CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Featured Speaker
Pat Breysse, PhD
Director, National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR)
Presentation Title: "Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) + Health"
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Pat Breysse, PhD, joined CDC in December 2014 as the Director of NCEH/ATSDR. Dr. Breysse leads CDC’s efforts to investigate the relationship between environmental factors and health. He came to CDC from the Johns Hopkins University where his research focused on the evaluation and control of chemical, biological, and physical factors that can affect health, with a particular concentration on risk and exposure assessment. Under Dr. Breysse’s leadership, the agency has prioritized work on exposure to lead, safe drinking water, initiated new ATSDR actions to address exposure to hazardous chemicals, and has played a critical role in CDC’s emergency preparedness and response to natural disasters and chemical exposures.
Dr. Breysse received his PhD in Environmental Health Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1985 and completed postdoctoral training at the British Institute for Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Featured Speaker
Devon Payne‐Sturges, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., M.Engr
Assistant Professor MIAEH & Assistant Professor Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, University of Maryland School of Public Health
Presentation Title: “Intervening on Cumulative Environmental Neurodevelopmental Risks”
Presentation Topic: Dr. Payne-Sturges will speak on her current research project to use systems thinking/systems modeling as a new way to examine cumulative risks/impacts. Disparities in children's exposures to neurotoxicants will be the case example of the presentation.
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Dr. Payne-Sturges is an Assistant Professor with the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health at the University of Maryland, School of Public Health. She holds joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Maryland, she served as Assistant Commissioner for Environmental Health with the Baltimore City Health Department then later as the Assistant Center Director for Human Health with U.S. EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research where she focused on biomonitoring for policy analysis, cumulative risk assessment, health impact assessment, environmental health indicator development, children’s environmental health and environmental health of minority populations.
Her research focuses on racial and economic disparities in exposures to environmental contaminants and associated health risks with the aim of improving the science our society uses to make decisions about environmental policies that impact the health of communities and populations, especially vulnerable, low income and minority populations. She was awarded a NIEHS K01 Career Development award to evaluate the combined effects of ambient air pollution exposures and psychosocial stressors on disparities in children’s neurocognitive functioning using epidemiological and systems science modeling approaches. Additionally, she received a Fulbright Senior Specialist award to work with Hochschule für Gesundheit (HSG) - University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany on cumulative risk assessment and environmental justice.
Lightning Presentation
This will be a series of 3 speakers with 15 minutes each for their presentations.
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Steve Carpenter, Ph.D
Presentation Title: “Climate, cows, and water degradation in Wisconsin”
Steve Carpenter is the Emeritus Director and Stephen Alfred Forbes Professor of the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Current research topics are controls and dynamics of blooms of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in lakes, causes of collapse in recreational fisheries, and global tradeoffs among energy, food, and water resources. Carpenter’s research has been recognized by international awards, including the Stockholm Water Prize, the Margalef Prize, and the research awards of professional societies. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Tracey Holloway, ph.d
Presentation Title: “Air Quality and Public Health: Bringing NASA Data Down to Earth”
Tracey Holloway is an air quality scientist, working at the intersection of air quality, energy, climate, and public health. She was honored as the 2017-2021 Gaylord Nelson Distinguished Professor at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, and she is appointed in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences.
Tracey leads the NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team, which connects NASA data with stakeholder interests in air quality management and public health (haqast.org). She co-founded and served as the first President of the Earth Science Women’s Network “ESWN”, which has a mission of supporting the scientists of today and welcoming a diverse community of scientists for tomorrow. Tracey now leads Science-a-thon (scienceathon.org), a public outreach event and fundraisier for three major women-in-science non-profits: ESWN, Girls Who Code, and the Society of Women Engineers. In college, Tracey majored in Applied Math from Brown University, then continued on for a Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from Princeton University.
Susan Paskewitz, PH.D
Presentation Title: “Ecoepidemiology of Tick-borne Disease in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest”
Susan Paskewitz is chair and professor in the Department of Entomology. She also co-directs the Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease. Her research program focuses on the ecology, epidemiology and control of human disease transmitted by ticks and mosquitoes and she teaches undergraduate classes in global health and medical entomology. Dr. Paskewitz serves on the Advisory Board for the UW-Madison Global Health Institute. She is a program faculty member for the Master’s of Public Health and the Parasitology and Vector Biology training programs, and a faculty affiliate in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at UW.
Environmental Justice Panel
This is a two-person panel with individual presentations and question and answer discussion to follow. This panel is focused on local and state issues featuring experts, citizen activists, and professionals from Wisconsin.
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Presentation Title: “PFAS: Coming to a neighborhood near you”
Doug Oitzinger is the past mayor of the City of Marinette having served two terms from 1999 -2001 and 2003 – 2006. Prior to his tenure as mayor he was employed at Marinette Marine Corporation for 22 years and was the Director of Purchasing and Logistics. The retired businessman has also owned several small businesses and provided independent consulting services.Mr. Oitzinger graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in 1972 with a BS-Education. He has served on numerous state and local boards. He is a past President of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities and has served on several statewide commissions including the Wisconsin Coastal Management Council.
In 2018 he became involved in organizing a grass-roots response to the Tyco/Johnson Controls PFAS contamination disaster in the Marinette and Peshtigo area. The group became known as S.O.H2O (Stop Poisoning Our Water); he has represented the group testifying before the Speaker’s Task Force on Water Quality. He has also appeared in environmental documentaries and news stories on the PFAS contamination crisis in his community.
Thomas Pearson, Ph.D
Presentation Title: “Frac Sand Mining and Environmental Justice: Lessons from a Boom and Bust Industry.”
Thomas Pearson began teaching at UW-Stout in 2009. He is a cultural anthropologist and has conducted ethnographic fieldwork on environmental conflicts in both Central America and the United States. His research in Central America addressed environmental activism around genetically modified seeds and intellectual property rights issues during the ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement. His research in the United States has focused on the social aspects of frac sand mining in western Wisconsin, particularly local activism, conflicts over community, place identity, and democracy, and impacts on quality of life. He is planning a future research project on the environmental justice implications of pipeline and energy infrastructure development, and a separate project on the experience of disability rights advocacy. He began serving as the assistant director of the Honors College in 2016.