Dr. Yasmeen Nkrumah-Elie
Yasmeen Nkrumah-Elie has over a decade of experience in molecular nutrition and toxicology research. She completed both her BS in Biological and Agricultural Engineering and her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, specializing in Toxicology, from Florida A&M University (FAMU). Her dissertation focused on the use of garlic organosulfide compounds to inhibit breast cancer initiation, in vitro. During a portion of her PhD tenure, she served in public office on the board and as the secretary for the Ochlockonee River Soil and Water Conservation District, Seat 4, Leon County, Florida. She received her postdoctoral training on the intersections of molecular nutrition and toxicology from Oregon State University, working under the leadership of Drs. Robyn Tanguay and Emily Ho on projects focused on dietary zinc deficiency and arsenic exposure, using untargeted metabolomics. Prior to joining ChromaDex, she conducted clinical metabolomics research on asthma patients, managed an obesity research laboratory, and was paramount in initiating foodomics collaborations at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Nkrumah-Elie has published research in the areas of toxicology, cancer, nutritional products, micronutrient deficiencies, asthma, and clinical metabolomics. As the Global Director of the internationally award winning ChromaDex External Research Program (CERP), Yasmeen and her team are helping to advance the science of NAD+ and nicotinamide riboside (NR) all over the world. CERP provides preclinical and clinical study material and technical assistance, in-kind, for researchers exploring NAD+ in health and disease. This program is a trailblazer in the dietary supplement space, and Yasmeen hopes other companies will develop similar programs to improve trust and advance scientific integrity in the industry. Dr. Nkrumah-Elie is a member of The American Society for Nutrition (Membership Committee and Sustaining Partners Outreach and Impact Chair), the Senior Scientific Advisory Council for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Advisory Council for InformaMarkets, and Black Women in Science and Engineering. Additionally, she serves as the Rehearsal Director and Lead Choreographer for the Intergenerational Women’s African Drum and Dance Ensemble (IWADDE), is a member of the Denver Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and a member of the Denver Chapter of Jack and Jill of America.
Dr. Angie Perez
Dr. Angie Perez, PhD, CIH is a Senior Toxicologist at CTEH, an emergency response and disaster recovery firm, and is a Certified Industrial Hygienist through the Board for Global Environmental Health and Safety Credentialing. She has over 19 years of experience in the field of toxicology, chemical exposure assessment, and human health risk assessment. Her focal research and field experience includes evaluation of exposures and potential health risks of airborne contaminants, evaluation of impairment with drugs and alcohol, and exposure and health risk assessment of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Dr. Perez earned her doctorate in Toxicology from Oregon State University and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco, in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Dr. Perez accepted a consulting position in San Francisco, California in 2009 where she assisted with historical dose reconstruction, regulatory and litigation support, human health risk assessment, and design and execution of field simulation and exposure studies. In 2017, Dr. Perez joined CTEH where she continued her previous work for federal, state, and local governments, national associations, and private companies. Most importantly, Dr. Perez's work at CTEH afforded her the opportunity to work with governments, companies, and individuals to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a chemical or biological emergency. Dr. Perez directs the CTEH office for the Pacific Northwest and she and her family are located in Portland, Oregon.
Dr. Edmond O'Donnell
Dr. O’Donnell grew up in Coos Bay Oregon and attended Oregon State University for both undergraduate and graduate school, where he worked in the labs of Dr. Andrew Buermeyer and Dr. Siva Kolluri, respectively. In Dr. Kolluri’s lab he completed his dissertation titled “Discovery and mechanism of action of anti-cancer compounds targeting the aryl hydrocarbon receptor.” He continued with his education in New York, attending medical school, where he remained active in research, taking part in studies on novel surface markers in osteosarcoma. He is currently a third-year orthopaedic surgery resident at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. When not at the hospital or lab, he enjoys rooting for the beavers from afar and spending time with his wife and fellow OSU alum Valerie, and their three children Edmond, Adeline, and Oliver.
Dr. Wendy Hillwalker
Dr. Hillwalker has more than 15 years as an environmental toxicologist, a regulatory toxicologist and a risk assessor. She has extensive experience in applying global regulatory guidance, ecotoxicity testing, bioavailability modeling, environmental exposure assessments, endocrine disruption and new approach methodologies. Her career choices have crossed multiple sectors, predominantly Academic and Industry, and taken her to new locations around the country. As a Principal Toxicologist at a Global Consumer product company, she helps SC Johnson make hard decisions to do the right thing for consumers and the environment. She is a strong advocate for SC Johnson's role in the global community to collaboratively identify and help resolve environmental challenges through engagement with strategic partners. Career highlights include supporting early career professionals via the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Dr. Jason Sandahl
Dr. Sandahl recently departed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) after leading the agency’s international capacity building programs on pesticides for 16 years, focusing on pesticide regulations, residue standards, and cooperative residue research. As a Senior Technical Advisor, Jason coordinated training events for foreign regulatory officials across the world and led the several assessment teams across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and cooperated with many U.S. government regulatory agencies to ensure consistency with broader USG priorities and policies. Prior to his career at USDA, Jason was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Swaziland in Africa, and was a research Fellow at the University of Hokkaido, Japan. After departing FAS in February 2021, Jason started the consulting group, Ag Aligned Global, which aims to further support U.S. agriculture and USG interests in export opportunities through capacity building initiatives. He is also a cofounder and Board member of the Minor Use Foundation, which fosters global partnerships to generate residue data to establish maximum residue limits (MRLs) for minor use crops.
Dr. David E. Williams
David E. Williams is an Oregon State University Distinguished Professor with a primary appointment in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology and is also the Helen P. Rumbel Professor for Cancer Prevention in the Linus Pauling Institute. Dr. Williams obtained his B.A. in Biology from Reed College and a Ph.D. degree, in Biochemistry & Biophysics at Oregon State University. His postdoctoral research training was conducted at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Williams returned to OSU for a tenure-track position conducting biomedical research on drug metabolism as well as carcinogenesis and cancer chemoprevention. He maintained continuous external funding over 33 years at OSU, primarily by NIEHS and NCI and has authored 240 peer reviewed publications with 14,800 citations, an h index of 68 and i10-index of 203. He has been a member of the Editorial Board, as well as serving as Associate Editor, of Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. Dr. Williams has been a long-time member of SOT and served on the Program and Education Committees and held office in both the Food Safety and Carcinogenesis Specialty Sections and is Past President of Pacific NW Chapter of SOT (PANWAT). At OSU he has served as Director for 3 large multi-investigator and multi-institutional programs. His contribution to NIH grant review panels includes membership in ALTOX1, XNDA and SIEE and ad hoc participation in over 40 NIH and EPA review committees. He has been an external advisor for numerous programs including the NIEHS Center for Children’s Environmental Health (Medical College of Wisconsin), NIEHS Centers for study of the human health impact of the Gulf Oil Spill (University of Florida and University of Texas at Galveston), NIEHS Superfund programs (Baylor University and Michigan State University), Environmental Biomarkers initiative Program (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), National User Resource for Biological Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Orange County Water District Santa Ana River Monitoring Program and the Institute for Environmental Health at Oregon Health and Sciences University.
Dr. Jennifer Duringer
Jennifer M. Duringer holds the positions of Assistant Professor (Senior Research) and Director of the Endophyte Service Laboratory at Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR, USA) in the Department of Environmental & Molecular Toxicology, College of Agricultural Sciences. She received her PhD in Toxicology from Oregon State University in 2003, as well as her BS in Zoology and BA in International Studies in 1998 before joining Oregon State University as a faculty researcher. Her research program focuses on food safety and examines the biochemical effects, mechanisms of toxicity and ultimate biotransformation of plant and fungal toxicants in humans and animals; investigates the potential of naturally produced fungal compounds in plant hosts to act as pest deterrents; delineates the molecular and chemical characterization of ecotypes of pathogenic fungi which has implications for disease management and safety; and determines the chemical profile and toxicological/therapeutic indices of essential oil extracts from native plants, with an emphasis on those consumed by indigenous populations throughout the world. Dr. Duringer also leads the testing program of the Endophyte Service Laboratory for endophyte mycotoxins in forages grown in the Pacific Northwest, United States that are destined for global distribution. She has authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications, mentors undergraduate and graduate students in research, and delivers lectures on toxicology and mycotoxins. She also performs outreach for STEM education and career days and participates as an active member of the Society of Toxicology, having held the positions of Councilor and four years in the Presidential chain for the Comparative and Veterinary Specialty Section.
Dr. Manuel Garcia-Jaramillo
Manuel Garcia-Jaramillo began his academic studies with a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from University Pablo de Olavide (2007) with a minor in Biotechnology. His graduate training was first focused on Education. After earning an M.S. in Biology Education, he decided to focus on research, and to pursue an M.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (2012) and a Ph.D. in Environmental Agrochemistry (2015) from the University of Seville.
Dr. Garcia-Jaramillo started his postdoctoral training at Oregon State University (OSU) in 2016 at the Linus Pauling Institute, where he became very interested in mass-spectrometry based metabolomics analysis. In 2017 he joined the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU as a Research Associate, and in 2018 the OSU Mass Spectrometry Center as a Project Specialist. The same year, Manuel was awarded a 2-year USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellowship; and, in 2020, a NIH R90 Postdoctoral Fellowship.
In 2021, Dr. Garcia-Jaramillo joined the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at OSU as part of the 2019 Integrated River Basin Water Quality and Quantity Investment. He is also affiliated with the OSU Environmental Health Sciences Center and with the NUNM's (National University of Natural Medicine) Helfgott Research Institute.
Dr. Subham Dasgupta
I am a molecular toxicologist, and an Assistant Professor within the Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University, SC. Within my lab, we use high-content screening, multi-omics strategies and reverse genetics to understand molecular dynamics underlying adverse effects to developmental exposures. I got my BS in Human Physiology (2008) and MS in Environmental Science (2010) from the University of Calcutta, India. Following this, I got my PhD (2016) from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, NY, where I was mentored by Dr. Anne McElroy. As my PhD dissertation, I conducted a multistressor study to evaluate ecotoxicological impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill and assessed the combinatory role of crude and dispersed oil, oil spill dispersants and hypoxia in developing fish. Following this, I worked as a postdoc in Dr. David Volz's lab at University of California, Riverside (2017-2019), where I used zebrafish as a model to understand the developmental toxicity of organophosphate flame retardants and PFASs, anchoring phenotyping observations to multi-omic responses. In 2019, I joined Dr. Robyn Tanguay's lab at Oregon State as a postdoc, where I led three projects - 1) understand the role of an AhR-dependent long non-coding RNA (slincR) on embryonic development, 2) systematically assess biological responses of 5G-level radiofrequency radiations and 3) examine systems level effects of flame retardants. I am also an active member of Society of Toxicology and have been a part of various committees, including serving as the current Junior Councilor of Pacific Northwest Association of Toxicologists (PANWAT).
Dr. Ivan Titaley
Ivan is a Postdoctoral Scholar working with Dr. Jennifer Field in Dr. Staci Simonich's laboratory. His primary project concerns the method development and analysis of neutral (volatile) per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in landfill gas using thermal desorption coupled with gas chromotography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). His other projects included analysis of neutral PFAS in consumer products, and aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), as well as on the applications of computational chemistry or chemometrics in environmental chemistry. Ivan is originally from Indonesia and graduated with a B.A. in Chemistry from Berea College in KY in 2013 and with a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from OSU in 2017. Before coming back to OSU in 2020, Ivan spent two years as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Örebro University in Sweden working on target, suspect screening, and non-targeted analyses of contaminated soils.
Dr. Lindsey St. Mary
Lindsey is a postdoctoral fellow at Dr. Robyn Tanguay's lab in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University (OSU). Her current work consists of screening and categorizing 5,000 distinct chemicals found in the environment, consumer products, or used in manufacturing processes in order to assess phenotypic and transcriptional changes relevant to human disease. Additionally, she is collaborating with AsedaSciences to integrate their high throughput live-cell screening system (SYSTEMETRIC®) and the Tanguay Lab's zebrafish screening assessment (ZBEscreen™) to predict hazard during the drug discovery and development process. Lindsey is president of Oregon State University's (OSU) Postdoctoral Association (OPA), postdoctoral representative for OSU's TeamTOX and Pacific Northwest Association of Toxicologists (PANWAT), and OSU Superfund Research Program's (SRP) Trainer Coordinator.
Ian Moran
Ian Moran is a PhD Candidate working in the Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program under the guidance of Dr. Kim Anderson. Ian graduated from Western Washington University in 2018 where he studied environmental science and toxicology. In his time at Oregon State University he has studied the environmental fate and toxicity of field-collected chemical mixtures from legacy contaminated sites. In collaboration with the Tanguay laboratory, Ian has used zebrafish to interrogate complex field-collected mixtures in order to identify drivers of toxicity. Outside of the laboratory, Ian enjoys dog walks, dancing and exploring Oregon's diverse scenery on two wheels.
Victoria Colvin
Victorai Colvin is a fourth year PhD candidate working in Dr. Susan Tilton's lab. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Troy University in 2019 and a Master of Science in Toxicology from Oregon State University in 2021. Her current research focuses on the validation of human bronchial epithelial cell (HBEC) models for the study of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) toxicity. Her project utilizes many techniques such as ultra-performance liquid chromatography, RNA-sequencing, protein activity analysis, and more to assess the metabolic competency of HBECs for PAH exposure. Her future goals are to increase her understanding of computational tools such as computer programming/coding, toxicokinetic software tools, and machine learning for the purpose of solving toxicological issues.