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8th Annual Conference on Children's Health & the Environment
Conference Speakers
Date: Friday, September 24, 2010
Location: Hamilton Crowne Plaza, Washington
DC.
Conference Agenda
Register online now!
Bob Axelrad
Since Bob joined EPA in 1980, he has held a number of positions focused on hazardous waste, indoor air quality, and children's health issues.
As the first director of EPA's Indoor Air Division from 1988-1995, Bob was responsible for the development of much of EPA's policy and guidance on indoor air quality, including the original Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools program and developing the IAQ Design Tools for Schools web-based guidance.
Bob also spearheaded EPA's work on secondhand tobacco smoke, which led to publication in 1992 of its landmark risk assessment identifying secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen. The risk assessment, and EPA's strong policy recommendations, helped accelerate state and local action to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke.
From 1998 to 2001, Bob served as co-chair of the Asthma Workgroup of the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children. Bob co-authored the national strategy document Asthma and the Environment: A Strategy to Protect Children, which served as the basis for a successful FY2000 Presidential budget initiative to address environmental factors impacting childhood asthma.
He is currently managing an EPA-wide effort to integrate EPA’s programs for K-12 schools, including development of EPA’s Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool (HealthySEAT) a software program that helps school districts conduct, track, and manage comprehensive environmental, health, and safety assessments of their school facilities. Bob is currently co-chairing an EPA-wide workgroup developing voluntary model guidelines for the siting of new school facilities.
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Michael Boeck, JD
Mr. Boeck is currently managing Baltimore City’s Safe Pest Management for Health Initiative, a partnership of six city agencies and community-based partners for transition to safer and more effective integrated pest management (IPM) programs for the protection of public health and the environment, especially for Baltimore’s children and low-income residents. IPM is a critical component of the Baltimore City Health Department’s Healthy Homes and Communities mission and, through the Initiative, IPM has been fully integrated into the Department’s home visit and intervention programs, especially for childhood asthma cases. Mr. Boeck, a certified public agency pesticide applicator, also works closely on the technical aspects of city contracting for IPM services, trains city agency and community-based outreach staff on IPM practices, and advises city agencies on IPM polices and programs, including partnerships with the Baltimore City School System and Housing Authority. The Health Department also is developing approaches for assessing IPM program outcomes for public health.
Prior to his work for the City, Mr. Boeck directed a project for transition to IPM policies and practices in Maryland’s health care sector, where he achieved similar results, including IPM pilot programs at over a dozen major medical and psychiatric hospitals and elder care communities in Maryland. He also has advised state and national ‘green’ heath care associations on IPM system standards and protocols for services and operations.
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Dana Best, MD
Dr. Best is on the faculty of The George Washington University School of Medicine and a researcher at Children’s National Medical Center, in Washington, DC. She is the Director of the Smoke Free Project, which supports national and local efforts to reduce tobacco use by and smoke exposure of children. Dr. Best is an Investigator with the American Academy of Pediatrics Julius B. Richmond Center of Excellence.
Dr. Best’s work in the field of tobacco smoke exposure of children ranges from training clinicians in brief, effective ways to counsel parents to make their homes and cars smoke-free, to the best ways to measure smoke in the environment and children’s exposure to smoke. Much of Dr. Best’s work has been in the policy realm, and she is the primary author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ policy statement on tobacco and the Academic Pediatric Association policy on tobacco.
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David Jacobs, PhD
Research Director, National Center for Healthy Housing
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Naomi L.C. Luban, MD
Naomi L.C. Luban, MD, received her medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, New York and completed her training at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Memorial Hospital-Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute and The Rockefeller University, and is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology / Oncology.
Dr. Luban is Chief, Division of Laboratory Medicine and Director of Transfusion Medicine/Edward J. Miller Donor Center at the Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC). She is also Vice Chairman for Academic Affairs in the Department of Pediatrics at CNMC, Associate Program Director of the Pediatric Clinical Research Center. She is Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, The George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC.
Dr. Luban has published over 140 peer-reviewed journal articles and over 40 book chapters. She has edited 7 texts in Pediatric Transfusion Medicine. She is an editorial board member for Transfusion and the American Journal of Hematology. Dr. Luban is a peer reviewer for Transfusion, Blood, Immunohematology, The Journal of Pediatrics, and Pediatric Blood and Cancer, among others.
She is a member of many professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of Blood Banks, American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology where she currently serves as a member of the Women in Medicine, Advocacy and Communications Task Forces. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She is past Chair of the Committee on Blood Disorders in Childhood of the American Society of Hematology.
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Jerome Paulson, MD
Jerome Paulson, MD Co-Director
is associate professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington
University School of Medicine & Health Sciences and Associate
Professor of Prevention & Community Health and Research Associate
Professor of Environmental & Occupational Health at the GW School of
Public Health & Health Services. He is the Medical Director for
National & Global Affairs of the Children’s Health Advocacy
Institute at the Children’s National Medical Center. Dr. Paulson is one
of the co-directors of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and
the Environment.
Dr. Paulson serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics
Committee on Environmental Health and the Children’s Health Protection
Advisory Committee for the US Environmental Protection Agency. He also
serves on the Pediatric Medical Care Committee of the National
Commission on Children and Disasters and part of the National
Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures organized by the
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. In October 2004 he was
a Dozor Visiting Professor at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva,
Israel. He lectured there and throughout Israel on children’s
environmental health. He was a recipient of a Soros Advocacy Fellowship
for Physicians from the Open Society Institute and worked with the
Children’s Environmental Health Network, and has also served as a
special assistant to the director of the National Center on
Environmental Health of the CDC working on children’s environmental
health issues. He has developed several new courses for the GW School of
Public Health about Children’s Health and the Environment. He is the
editor of the October, 2001 and the February and April 2007 editions of
Pediatric Clinics of North America on children’s environmental health.
He has served on numerous boards and committees related to children’s
environmental health.
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Janet A. Phoenix, MD, MPH
Janet A. Phoenix, MD, MPH is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. She is Executive Director of a national non profit organization, the Coalition for Environmentally Safe Communities, providing technical assistance to communities at high risk for environmental disease.
Dr. Phoenix was the recipient of a 2008 Health Policy Fellowship from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She spent her fellowship year working on health care reform, health care workforce and bioterrorism/pandemic preparedness efforts in the US Senate. She served on two federal advisory committees, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Lead Poisoning Advisory Committee and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee.
She has international experience having consulted for the US Agency for International Development and the Environmental Protection Agency in efforts to eliminate the use of leaded gasoline. That work took place in Poland, South Africa, Egypt and Senegal.
Dr Phoenix managed a community based participatory research project in the District of Columbia using faith based organizations in partnership with local health and environmental governmental agencies. Dr. Phoenix managed the National Lead Information Center a toll free hotline and clearinghouse for professionals and families providing information on lead poisoning prevention. She was the Director of Health Education for the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning a national advocacy organization now known as the Alliance for Healthy Housing.
She is an established media spokesperson with interviews on Good Morning America, CNBC and Voice of America. She designed three national media campaigns.. They included a Spanish language campaign airing on the three major Spanish language television outlets Telemundo, Univision and Galavision and an award winning campaign using the muppets Elmo and Oscar for Children’s Television Workshop. She has written curriculums on environmental lead poisoning, environmental triggers of asthma, breast cancer and AIDS. She is especially talented at developing training on environmental health for stakeholders including community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, and hard to reach audiences such as low income and/or low literacy individuals.
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Cristina Schullingkamp, MSEH
Christina has worked on indoor environmental issues since 1993 as the radon and indoor air quality – Tools for Schools coordinator in EPA’s region 3 office. In that capacity, she works with states to help them with outreach and education to the public on the indoor pollutant - radon. The office also helps the public by providing technical assistance on various indoor air pollutants found inside buildings. As part of EPA’s Indoor Air Quality Program, the premier program for schools is called Tools for Schools. This program educates schools’ staff as well as the public on how to identify and reduce their exposure to indoor air pollutant sources or activities that impact the indoor environment and their health. EPA also provides small grants to organizations that wish to work with schools to improve their indoor environments in a proactive manner by developing indoor air quality management plans. The outreach and educational programs provide training, presentations and indoor air quality visual building assessments to help schools proactively address indoor air concerns.
Initially, her work at EPA involved preparation of federal register rulemaking notices for state implementation plans. I reviewed source specific control technology plans for approval and preparation of appropriate technical support documents regarding agency actions to approve/disapprove programs at the state level in an effort to ensure safety.
Previous to her work at the EPA, Christina worked for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducting radiological inspections at nuclear power plants, medical and R&D facilities, as well as in the field inspecting radiographers’ activities. She also inspected fuel facilities and license reviews for those entities that had been inspected and/or were applying for a license to use radioactive materials.
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Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH
Ms. Witherspoon serves at the Executive Director for the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN), where her responsibilities include successfully organizing, leading, and managing policy, education/training, and science-related programs. Ms. Witherspoon has directed and been personally involved in the oversight and organization of CEHN’s Strategic Plan to serve as the “Voice for Children’s Environmental Health” in the nation’s capital for the past 10 years. She serves as a key spokes person for children’s vulnerabilities and the need for their protection, conducting presentations and lectures across the country. She is a leader in the field of children’s environmental health, serving on the Intersection Council of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and a former APHA Executive Board Member. Ms. Witherspoon is member of the National Association of Environmental Health Sciences Council and the NIEHS Public Interest Partners. She is also a member of the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Environmental Health Sciences Roundtable. She has a BS in Biology and a Master’s in Public Health in Maternal and Child Health, from The George Washington University School of Public Health.
Ms. Witherspoon is a contributing author to Mike Wallace’s 2008 book titled Where We Will Be 50 Years From Today: 60 Of The World’s Greatest Minds Share Their Visions On The Next Half-Century and co-author on the publication titled: “Incorporating environmental health into pediatric medical and nursing education.” Environmental Health Perspectives 112: 1755-60 (2004). She also wrote a guest editorial titled: “Are We Really Addressing the Core of Children’s Environmental Health?” Environ Health Perspectives. doi:10.1289/ehp.0901441 available via http://dx.doi.org [Online 25 September 2009].
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