Experts

The following experts are not employed by CAES. They are independent experts who may be available to work with nonprofit organizations. CAES will review requests for assistance and, if a request meets our screening criteria, reach out to these experts to determine whether there is a good match between the expert need and expert availability.
Olivia Devereux has 15 years of expertise in best management practice (BMP) planning and implementation and development of linked watershed and BMP modeling systems. She has performed water quality assessments and facilitated environmental planning efforts. She is the scientific lead in developing the CAST tool and was the scientific lead in developing the first Chesapeake Bay Program Scenario Builder, the system that distributes nutrients to the land and was used to create inputs to the Watershed Model. She also has worked extensively with the Maryland Department of the Environment and Delaware Natural Resources and Environmental Control to develop BMP tracking and planning data systems.

Dr. DiGiulio is a senior research scientist with more than 37 years of experience working on contaminant fate and transport issues. During his 31 years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he conducted research on gas flow-based subsurface remediation, groundwater and soil-gas sampling methodology, gas permeability testing, intrusion of subsurface vapors into indoor air, and solute transport of contaminants in soil and groundwater. The focus of his current work is on understanding the impact from oil and gas development on surface and groundwater resources including that associated with handling and disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material. He has conducted research on: the impact of hydraulic fracturing and impoundments used to store and dispose oil and gas waste on groundwater resources and water wells; methane migration to water wells; wellbore integrity; and impact to surface water and sediment from disposal of produced water. He has served as an expert witness in litigation relevant to oil and gas development, has testified before State oil and gas commissions on proposed regulation, and has testified before Congress on the impact of oil and gas development on water resources.

Mr. Glass has over 20 years of experience in environmental consulting and management, including over fifteen years as a West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Licensed Remediation Specialist. He is skilled in the evaluation and remediation of environmental contamination. Mr. Glass’ experience includes Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments, petroleum and chlorinated solvent site investigations, design and installation of monitoring well networks, aquifer testing, asbestos and biological remediation and project supervision, preparation of facility Spill Prevention Plans for above ground and underground storage tank facilities, and mold investigation and remediation. Mr. Glass’s experience includes management of remediation projects in the context of the West Virginia Voluntary Remediation Program (VRP) and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Land Recycling Program.
Dr. Gray has been performing research in air pollution for over 35 years, within academic, governmental, and consulting environments. He has made significant contributions in the areas of airborne particles and visibility, including the development and application of computer-based air quality models. His areas of expertise are air pollution control strategy design and evaluation, computer modeling of the atmosphere, characterization of ambient air quality and air pollutant source emissions, health risk assessments, aerosol monitoring and modeling, visibility analysis, receptor modeling, statistical data analysis, mathematical programming, numerical methods, and analysis of environmental public policy.
 
 
Mr. Hansen founded Downstream Strategies in 1997 and has 30 years of experience working on resource and environmental problems and solutions related to water and energy science and policy. He manages interdisciplinary research teams, performs quantitative and qualitative analyses, and provides litigation support and expert testimony. Mr. Hansen has written expert reports and provided expert testimony for cases before federal and state courts, a state public service commission, and state appeals boards. He has also provided invited testimony before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and state legislative committees. Topics include NPDES permits, 404 permits, aboveground storage tanks, and other permits and regulations related to coal mines, coal combustion residuals, wastewater treatment plants, stormwater, quarries, and unconventional oil and gas drilling and fracking.
 
 
Lee Ann Hill, MPH, is a senior scientist at PSE Healthy Energy, where she focuses on the environmental and public health dimensions of oil and gas development in the United States. The primary aim of her research is to thoroughly characterize the health hazards, risks and impacts associated with upstream oil and gas development, with a particular focus on air and water pathways and waste streams. Her recent work includes characterizing chemical use and waste streams associated with oil and gas development across multiple states and examining the human health hazards and risks associated with underground gas storage and produced water reuse. Intent on sharing research findings with relevant and diverse audiences, she has written commentaries, provided expert testimony, developed data visualization tools, and authored numerous peer-reviewed and technical reports.
 
 
Mr. Hutson’s entire 40-year professional career has been focused on regulatory, site characterization, and remediation issues related to waste handling and disposal practices and facilities. He has worked on contaminated sites in 36 states and the in the Caribbean. His site characterization and remediation experience includes activities at sites located in a full range of geologic conditions, including soil and groundwater contamination in both consolidated and unconsolidated geologic media, and a wide range of contaminants. He has served in various technical and managerial roles in conducting all aspects of site characterization and remediation including definition of the nature and extent of contamination (including developing and implementing monitoring plans to accurately characterize groundwater contamination), directing human health and ecological risk assessments, conducting feasibility studies for selection of appropriate remedies to meet remediation goals, and implementing remedial strategies. Much of the last 15 years has been related to groundwater contamination and permitting issues at coal ash storage and disposal sites in numerous states.
 
 
Mr. Kray has played a pivotal role in the legal battle to prevent further petrochemical development in St James Parish, Louisiana – the very heart of Cancer Alley. His expertise in land use, permitting, zoning and planning process analysis – coupled with strong data-based geographic information systems (GIS) has proved time and again of critical value to legal efforts by Earthjustice, Center for Constitutional Rights, Center for Biological Diversity and Tulane Environmental Law Clinic. Taking a deep approach to cartographic research has helped expand the range of tools for legal advocates, and led a team of archaeologists to find evidence of unmarked slave burial grounds within the footprint of the massive Formosa complex, which was concealed by the applicant’s own Section 106 review. Within the Louisiana Bucket Brigade he authored a report “Plan without People” which shines the spotlight on malfeasance in local master planning processes and elevated the case of environmental discrimination to a national conversation. Further, his maps have been included in investigative reporting and affidavits submitted for legal comments to the Army Corps of Engineers and Louisiana DEQ. He has earned the confidence of local grassroots activists and leading national organizations as a cartographer, planner and data expert who is committed to a wide-ranging strategy, and elevating and amplifying the voices of the community who deserve to be heard.
 
 
Dr. Krieger is the Director of Research at PSE Healthy Energy, where she oversees the organization’s scientific research efforts. Dr. Krieger joined PSE in 2013 to launch the organization’s work on clean energy. Her research focuses on accelerating the transition to clean and renewable energy resources, and developing transition pathways that realize health, environment, equity and resilience co-benefits. Her recent work includes analyzing the integration energy storage and other distributed energy resources onto the grid to reduce greenhouse gas and criteria pollutant emissions and to increase resilience and clean energy access for underserved communities. She has characterized operational, emissions, health, air quality and environmental justice measures for power plants across the country, including as part of ongoing research on replacing peaker power plants with energy storage. Dr. Krieger has authored numerous peer-review and technical reports, developed interactive data visualization tools, and served on various technical and scientific advisory panels.
 
 
Drew’s research interests are related to poorly understood and emerging environmental hazards on both global- and community-level scales. One such emerging issue is the penetration of renewables into an aging and poorly adaptable energy system. To better inform the public and policy makers, we are developing a national census-like database of determinants of energy infrastructural integrity, starting with underground natural gas storage. These data can be utilized to measure hazard consequence and triage management policies based on risks to public health. Additionally, Drew and colleagues are developing a 3D air quality monitoring drone using gas sensing technologies that can be deployed in spaces previously inaccessible to traditional sampling methods.
 
 
Dr. Pless is a court-recognized expert with 29 years of experience in air quality and air pollution control; greenhouse gas emissions and control; cost effectiveness analyses; biological resources; public health and safety; environmental hazards; hazardous materials; risk assessments; nuisance (odors, noise); water quality and water pollution control; and industrial ecology. She provides assistance with technical review and litigation support under state and federal environmental laws including California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and Clean Air Act (CAA) for environmental organizations, public and private interest groups, agencies, and industry.
 
 
Dr. Rule has more than 15 years’ experience studying novel sampling and analysis strategies for the assessment of exposure to biological aerosols, e-cigarette aerosols, environmental metals, and particulate matter. Related field work has provided tools for understanding the impact of agribusiness in the environment and health of the population, especially how the public is exposed to biological aerosols, which can be vectors of antibiotic resistance. Her work with electronic cigarettes has established that these devices are important sources of metal exposure. Her laboratory work has provided insights into bacterial aerosol viability and the application of analysis techniques traditionally used for water samples. A second objective of her work is the development of new instrumentation and strategies for the collection of bulk particulate matter that can be used in analytical and toxicological studies.
 
 
Dr. Sahu has over thirty years of experience in the fields of environmental, mechanical, and chemical engineering including: program and project management services; design and specification of pollution control equipment for a wide range of emissions sources including stationary and mobile sources; soils and groundwater remediation including landfills as remedy; combustion engineering evaluations; energy studies; multimedia environmental regulatory compliance; transportation air quality impact analysis; multimedia compliance audits; multimedia permitting; multimedia/multi-pathway human health risk assessments for toxics; air dispersion modeling; and regulatory strategy development and support including negotiation of consent agreements and orders.
 
 
Dr. Seth Shonkoff is the executive director of the energy science and policy research institute PSE Healthy Energy. He is also a visiting scholar in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley and an affiliate in the Environment Energy Technology Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. An environmental and public health scientist by training, he has more than 20 years of experience in water, air, climate, and population health research at the energy interface and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and reports. Dr. Shonkoff has testified before congress and other decision-making bodies and has led and co-authored multiple high-profile scientific assessments including the Human Health chapter of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and legislated evaluations of oil and gas development, hydraulic fracturing, produced water management and reuse and underground gas storage facilities in the State of California. Dr. Shonkoff sits on a number of science-policy expert panels.
 
 
Vicki Stamper has thirty years of experience working on air quality issues. She spent ten years working on state implementation plan actions at EPA’s Denver regional office with a focus on state’s new source review and Title V air permitting programs, as well as some nonattainment plans. She has worked as a consultant for the past seventeen years, providing expertise on air permit review and comment, permit appeals, facility compliance reviews and litigation support, and air pollution control evaluations for air pollution sources under the regional haze program. Her industry focus has been primarily on coal-fired power plants, natural gas-fired power plants, and, more recently, air emissions sources associated with the oil and gas industry. She has broad knowledge of the Clean Air Act and federal regulations for air permitting.
 
 
Mr. Shefftz has consulted since 1992 on the application of financial economics to litigation disputes, regulatory enforcement, and public policy decisions. He has been qualified as an expert witness in U.S. District Court, U.S. EPA Administrative Court, and state courts. Mr. Shefftz has testified numerous times on financial factors in civil penalty setting, including economic benefit (i.e., financial gain) and economic impact (i.e., ability to pay). He has experience consulting on regulatory enforcement actions brought under the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), Clean Air Act (CAA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), Oil Pollution Act (OPA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule, Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Underground Storage Tank (UST) program, as well as various state statutes. His clients for this work have included the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), private litigators (including over 60 non-profit groups), state Attorneys General (fourteen in total), and defense counsel.
 
 
Dr. Viney Aneja is a Professor and Co-Director of Graduate Programs in the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, at North Carolina State University (NCSU) where he developed one of the nation’s leading agricultural air quality and climate research programs. His work focuses on natural and anthropogenic emissions of nitric oxide, ammonia, and sulfur compounds, with emphasis on science needed to make important decisions on environmental, sustainability, and climate policies in North Carolina and the nation. He has a long and distinguished record of public service and has been frequently sought as an advisor on issues related to environmental science and public policy.
 
 

Robert Lawrence is the Center for a Livable Future Professor Emeritus, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 
A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Lawrence trained in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Following duty as an epidemic intelligence service officer, CDC, he joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina. From 1974 to 1991 he directed the Division of Primary Care at Harvard Medical School, and from 1991 to 1995 directed health sciences at the Rockefeller Foundation, overseeing grants to improve health in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In 1996 Dr. Lawrence founded the Center for a Livable Future, an interdisciplinary group of faculty and staff who study the relationships between diet, food production systems, the environment, and human health.
Dr. Lawrence is a founding member of Physicians for Human Rights, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, and has participated in human rights investigations in Chile, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Philippines, South Africa, and Kosovo.

 
 
Kathy J. Martin has a BS in Petroleum Engineering and MS in Civil Engineering. She has worked extensively on environmental issues related to confined feeding operations (CAFOs) with respect to water and air pollution, nutrient management plans, and environmental permitting for the past 24 years in 25 states across the country. Her experience began at the Oklahoma Water Resources Board where she was a permit writer for non-hazardous industrial wastewater and project officer of the Tar Creek Superfund Site, as well as the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality where she focused on air pollution issues under the Clean Air Act Amendments (Title V and HAPs permitting). Ms. Martin has been involved in state rule-making related to CAFOs in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Indiana. She worked extensively on regulations in New Mexico including the Dairy Rule, Groundwater Rule, and Oil and Gas Pit Rules. Her consulting work focuses on assisting individuals and communities evaluate environmental permit applications, develo9p public comments and prepare for hearings. Her interests include health and environmental impacts from slaughterhouse waste, biosolids, biogas production, and waste-to-energy facilities. She has reviewed and commented on NEPA Environmental Assessments and FONSI determinations.

In his 30+ years career, Mr. Lopez-Torrijos has culled from the scientific, technical, and regulatory fields the soundest, most economically efficient methods to monitor changes in surface water resources and implement best practices for their maintenance. He has worked with academic and regulatory leaders to improve flood risk determination and stormwater practices and has advanced the application of remote sensing observation and geospatial technologies to diagnose and resolve issues at industrial sites, residential neighborhoods, and infrastructure choke points. Functioning as either a team member or project management leader, Mr. Torrijos provides project planning, data collection, and information distribution capabilities and ground-truth reports to resolve flooding and stormwater issues at local and regional scales.

Dr. Jessica Dutton is an Associate Professor in the Biology Department within the College of Science and Engineering at Texas State University. Her research focuses on the accumulation of trace elements, particularly mercury and selenium, in marine organisms, specifically bony fishes, sharks, odontocetes (toothed whales and dolphins), and waterbirds. The data she collects is used to determine whether mercury tissue concentrations are above the threshold level for adverse biological effects; if selenium has a protective effect against mercury toxicity; and the risk posed to human health from consuming mercury contaminated seafood.
Denise Trabbic-Pointer is a Chemical Engineer with a BS and MS in Hazardous Materials Management, a career Environmental Health and Safety professional, and a Certified Hazardous Material Manager Emeritus. Denise retired in January 2019 after 42 years with DuPont and a spin-off company, Axalta Coating Systems, as their Global Environmental Competency Leader. Since May 2019, she has been the Sierra Club – Michigan Chapter, Toxics & Remediation Specialist, and works nationally as a technical resource for communities impacted by releases of toxics to air, water and/or soil.

Mr. Sulkin is an environmental consultant with over 40 years of experience, primarily focusing on water quality. He has a Bachelor’s in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia, and Master’s in Environmental Engineering from Vanderbilt University. For about 14 years he worked for the Tennessee regulatory agency in wastewater and drinking water programs in field offices and headquarters. Responsibilities included inspections, enforcement coordination, and field research, in positions including assistant manager of a field office, special projects assistant to the director, and statewide chief of Enforcement and Compliance. Since leaving the agency he has been an independent consultant and expert witness in numerous states, primarily working on water-related issues for environmental groups, as well as individuals, government, business, and industry. Projects have involved citizen suits, NPDES permits, 404 permits and mitigation, landfills, coal ash, stormwater, TMDLs, PFAS, field studies, training, consultant on films, and testing of water, sediment and other media. He also works as field staff and technical consultant for PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility), and has worked as a special expert for EPA.

The Center for Applied Environmental Science is an initiative of the Environmental Integrity Project.
© Copyright 2021 Environmental Integrity Project. All Rights Reserved. SITE DESIGNED BY DC WEB DESIGNERS, A WASHINGTON DC WEB DESIGN COMPANY.