BIOGRAPHIES OF COMMISSION MEMBERS
Dr. Gilbert S. Omenn, Chair.
Dr. Omenn is Professor of Environmental Health and of Medicine
and Dean of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at
the University of Washington, Seattle. His research and public
policy interests include genetic predisposition to environmental
and occupational health hazards, chemoprevention of cancers,
health promotion for older adults, and risk analysis. From 1977
to 1981, Dr. Omenn was a Deputy Science and Technology Adviser in
the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and then
an Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget. As
the first Science and Public Policy Fellow at The Brookings
Institution in Washington, DC., he coauthored the influential
1981 study, Clearing the Air: Reforming the Clean Air Act.
The author of 380 research papers and scientific reviews, as well
as author/editor of 14 books, Dr. Omenn received his A.B. from
Princeton University, his M.D. from Harvard, and a Ph.D. in
genetics from the University of Washington.
Alan C. Kessler, Vice-Chair.
A partner in the Philadelphia office of the law firm of
Buchanan Ingersoll Professional Corporation, Mr. Kessler has
extensive experience in the defense and litigation of major class
action toxic tort suits in federal and state courts, as well as
experience in the successful defense and prosecution of major
federal antitrust and securities class action suits. Three times
elected as a Township Commissioner for the Lower Merion Township
in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (population 58,000), Mr.
Kessler also has been appointed by three successive Philadelphia
mayors to various city boards and commissions. He also has been
an advisor to a number of mayoral, gubernatorial, senatorial and
presidential campaigns, and served on President Clinton's
transition team. Mr. Kessler received his B.A. from the
University of Delaware and his law degree from the University of
Maryland. He was appointed to the Commission by President
Clinton.
Norman T. Anderson
Mr. Anderson is Director of Research for the American Lung
Association of Maine. President of the Maine Biological and
Medical Sciences Symposium, he also is a member of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a regional air
toxicologist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in
Boston; a regulatory toxicologist for the Maine Bureau of Health,
and an environmental health scientist for the Maine Department of
Environmental Protection. He also has served on numerous
environmental health advisory committees at the state and local
level. Mr. Anderson received his B.A. from Brown University and
his Masters of Science in Public Health from the University of
North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He also has studied immunology and
pathology at the Boston University School of Medicine.
Dr. Peter Y. Chiu
Dr. Chiu is Senior Physician and Service Committee Chair for
The Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Milpitas, CA, and an
Assistant Clinical Professor at the Stanford University Medical
School. Dr. Chiu has been a Fellow of the American Academy of
Family Physicians since 1989, and also has been a registered
civil engineer in California since 1972. He served as the
principal environmental engineer for the Association of Bay Area
Governments between 1976 and 1979 and was responsible for
planning, organizing and directing environmental management
programs for the San Francisco Bay area. He also served on the
California Regional Water Quality Control Board from 1979 to
1984. Dr. Chiu received his B.S. in Civil Engineering, his
Masters of Public Health degree, and his Doctor of Public Health
degree from the University of California, Berkeley; and his M.D.
degree from Stanford University.
Dr. John Doull
Dr. Doull is a Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and
Therapeutics at the University of Kansas Medical Center. A former
president of the American Board of Toxicology and the Society of
Toxicology, Dr. Doull served on the boards of the American
Academy of Clinical Toxicology and The Toxicology Forum. Dr.
Doull has also served as a consultant to numerous government
agencies, private institutes, foundations and businesses. He is
the recipient of many professional honors, including one named
for him, the John Doull Award presented by the Mid-America
Chapter of the Society of Toxicology. Dr. Doull received his B.S.
in Chemistry from Montana State College, and his Ph.D. in
Pharmacology and M.D. degrees from the University of Chicago.
Dr. Bernard Goldstein
Dr. Goldstein is Director of the Environmental and
Occupational Health Sciences Institute, a joint program of the
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood
Johnson Medical School and Rutgers University, and Chairman of
the Department of Environmental and Community Medicine. He is a
former member of the New York University faculty and a former
president of the Association of University Environmental Health
Sciences Centers. Dr. Goldstein has undertaken many major
consultation and committee assignments. He has published more
than 200 articles and book chapters related to environmental
sciences and public policy. Dr. Goldstein received his B.S.
degree from the University of Wisconsin and his M.D. from New
York University School of Medicine.
Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Dr. Lederberg, a Noble Prize winning research geneticist, is
President Emeritus of The Rockefeller University and remains a
professor and Sackler Foundation Scholar there. He received the
1958 Nobel Prize in Medicine for studies on the exchange of
genetic material in bacteria and the U.S. National Medal of
Science in 1989. Dr. Lederberg was a professor of genetics at the
University of Wisconsin and Stanford University School of
Medicine before becoming president of The Rockefeller University
in 1978. A member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1957
and a charter member of its Institute of Medicine, Dr. Lederberg
has been active on many government advisory committees and boards
and served as Chairman of the President's Cancer Panel from 1979
to 1981. Dr. Lederberg received his B.A. from Columbia College,
was a medical student at Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons, and obtained his Ph.D. from Yale.
Dr. Sheila M. McGuire
Dr. McGuire is president of the Iowa Health Research Institute
and an expert in the epidemiology of oral diseases, geriatrics
research, and fluoride research. A former Assistant Professor in
the Harvard Medical School's Department of Dental Care
Administration and adjunct faculty member at the University of
Iowa College of Dentistry, Dr. McGuire was a member of the Health
Professionals Review Group for the White House Task Force on
National Health Care Reform. She also served a two-year term as
chair of the Massachusetts Public Health Association's
Legislative Committee. Dr. McGuire received her Doctor of Dental
Surgery degree from the University of Iowa; her Master's in
Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health; and her
Doctorate of Medical Sciences in Epidemiology from Harvard.
Dr. David Rall
Dr. Rall is the former Director of the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and is one of the world's
leading authorities on toxicology and environmental health. He
was the founding Director of the National Toxicology Program, the
largest toxicity testing program in the world, and has authored
and co-authored approximately 170 papers relating to comparative
pharmacology, cancer chemotherapy, pesticide toxicology, drug
research and regulation, among other topics. Dr. Rall has served
on and/or chaired numerous interagency and international
committees on toxicology and environmental health, and now is
serving as foreign secretary for the National Academy of
Science's Institute of Medicine. Dr. Rall received his B.S.
degree from North Central College and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees
in Pharmacology, as well as his M.D. degree, from Northwestern
University.
Dr. Virginia V. Weldon
Dr. Weldon is Senior Vice President, Public Policy, for
Monsanto Company. Her overall responsibilities include
identifying public policy issues affecting the company, setting
priorities, and implementing Monsanto's approach to these issues.
Prior to joining Monsanto in 1989 as Vice President, Scientific
Affairs, Dr. Weldon was a professor of pediatrics, deputy
chancellor for medical affairs, and vice president of the Medical
Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Medical
Center. She is a member of the President's Committee of Advisors
on Science and Technology, and a distinguished service member of
the Association of American Medical Colleges, whose assembly she
chaired in 1985-86. Dr. Weldon received her A.B. degree from
Smith College and her M.D. degree from the State University of
New York at Buffalo.
Dr. Gail Charnley, Executive Director.
Dr. Charnley has 20 years of experience in environmental
toxicology and risk assessment, including laboratory research
focusing on the role of environmental factors in human cancers.
She was most recently acting director of the toxicology and risk
assessment program at the National Academy of Sciences, where she
served as project director of several committees convened to
evaluate methodologic questions related to evaluating human
health effects from chemical exposures. She has performed health
risk assessments and developed regulatory criteria for human
exposure to environmental contaminants for a variety of
regulatory agencies and has chaired several U.S. Army Science
Board committees. She currently serves as a councilor of the
Society for Risk Analysis. Dr. Charnley received her A.B. in
Biochemistry from Wellesley College and her Ph.D. in Toxicology
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.