HESI is governed by a Board of Trustees, which is always comprised of at least as many public sector representatives as private sector representatives. The Board provides scientific, strategic, and financial oversight for the organization. TheĀ HESI Assembly, which is comprised of public and private sector scientists from HESIās scientific committees and the Board of Trustees, elects the governing Trustees and provides input on new scientific and strategic objectives for the organization.
University of Seoul
Jinhee Choi, PhD
Dr. Jinhee Choi is a professor at the School of Environmental Engineering, University of Seoul, and Director of the Chemical Big Data Science AI Research Center. She holds a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Environmental Planning from Seoul National University, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from the University of Paris XI (Paris-Sud, Orsay), France.
Dr. Choi is a leading expert in computational toxicology, specializing in AI-driven toxicity prediction, systems toxicology, and Next-Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA). Her research aims to modernize chemical safety assessment by integrating big data, AI, and mechanistic toxicology to improve the prediction of adverse effects caused by environmental chemicals. She has pioneered data-driven approaches to toxicity prediction modeling, developing explainable AI models that incorporate molecular, cellular, and organism-level toxicity data to enhance the reliability and interpretability of chemical risk assessments. A significant focus of her work is the development of Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP)-based alternative testing strategies, where she utilizes high-throughput screening (HTS), omics technologies, and in silico modeling to establish predictive frameworks that reduce reliance on traditional animal testing. By aligning AOPs with AI-powered molecular toxicity networks, her research provides a mechanistic foundation for Next-Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA), enabling more accurate hazard identification and prioritization of chemicals based on biological relevance.
Dr. Choi has also made substantial contributions to the assessment of chemical mixtures, a critical challenge in toxicology. She leads projects focusing on Integrated Approaches to Testing and Assessment (IATA) for chemical mixtures, where she develops integrated testing strategies (ITS) that leverage AOPs, in vitro assays, and computational models to predict combined toxic effects. These efforts help address regulatory and scientific challenges in evaluating the risks posed by complex chemical exposures, particularly in consumer products and environmental matrices. Her expertise extends to regulatory science, where she actively applies NGRA principles to chemical safety management policies, bridging the gap between advanced toxicology research and real-world regulatory applications. She has recently focused on One Health approaches, integrating human and environmental toxicity assessment through AI-powered predictive modeling, contributing to a more comprehensive and sustainable framework for chemical risk assessment.
Dr. Choi has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher in Toxicology (2015, 2016, 2017) by Clarivate Analytics for her outstanding contributions to the field. She has served in various leadership roles, including President of the Korean Society of Environmental Toxicology and Health and as an advisory member of the Korean Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology. Currently, she serves as Co-Editor of the NAM Journal and actively contributes to global efforts in advancing non-animal testing methodologies and AI-driven chemical safety assessments.
Through her pioneering research and leadership, Dr. Choi continues to shape the future of environmental toxicology, ensuring the development of safer chemicals and more sustainable risk assessment strategies in the era of next-generation regulatory science.
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Italy
Raffaella Corvi obtained her PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) working at the German Cancer Research Centre. She subsequently joined the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, where her work focused on the molecular development of thyroid cancer, including the application of a variety of in vitro tools. Since 2001 she works at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, which hosts the European Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EURL ECVAM), where she established the activities in the area of genotoxicity and carcinogenicity. In 2003 she was seconded to the OECD Test Guideline Programme in Paris. Currently, she conducts activities that evaluate innovative and integrated approaches to assess chemical safety across sectors and support their regulatory implementation, while also promoting the 3Rs across multiple regulatory sectors. She is currently leading a working group for the revision of germ cell mutagenicity classification criteria at the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) and is the European Commission chair of the project platform at the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal testing (EPAA), a partnership between the European Commission Directorates and industry partners across sectors. She is a member of several European and international committees, such as various OECD expert groups, the HESI Genetic Toxicology Technical Committee and European Food Safety Agency Genotoxicity Working Group. She is also acting as the contact point between the JRC and the 3Rs European Medicines Agency (EMA) Working Party.
āI am excited to join HESI Global as a Trustee because I firmly believe in its critical role in fostering cross-sector collaboration and stakeholder engagement through a safe and inclusive platform, which is essential for driving and harnessing scientific progress to improve human and environmental health at a global scale, and I look forward to contributing my expertise to support the organizationās ambitious yet pragmatic approach to achieve meaningful impact.ā – Raffaella Corvi
Oregon State University
Dr. Robyn Leigh Tanguay is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University. She also directs the Superfund Research Center and the Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory. Her research group has pioneered a high-throughput zebrafish platform to evaluate and predict the toxicity of chemicals and chemical mixtures. With over 300 peer-reviewed publications, she has established herself as a leading authority in her field, influencing policies on chemical safety and environmental protection. She deliberately collaborates globally across sectors including academia, industry and governmental agencies to advance environmental health science. Dr. Tanguay’s expertise is widely recognized; she serves on numerous advisory boards and as an associate editor for several scientific journals. In 2023, she was appointed as a Fellow at the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University and is the current Society of Toxicology vice president-elect. Finally, she has dedicated herself to mentoring and guiding the next generation of scientists.
āI am excited to take on a role as a Trustee with HESI Global, an organization that exemplifies the power of cross-sector collaboration to address global health and environmental challenges. I am eager to contribute my energy and expertise to help HESI achieve its impactful goals.ā – Robyn Tanguay
Novartis
Silvana Libertini earned her PhD in “Molecular Oncology and Endocrinology” from the University of Naples āFederico IIā (Italy), with a thesis focused on the use of oncolytic adenoviruses for treating anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Subsequently, she joined the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow (UK) to examine the relationship between DNA damage and tumorigenesis, followed by a post doc at the University of Zurich, where she investigated miRNA regulation of erythropoietin expression. Throughout her academic career, she has been awarded several prestigious fellowships, including a FIRC fellowship, a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship, and a Hartmann-Mueller Stiftung.
Since 2015, Dr. Libertini has been part of the PreClinical Safety Department at Novartis, where she evaluates genotoxicity of advanced therapy products such as CAR T cells, AAV-based gene therapy, and designer nucleases. Reflecting her commitment to pioneering in vitro models and her motivation to support the 3Rs cause, she represents Novartis in various NC3Rs CRACK-IT Challenges (currently: CleanCut and T-Alert) and serves on the Executive Board of the Swiss 3R Competence Center. Dr. Libertini is also an active member of HESI CT-TRACS, where she leads the tumorigenicity group. Additionally, she has held roles as organizer and session chair for several associations, including SST (Swiss Society of Toxicology), GUM (German Society for Environmental Mutation Research), IWGT (International Working Group on Genotoxicity Testing), GTA (Genetic Toxicology Association), and EMGS (Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society). In recent years, she has also presented at BioSafe and ASGCT Insights. She is a well-known scientist in the gene therapy genotoxicity field, with more than 30 publications and a respectable h-index (19).
āI am excited to take on a role as a Trustee with HESI Global because I believe in the ethical principles driving this association: the power of connection, the need for sharing, and the commitment to transparent science.ā – Silvana Libertini
Boehringer Ingelheim
Dr. Myrtle Davis is the Senior Vice President and Head of Global Nonclinical Safety and DMPK for Boehringer Ingelheim.
Dr. Davis was previously the Vice President for Discovery Toxicology in the Pharmaceutical Candidate Optimization (PCO) organization at BMS. Dr. Davis joined BMS from the National Cancer Institute where she was the Chief of the Toxicology and Pharmacology Branch of the Developmental Therapeutics Program. Myrtle has previous experience as a Research Advisor in the Drug Safety group of Lilly Research Laboratories. In both roles, she contributed critical expertise to the advancement of several drugs candidates and to the understanding of toxicological mechanisms. She also has several years of academic experience as an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland.
At BMS Dr. Davis was responsible for leading the scientific efforts in Discovery Toxicology to provide target and molecular hazard identification and risk assessments for issues identified in discovery research. She also led and oversaw the investigative toxicology efforts needed to support mechanistic understanding of compound- or target-mediated toxicities in discovery and development.
Dr. Davis is a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences, an active member of the Society of Toxicology (and serves as the current President), and a member of the Society of Toxicologic Pathology. She served on the Board of Scientific Councilors of the National Toxicology Program, and the Board of HESI. She served as a reviewer for the Assay Development and Screening Technologies Laboratory of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Myrtle also served as an Associate Editor for Toxicological Sciences and Toxicologic Pathology, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the ILAR Journal (Institute for Laboratory Animal Research of the National Academy of Sciences). She has authored several book chapters and co-authored peer-reviewed publications on a range of topics including apoptosis, toxicant-induced cell signaling, and biomarkers of tissue injury. She has also developed course content and lectures for medical and graduate student education.
A native New Yorker, Dr. Davis completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Toxicologic Pathology at the University of Maryland. She earned a PhD in Toxicology from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and obtained her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine. She also completed undergraduate work in Chemistry and Math at Tuskegee University. Myrtle attended Tuskegee University where she pursued a BS degree in Chemistry and Mathematics followed by a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine.
Vice Chair of Board
Syngenta
Starting June 2025, Dr. Nina Hallmark will work for Syngenta at their Jealottās Hill International Research Centre, UK. Until May 2025, Nina was working in the Environment Safety organization of Bayer AG Crop Science Division in Germany. This role includes investigating the potential risk to terrestrial vertebrates, such as birds and mammals, to pesticides used in the landscapes where these wild creatures live and feed. Previously, Nina worked as a Human Safety expert for Bayer In France, using her interest and experiences in human toxicology to explore potential developmental, reproductive or endocrine-mediated toxicity from pesticides using laboratory mammalian test systems. This built on similar work with industrial chemicals during 8 years with ExxonMobil in Brussels, Belgium and Houston, Texas, USA. This opportunity followed her PhD in reproductive and developmental toxicology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Originally Nina studied Biochemistry at the University of Birmingham, England which led to a MSc in Forensic Science at the University of Edinburgh in bonny Scotland. This course revealed the science and art of regulatory toxicology, leading to her becoming an in vivo Study Director for a CRO (today known as Charles River), before embarking on the PhD program and subsequent roles within the global chemical and pesticide industries. This fusion of academic, industry and CRO experiences have shaped Ninaās interests in safety sciences. These have matured into a focus on the potential inter-play between human and environment protection testing and assessment approaches. She is also curious about and fascinated by the changing technologies available to investigate potential hazard and exposure profiles which can enable effective, realistic safety profiling and assessment of the different chemistries which are integral to our 21st century lifestyles. Nina believes in cross-disciplinary collaboration to identify and address the key safety science questions we face today and is greatly looking forward to supporting HESI with their mission as the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute to engage with diverse scientific minds of the HESI strategic partners to bring their many different experiences and perspectives into the discussions and together, to foster collaborative, holistic, science-based solutions.
Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA)
Dr. Adam Lillicrap is the Research Manager for the section of Ecotoxicology and Risk Assessment which employs 24 dedicated research scientists and several PhD students and post-Doctoral scientists. He is also NIVAās GLP Manager and has been project managing and study directing regulatory ecotoxicity tests according to Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) for over 20 years. Adam is a EUROTOX Registered Toxicologist (ERT) and is involved in numerous international committees and expert working groups. Adam is the Norwegian representative at the OECD validation management group for ecotoxicity test methods (VMGEco). Adam is also the Norwegian expert for fish within the OECD and the Norwegian representative for ISO Water Quality test standards. Adam has been working with zebrafish embryos for ecotoxicity assessments for over 20 years and was an industry nominated expert to the OECD regarding the implementation of the Fish Embryo Toxicity (FET) test guideline. Subsequently, Adam was elected as an independent advisor for the validation management group of the ring trial of the FET test. Over the years, Adam has been very active in the field of animal alternatives for ecotoxicity testing, chairing many sessions at SETAC and currently chairs the SETAC global animal alternatives interest group. He has been actively promoting the use of alternative methods for hazard assessments of chemicals at a regulatory level and was the project lead for the newly adopted ISO standard and OECD test guideline for a cytotoxicity assay (RT-gill W1 cell line). Adam was also the chairperson for the Cefic LRi Research Liaison Team for the project CELLSens and is currently leading the Cefic LRi project (ECO 51) entitled Strengthening Weight of evidence for FET data to replace acute Fish Toxicity (SWiFT). Adam was also the coordinator for a JPI Oceans Knowledge Hub for contaminants of emerging concern in the marine environment. Adam has a thorough understanding of the regulatory complexities regarding the adoption of alternative test methods and the need for a weight of evidence approach to gain regulatory acceptance. Adams main interests involve understanding how chemicals are regulated within an environmental context, and how to influence policy making decisions for regulatory frameworks.
President of Assembly
President, ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences, Inc.
Dr. Gary Minsavage is the President of ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences, Inc (EMBSI). He received a PhD in Molecular Toxicology from the University of Rochester and an MBA from Rutgers University. Gary completed postdoctoral training as a US National Research Council Fellow at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense before joining EMBSI. He has expertise in toxicology, human health risk assessment, chemical safety assessments and management, and strategy development with an understanding of the science-policy interface. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology. Gary has broad and diverse perspectives that bring together strategic thinking and environmental health science solutions. He was the Health Science Executive at CONCAWE, Belgium. In this role, he identified, coordinated, and/or granted research in areas including the health impact of air pollution, benzene worker studies, and asphalt/bitumen worker exposure and cancer epidemiology. He also managed CONCAWE’s EU REACH programs. Throughout his career, he has been an active contributor to advisory and scientific committees where he has helped the worldās leading scientists prioritize and tackle complex environmental health challenges and opportunities. Currently, Gary has been a Liaison and Workshop Planning Committee Member for the National Academy of Sciences Environmental Health Matters Initiative, is the president of the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute Assembly, president of the Toxicology Forum, and a sponsor representative for the Health Effects Institute. He is currently a member of the Finance Committee of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) and Past President for the SOT Risk Assessment Specialty Section.
Past Chair of Board
ApconiX, Ltd.
Dr. Ruth A. Roberts is Chair and Director of Drug Discovery at Birmingham University, UK, and Cofounder of ApconiX, an integrated toxicology and ion channel company that brings together a team of world-renowned nonclinical safety experts with over 300 years of drug discovery and development experience. Before that, Ruth was Global Head of Regulatory Safety at AstraZeneca and Director of Toxicology for Aventis in Paris, France. She is currently Vice Chair of HESI. She chaired the HESI Emerging Issues Committee from 2015 to 2016, joined the HESI Board in 2019, and has co-chaired the HESI Biomarkers of Neurotoxicity scientific committee since its inception in 2015.
Dr. Roberts received her BSc in biochemistry and her PhD in medical oncology from the University of Manchester, UK. She is former president of EUROTOX, former president of the British Toxicology Society (BTS), and a Fellow and past president of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (ATS) and was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2012 and of the Royal Society of Biology in 2014.
Dr. Roberts was the recipient of the SOT Achievement Award in 2002, the EUROTOX Bo Holmstedt Award in 2009, and the SOT 2018 Founders Award, given in recognition of outstanding leadership in fostering the role of toxicological sciences in safety decision making. With over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals, she is interested in developing and implementing innovative models in drug discovery and development.
UCB
Jean-Pierre holds a Ph.D. in Physiology & Pharmacology 1990, from the University of Montpellier, France. Following a post-doc at UCSF, Jean-Pierre joined the Pierre Fabre Research Centre (1992-98) where he contributed to the discovery and progression into development of 3 candidate drugs. He joined AstraZeneca to build from inception, develop and lead the Department of Safety Pharmacology where he contributed to the safety evaluation of ~200 candidate drugs across a wide range of therapy areas, leading to the development and successful registration of several marketed products. In February 2014 he joined UCB-Biopharma as Senior Director Head of Investigative Toxicology, based in Belgium supporting the entire portfolio across several therapy areas and modalities. He is an active member of several scientific societies; former President of the Safety Pharmacology Society; current co-chair of the HESI subcommittee on Proarrhythmia, and of the HESI Cardiac Steering Team. He is also Chair of the IQ-DruSafe Secondary Pharmacology Working Group; and he is representing the EFPIA on the ICH E14-S7B Implementation Working Group. He is involved in training, education and mentoring programs associated with several scientific societies, universities, and trade associations. He is author/co-author of several patents and >200 peer review publications and book chapters.
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