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DIFFICULT-TO-TEST WORKSHOP

SHORT SPEAKER BIOS

(In alphabetical order by last name)

Lawrence P. Burkhard. Lawrence is a research chemist with EPA’s ORD, NHEERL, MidContinent Ecology Division located in Duluth, MN. He has done research on i) the 

bioaccumulation of contaminants in aquatic organisms and their food webs, ii) contaminated 

sediment sites, and iii) toxicity based analytical methods for the identification of unknown 

toxicants in environmental samples. He received a MS and PhD in Water Chemistry from the 

University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Michelle R. Embry. Michelle is a Senior Scientific Program Manager at the ILSI Health and 

Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI), a non-profit organization based in Washington DC, 

where she manages multi-sector, international projects related to ecological and human health 

risk assessment. Prior to joining HESI in 2006, she was an ecological risk assessor at the 

USEPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs. She received a B.S. in Biology and a Ph.D. in 

toxicology from Duke University.

Janet Gardner has been Chemical Regulatory Manager at Amyris since 2011. Amyris is a 

renewable products company based in Emeryville, CA. The prior 20 years of her career in the 

safety and regulatory field were with The Clorox Company and Life Technologies. Janet holds 

a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Toxicology from the University of California at Davis 

and a Master’s degree in Theological Studies.

Dr. Tala Henry has been with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for 

20+ years. She is currently Director of the Risk Assessment Division in the Office of Pollution 

Prevention and Toxics where she leads several Agency programs that assess the health and 

environmental hazards, exposures and risks of new and existing chemicals, microorganisms 

and applications of biotechnology. Much of Dr. Henry’s professional experience with EPA has 

been as a Toxicologist. She has worked in a variety of programs at the EPA including 

conducting research on the toxicity of chemicals, conducting risk assessments for hazardous 

waste sites, and developing Water Quality Criteria. Dr. Henry has also served as the United 

States representative and technical expert for a number of international chemical assessment 

and management activities. Dr. Tala Henry received a B.A. in Biology from the College of St. 

Scholastica, a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota and completed a PostDoctoral Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jaeshin Kim. Jaeshin has been working for Dow Corning Corporation as Environmental 

Chemist since 2008. His major research areas are environmental modeling and atmospheric 

degradation of volatile compounds. Previously, Jaeshin was a research engineer at POSCO and 

RIST (Korea) for five years with emphasis on advanced water and wastewater treatment. He 

received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University (Korea) and an M.S. 

and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from University of Washington (Seattle, WA).
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Dr. E. Laurence Libelo is a senior Environmental Engineer with the Office of Chemical Safety 

and Pollution Prevention, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics. He hold a B.S.in Geology 

from the University of Maryland, M.S. in Environmental Science and Engineering from Virginia 

Tech and Ph.D. in Marine Science from the College of William and Mary. Dr. Libelo works on 

chemical fate and exposure in the Risk Assessment Division. His primary areas of expertise are 

in fate and transport and fluorochemicals. He has additional experience evaluating fate, transport 

and exposure for pesticide chemicals in the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs. Prior to joining 

EPA he conducted lab and field research on contaminant hydrogeology and remediation of fuel, 

solvent and AFFF chemicals at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. He has also worked for 

the U.S.G.S. and a private contractor on groundwater transport, environmental monitoring and 

microwave interaction with silicon and oxide crystal structures. 

Daniel J. Letinski. Presently a Senior Scientific Associate, Dan has been with ExxonMobil 

Biomedical Sciences, Inc. (EMBSI) and its predecessor organization since 1986 as an 

environmental chemist. He currently supervises the analytical section of EMBSI’s environmental 

toxicology and chemistry laboratory. His current work focuses on both passive dosing to support 

aquatic toxicity testing and passive sampling for assessing the bioavailability of hydrocarbons in 

environmental media. He received both a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Science with a 

concentration in environmental contamination and analysis from Rutgers University.

Daniel Salvito is the Vice President, Environmental Sciences for The Research Institute for 

Fragrance Materials, Inc. (RIFM). RIFM is an independent scientific organization, which tests 

and evaluates the safety of fragrance materials. The Institute represents more than seventy member 

companies on a worldwide basis. Dr. Salvito is responsible for overseeing the planning, 

development and implementation of the environmental program at RIFM. Dr. Salvito joined 

RIFM in 1999. Dr. Salvito holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Adelphi 

University and a Masters of Science degree in chemistry from the State University of New York 

at Stony Brook. He completed his Ph.D. in environmental science from Rutgers University. His 

current research interests include the aquatic and terrestrial fate of organic chemicals. Among his 

professional affiliations, Dr. Salvito is a member of the American Chemical Society and the 

Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. He presently serves on ECETOC’s 

Scientific Committee. He has authored over 20 scientific publications and presentations.

Gordon Sanders : Gordon is Environmental Toxicology Manager within the Regulatory and 

Product Affairs department of Givaudan, a World leader in the compounding and formulation of 

flavours and fragrances and producer of speciality chemicals. Prior to working in the F&F 

industry, Gordon spent 11-Years as an analytical then environmental fate chemist within the 

plant protection industry. Gordon holds a BSc in Agricultural Chemistry and a Ph.D. in 

Environmental Chemistry. 

Lee E. Sayers

Lee is a Senior Research Biologist at Smithers Viscient and has been part of the Ecotox team 

since 2000. Prior to joining Smithers she was a microbiologist specializing in bioassays for the 

detection of viral contaminates for BioReliance, Rockville, MD. Lee currently oversees chronic 

testing with fish and invertebrates, including exposures designed to evaluate potential endocrine 

disruption. Lee received her dual B.A. in Biology and Classical Greek from Colgate University.
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Kathy Schechter has been a research chemist for the Industrial Chemistry Branch of the 

Environmental Protection Agency for 15 years, but has been associated with the New Chemical 

review and Premanufacture Notice (PMN) processing for 18 years. She has Bachelor of Science 

degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics from North Carolina State University and a Doctor of 

Philosophy degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.