ILSI Research Foundation
Workshop: Evaluating the Human Relevance of Modes of Action in Animals
Vicki Dellarco
Dr. Vicki Dellarco received her Ph.D. in genetics from Iowa State University in 1980, and then joined the EPA’s Office of Research and Development. She has been with EPA for 26 years, participating in the development of risk assessment guidelines and methodology, as well as the conduct of specific health risk assessments on environmental chemicals. Dr. Dellarco is a senior science advisor in the Health Effects Division in the Office of Pesticide Programs, where she has worked on several major activities including the development of common mechanism policy decisions, cumulative risk assessment methods and guidance, as well as the development of toxicity testing strategies for improving and refining approaches to health risk assessment. Dr. Dellarco serves as a WHO member of the Joint Meeting of Pesticide Residues, as a member of EPA’s Health Oversight Committee of the Risk Assessment Forum, and has been involved in ILSI/RSI and IPCS efforts to develop a Human Relevance/Mode of Action Framework for Cancer Risk Assessment. She also has presented teleseminars on the application of the Human Relevance MOA Framework to the SRA Dose-response Specialty Group and to an SOT Specialty Section.
Penny Fenner-Crisp
Dr. Fenner-Crisp served as the Executive Director of the ILSI Risk Science Institute (RSI) from December 2000 until August 2004, following a 22-year career at US EPA. Her duties at EPA included nearly 12 years serving in several capacities as the Senior Science Advisor, Deputy Director and Director of the Health Effects Division of the Office of Pesticide Programs. Earlier assignments included serving as the Director of the Health and Environmental Review Division (HERD) of the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) and Senior Toxicologist in the Health Effects Branch of the Office of Drinking Water (ODW). She played key roles in the development of many EPA risk assessment policies and practices primarily related to human health and was involved in the activities of several international organizations as an Expert on several WHO IPCS working groups, as a member of the WHO Expert Panel of the Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues for nine years and as the lead U.S. Delegate to several workgroups of the OECD test guidelines program. In April, 2000, she received the Agency’s highest award, the Fitzhugh Green Award, for her contributions on behalf of EPA to its international activities.
Dr. Fenner-Crisp received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and is a member and former officer of several professional scientific societies including of the Society of Toxicology and the Society for Risk Analysis. She has been a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology since 1984 and served on its Board of Directors from 2001-2005. She served on EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Methods Validation Subcommittee from 2001-2004 and the Strategic Science Team of the American Chemistry Council’s Long-range Research Initiative from 2002-2005. Currently, she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Midwest Center for Environmental Science and Public Policy, the Drinking Water Committee of EPA’s Science Advisory Board and EPA's National Pollution Prevention and Toxics Advisory Committee. She also is a member of the National Academies of Sciences expert group charged with conducting a review of the Worker and Public Health Activities Program administered by the Department of Energy and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Bette Meek
Ms. Meek has a background in toxicology receiving her M.Sc. in Toxicology (with distinction) from the University of Surrey, U.K. She is currently the Associate Director of Chemical Risk Assessment at the McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, University of Ottawa, on interchange for a 2 year period from Health Canada. She has extensive experience in the management of chemical assessment programs within the Government of Canada, most recently involving development and implementation of process and methodology for the health assessment of Existing Substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) including the precedent setting mandate to categorize and screen priorities from among the 23,000 substances included on the Domestic Substances List. Prior to managing the Existing Substances program, Ms. Meek managed assessment programs for contaminants in drinking water and air.
With colleagues within Canada and internationally, she has contributed to or led initiatives to increase transparency, defensibility and efficiency in health risk assessment, having convened and participated in initiatives in this area for numerous organizations including the International Programme on Chemical Safety, the World Health Organization, the International Life Sciences Institute, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. Relevant areas have included frameworks for weight of evidence analysis including mode of action, chemical specific adjustment factors, physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling and predictive modeling.
She has also authored over 150 publications in the area of chemical risk assessment and received several awards for contribution in this domain.