received B.S. degree, M.S. degree, and Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo. After he worked as a research assistant professor in National Defense Medical College, he has worked on regulatory science research since joining the Division of Pharmacology, NIHS as a section head in 2008 and has been promoted as a Division head in 2017.

• 

  Athena Keene, PhD

  Afton Chemical Corporation

  Read Bio

  Athena Keene currently manages the Toxicology and Hazard Communication teams at Afton Chemical Corporation as the EHS Advisor – Toxicology and Hazard Communication, and she has worked at Afton for nearly 12 years. She conducts risk assessments on fuel and lubricant additives using data generated from in vitro and in vivo testing as well as read across and quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) modeling data. She leads a team of toxicologists in preparing registration dossiers, so Afton’s products will be compliant with all international registration regulations including the EU REACH guidelines and EPA TSCA guidelines. Often, this team relies New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) to avoid animal testing or justify read across between similar compounds. She coordinates all of Afton’s in vitro and in vivo testing with contract research organizations (CROs). She advises and coordinates testing to further develop physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models for manganese in support of a manganese-based fuel additive. Her work was recently published in Toxicological Sciences (doi: 10.1093/toxsci/kfac123). She also serves as the Science Chair for the Health, Safety, and Environmental Committee of the International Manganese Institute (IMnI) as well as on various panels within the American Chemistry Council (ACC) including the Long Range Initiative (LRI) panel, the TSCA Section 5 Testing Consortium, and an ACC Committee to develop a NAMs 101 training course. She also serves on the HESI UVCBs and Multi-Constituent Substances Committee and the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity Committee.

  Athena holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, where her research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) focused the use of PAMAM dendrimers as a drug-delivery method. She completed her post-doctoral training at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) focusing on the tissue distribution of gold nanoparticles, and she maintains an interest in nanotechnology including serving on the ECETOC “Grouping of Nanomaterials” Task Force. She maintains her DABT certification.

• 

  Heike Laue, PhD

  Givaudan Schweiz AG

  Read Bio

  Heike Laue is a Senior Research Scientist at Givaudan Schweiz AG, an international company based in Switzerland which is the global leader in the fragrance and flavor industry. She joined Givaudan in 2009. Part of the research of the In Vitro Molecular Screening (IMS) group is the development, implementation and application of NAMs as a screening tool to develop safe fragrance ingredients as part of Givaudan’s “Safe by Design Strategy” and for regulatory applications to reduce animal testing. As part of the environmental risk assessment, the in vitro bioaccumulation assays (OECD TG 319 A/B) and the in vitro RTgill-W1 assay (OECD TG 249) to assess acute fish toxicity are applied as alternative assays for screening and regulatory applications. The lab was also part of the ring trials resulting in the adoption of OECD TG 319 A/B and TG 249.

  Another focus of the work is on the toxicology of fragrance molecules by studying the in vitro biotransformation in animal hepatocytes compared to humans and in vitro assays to study inhalation toxicity. Prior to Givaudan, Heike worked as a Senior Research Scientist and Group Leader in a biotechnology company focused on research and development of antimicrobial agents. She did post-doctoral research at the Danish Technical University on bacterial biofilms and at Stony Brook University / New York in biochemistry. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Konstanz in microbiology, microbial ecology and molecular medicine.

• 

  Norbert Tavares, PhD

  Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

  Read Bio

  Norbert Tavares is a Program Manager at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Previously, Dr. Tavares was a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow and Program Manager at the National Cancer Institute, at the National Institutes of Health. In his former and current roles, he identifies and supports emerging and innovative solutions to biomedical research problems and develops and manages interdisciplinary grant programs. Specifically, he supports the development and dissemination of single-cell biology methods and resources and its application to clarify the underlying mechanisms of disease. He is particularly interested in increasing the participation of individuals from understudied ancestries in biomedical research thereby improving the racial, ethnic, and ancestral diversity of openly available omics data. Dr. Tavares is a microbiologist by training and was a Ruth Kirchstein Fellow at the University of Georgia, where he completed his Ph.D. investigating the bacterial biosynthesis of coenzyme B12 and his postdoctoral work on Sirtuin-dependent post-translational modification. Prior to his graduate work, he worked on large-scale protein drug production at a biotech startup and in procurement for ESPN.