Dr. Rovshan Abbasov is Associate Professor, Head of the Geography and Environmental Sciences Department at Khazar University. He has numerous scientific papers on biodiversity and nature conservation in the Caucasus and Central Asia and ecosystem pollution. He is a member of the IPBES Multidisciplinary Expert Panel council and reviews various IPBES assessments as the expert. At the same time, he works as a Scenarios and Models Task Force group member at IPBES. He is the Representative of the Pure Earth International Organization in Azerbaijan.  He cooperated with prominent organizations, including UNDP, GIZ, UNICEF, WWF, Pure Earth, and Mountain Partnership. He also has experience in project management and has been the coordinator of two clean-up projects where the polluted areas have been cleared of toxic waste.

Dr. Binkhorst comes to Pure Earth from the private environmental consulting world. As a Senior Hydrogeologist and Project Manager at ALTA Environmental Corporation in Connecticut since 1998, Gordon was primarily responsible for providing technical oversight and direction on projects involving complex hydrogeologic and contaminant investigations, water supply development, underground storage tank removals and closures, expert witness work, various types of remediation including mitigation of exposure pathways using engineered and institutional control measures appropriate to site usage. Gordon is currently an Adjunct Professor at UConn where he teaches an undergraduate class on completing environmental site assessments and pertinent regulations, and serves as a member of UConn’s Geoscience Advisory Board. At Pure Earth, Gordon serves as the Senior Technical Advisor of Pure Earth’s Technical Advisory Board. 

Mr. Tom Bourque is the Vice President/Principal and Environmental Engineering Practice Director for GeoTek, Inc. with over 25 years of experience as a project engineer and manager on environmental and civil engineering projects. He has developed conceptual and final project designs, mine site remediation, hydrologic and hydraulic analyses, conducted highly impacted watershed rehabilitation projects, engineered waste management systems, directed environmental compliance activities, and managed project personnel and construction activities. He has lead engineering teams reconstructing CERCLA impacted communities. He has worked with a variety of government, tribal, and private clients over the expanded Pacific Northwest on projects ranging from several thousand to $500M.

Mr. Bourque was the Oversight Project Manager and Principal Engineer on the Bunker Hill Superfund Site, one of the largest CERCLA projects in the country, for seventeen years. His experiences include smelter complexes, mine/mill sites, waste pile reclamation, repositories, contaminated site cleanup, bronwfields reconstruction, flood control, and stream restoration.

Mr. Bourque has over two decades of RCRA landfill waste management experience including landfill siting, development, operations, and closure. He has led facility permitting, environmental mitigations, and site monitoring programs.

Mr. Bourque has also provided advice, engineering planning, and design of international projects within his areas of expertise to multiple entities in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. His projects have included water supply, environmental cleanup, and regional economic and engineering planning.

Dr. Caravanos teaches Environmental Health for graduate students and Environmental Health in a Global World for undergraduate students at NYU. Previously he was a senior faculty member within the Environmental and Occupational Health Program at the City University of New York, School of Public Health. He received his M.S. from the NYU-Polytechnic School of Engineering in New York City and a DrPH in Public Health (environmental health) from Columbia University. Dr. Caravanos holds certification in industrial hygiene (CIH) and industrial safety (CSP) and prides himself on being an “environmental health practitioner.” He specializes in lead poisoning, mold contamination, asbestos and community environmental health risk. Dr. Caravanos has extensive experience in variety of urban environmental and industrial health problems and is often called upon to assist in environmental health assessments, including lead/zinc smelter in Mexico, health risks at the World Trade Center, ground water contamination in New Jersey and municipal landfill closures in Brooklyn. Presently he is on the technical advisory panel of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Brooklyn-Queens Aquifer Feasibility Study, a New York City Department of Environmental Protection-sponsored community action committee evaluating health risks associated with aquifer restoration.

As a pediatrician/neonatologist, Lilian has done extensive work to raise awareness about children’s health in relation to the environment. She connects with global aid agencies and South American governments on behalf of Pure Earth, which acts as Secretariat for the new Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. She also works with Pure Earth on the Toxics Sites Identification Program in Argentina, which has, in some cases, led local authorities to halt development on contaminated sites. In 2016, she was part of a team of global experts who contributed to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s new series of children’s environmental health training modules. She is the Director of the Medical Specialist Program on Health and Environment, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Jenna has focused on catalyzing global sustainable development to improve the health of people and our planet. She has spent nearly 15 years addressing global and environmental health problems, particularly contaminants in air, water, soil, and food, with a recent emphasis on lead exposure. Her research and professional work experience has taken her to Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Costa Rica, and Australia.

Dr, Garcia is a Clinical Toxicologist, Occupational Health Physician, Professor of Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine at Universidad de la República Oriental in Uruguay.

Laura A. Geer, PhD, MHS, is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. She received her masters and doctoral degrees from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the department of Environmental Health Science’s division of Environmental Health Engineering. She completed a certificate in Risk Assessment and Communication through The Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins. After completing a post-doctoral position with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) measuring worker dermal exposure through the use of biological monitoring and environmental sampling, Dr. Geer provided consultation for the US Environmental Protection Agency Exposure Measurements and Analysis Branch (EMAB) at the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) where she examined the ethical issues associated with child participation in human exposure studies.

Dr. Geer first came to SUNY Downstate in the Fall of 2006 as an assistant professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine. For the past 14 years, she has been responsible for the design, conduct, and management of studies concerning health impacts of occupational and environmental exposures to various chemicals and air pollutants in the environment. Much of Dr. Geer’s research has focused on assessing prenatal exposure to consumer product chemicals, including metals and endocrine disruptors, in the understudied communities of recent immigrants in Brooklyn and in collaboration with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She publishes her work in highly recognized journals in her field including Environment International, Environmental Research, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Journal of Environmental Monitoring.

Dr. Geer chairs the committees on ‘Educational Policy and Curriculum’ and ‘Academic and Professional Qualifications’ in the School of Public Health.  Her contributions to the department include the development of the first online course for all entering master’s students, and others that followed. She is currently leading the department forward in the recognition and study of challenge areas in the field such as climate change, COVID-19 and implications for co-exposures in the environment, and the combined impacts of the built environment and social determinants on health outcomes.

Dr. Ginsberg received a B.Sc. from Yale, and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton in ecology and evolution. He was previously senior vice president of the global conservation program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, and vice president for conservation operations (2004-2009), director of the Asia and Pacific Program (1996 -2004), and acting director of the Africa Program in 2002. Dr. Ginsberg spent 17 years as a field biologist/conservationist working in Asia and Africa. He serves on the NOAA/NMFS Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Team, which he chaired from 2001 to 2007. He has held faculty positions at Oxford University and University College London, and is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where he teaches conservation biology and has supervised 16 masters and four doctoral students. He is an author of over 50 reviewed papers and has edited three books on wildlife conservation, ecology and evolution.

David Green has operated Green Globe LLC, an international remediation and consulting company for 25 years. He is also the owner of American Lamp Recycling and worked previously as Chief Science Officer at Phoenix Soil | Clean Earth and as President of Environmental Waste Resources, Inc.

David Hanrahan is an expert in water and wastewater planning, environmental engineering, pollution control and soil clean-up; technical director of Pure Earth; former lead environmental specialist, Environment Department, World Bank. 

Mr. Hayes has completed hundreds of hydrogeological investigations, centering on groundwater contamination.  He has spent the last seventeen years working on a variety of groundwater investigations, including regional groundwater supply studies, groundwater monitoring plans, site remediation testing and design, environmental site assessments, monitoring well installations, and conducting pumping tests. He helps in conducting toxic waste cleanups with Pure Earth in Indonesia, Senegal, and other developing nations where industrial waste sites have direct health impacts on vulnerable populations.

Dr. Hunter received an M.B.B.S. (Australian medical degree) from the University of Sydney. He continued his formal education at Harvard University, awarded his Sc.D. in 1988. Dr. Hunter is a Professor of Epidemiology and Cancer Prevention at Harvard School of Public Health. He is involved with several large, population-based cohort studies, including the Nurses’ Health Study (I and II), Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and the Physicians’ Health Study. Among the goals of these large cohort studies is investigation of gene-environment interactions, including the impact of lifestyle factors on disease causation. Disease endpoints of interest for some of these cohorts include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis. He is also involved in long-running studies of nutritional influences on HIV progression in Tanzania.

Barbara H. Jones is an environmental engineer and microbiologist. Ms. Jones has been key in the development of rigorous testing protocols for Red Bird Systems and implementation strategies. With experience in challenging international environments, she understands the need for rugged and dependable water treatment systems. Working with Mr. Morgan, she is also helping lead the implementation of the H2O Coalition program in Senegal.

Mr. Jones founded Quality Environmental Solutions, Inc. in 1992. The Annapolis, Maryland firm specializes in client-focused responsiveness to ensure environmental compliance, liability protection and common sense solutions to complex environmental issues. Mr. Jones has a BA in Geology from Boston University and a MS in Water Resources Management from the University of Wisconsin. His technical specialties include litigation support, environmental site assessments, hydrogeologic evaluations, remedial system design and implementation, permit strategy development, and technical training. His experience includes management of projects involving assessment and remediation of soil and ground water contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals and industrial chemicals. Mr. Jones completed the assessment and remediation of soil lead contamination in Senegal and has completed lead assessment and remediation projects at artisanal ceramic workshops in Mexico on behalf of Pure Earth.

John Keith is an environmental engineer who has spent his career traveling around the world implementing life-saving cleanups. He helped to develop an ASGM mercury contamination index and was instrumental in assisting Pure Earth staff in training 35 community members to remediate 80 homes and yards in the Chowa neighborhood of Kabwe.

Professor Mukesh Khare is the Fellow of Institution of Engineers India and Fellow of Wessex Institute of Great Britain. He is a Chartered Engineer and was born in Varanasi, India. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Faculty of Engineering from Newcastle University, UK and has managed a range of environmental projects throughout his professional career. With a specialization in air quality modelling, Prof. Khare’s experience has covered research and development studies, teaching, consulting, modelling, editorial activities. In addition, Prof. Khare has authored more than 150 research publications primarily for peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He has two sons and lives and work in Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. 

Valeriia Kovach, PhD is Pure Earth’s country coordinator in Ukraine. Since joining Pure Earth in 2014, Valeriia has worked to identify polluted sites contaminated with heavy metals, pesticides, radio nuclides.  Valeriia’s experience includes work with the Institute of Environmental Geochemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the Department of Environmental Problems, and on many national and international projects connected with rehabilitation and remediation of polluted areas. She has been awarded many national and international certificates, and received her PhD in Ecology in May 2015. Her areas of interest include environmental safety, nuclear safety and radiation protection.

Robert Kurkjian has more than 25 years of experience conducting complex environmental investigations; evaluating surface water, ground water, and drinking water quality; performing sediment studies; remediating soil and groundwater; performing air quality studies, and managing hazardous wastes. Dr. Kurkjian has investigated and/or remediated numerous contaminated sites in the U.S. and internationally including: mining areas; power plants; bulk chemical and petroleum storage facilities; shipyards; electrical switching and transformer yards; metal plating, chemical, and aerospace facilities; lead recycling facilities; burn ash and solid waste dump sites; and U.S. state and federal Superfund sites. Dr. Kurkjian provides litigation support, expert technical review, and strategic planning regarding environmental impacts, land management, and Brownfield redevelopment. Dr. Kurkjian has worked in Armenia for more than a decade on various environmental projects where he consulted with the Armenian Ministry of Environmental Protection, the World Bank, the United Nations (UN) Development Programme, UN Environmental Programme, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Dr. Kurkjian has been a Blacksmith/Pure Earth Senior Technical Advisor since 2012. He provides technical guidance on a number of projects in S.E. Asia and the Former Soviet Union. Projects include mitigation of hazardous waste contamination and urban redevelopment in Indonesia, the evaluation of a contaminated river system and adjacent fish ponds in the Philippines, and remediation of mining impacts in Armenia.

Olga graduated from Irkutsk National University in 2008 as a Specialist (MS) in Ecology. She has worked at the Far Eastern Environmental Health Fund since 2003 and leads the Eco-Awareness and Education Program and is a Specialist in Lead Health Risk Assessment. 

Driven by a passion for problem solving, Amanda blends her deep understanding of nature’s most intrinsic physical, chemical, and biological processes into innovative engineering design. With over 20 years of experience in the development of sustainable treatment solutions for water and wastewater, she applies forward-thinking alternatives to a diverse range of impacted environments. Amanda also specializes in the assessment, remediation, and restoration of wetland ecosystems.

Mr. May recently retired from the U.S. Army Environmental Center where he was the Chief Geologist for over 20 years. With extensive experience on the cleanup of hazardous wastes at military facilities throughout the United States, he is presently working on the cleanup of ranges where munitions were used throughout the world. Also, he was in charge of the Army’s groundwater pump and treat optimization efforts. He is an expert on the analysis of efficacy of remediation efforts. He has been involved in the development of new technologies for, and the cleanup of superfund sites for almost 30 years. He has been a technical advisor to Pure Earth  with projects in the Philippines and the Ukraine.

Erdenesaikhan is an experienced director with a demonstrated history of working in the environmental services industry. He is skilled in Waste, Sustainable Development, Emergency Management, Mitigation, and Biodiversity. He has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) focused in Risk Assessment/Disaster Management from Graduate school of Defense University of Mongolia.

Dr. Lynn Crisanta R. Panganiban is a family medicine specialist and a clinical toxicologist. She received her Bachelor of Science in Zoology from the University of the Philippines (UP) in 1980 and earned her Doctor of Medicine at the UP College of Medicine (CM) in 1984. Her interests lie in pharmacology, toxicology, public health, and risk analysis.

Jerome A. Paulson, MD, FAAP is the medical director of the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit-East Program and of the Climate Change Initiative for the American Academy of Pediatrics. For over a decade, Dr. Paulson served as the director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Environmental Health, the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) that serves Federal Region 3 – DC, VA, WV, MD, DE and PA. Currently, he is the pediatric consultant to MACCHE. Dr. Paulson is the immediate-past chairperson of the executive committee of the Council on Environmental Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He has received numerous honors and awards, including: 2014 – Elected a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, an international environmental and occupational health honorary society; 2014 – received the National Healthy Schools Hero Award from the Healthy Schools Network, 2013 – selected for the 11th Annual George J. Ginandes, M.D. Visiting Lectureship in Pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY; 2011 – Elected to the American Pediatric Society, a national pediatric honorary society. He served on the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee for the US Environmental Protection Agency from 2007-2013. In October 2004 he was a Dozor Visiting Professor at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel. He lectured there and throughout Israel on children’s environmental health. He was a recipient of a Soros Advocacy Fellowship for Physicians from the Open Society Institute and worked with the Children’s Environmental Health Network. He has also served as a special assistant to the director of the National Center on Environmental Health of the CDC working on children’s environmental health issues. He has served on numerous boards and committees related to children’s environmental health, has chaired or been on the steering committee of many meetings about children’s environmental health, and has published and edited papers, book chapters and journals on the topic. He holds a B.S. in Biochemistry with Honors and with General Honors from the University of Maryland, and an M.D. from Duke University. He did his residency training in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospitals and Sinai Hospital, both in Baltimore, as well as a fellowship in ambulatory pediatrics at Sinai Hospital.

Chris Proce has extensive experience working in the environmental consulting industry. He is skilled in Environmental Compliance, Remediation, Environmental Engineering, and Groundwater Modeling. He has been at Roux, Inc. for 19 years. 

Mara is a scientist, environmentalist, and sustainability expert, based out of New York City and the beautiful Hudson Valley after stops in Minnesota, California, and Oaxaca. She has a Ph.D. in environmental toxicology, as well as degrees in geology and environmental studies. She has honed her expertise and knowledge through work in government, academia, and the non-profit sphere, and is now collaborating with mission-aligned organizations in the private sector. Her life has been devoted to taking care of the planet, and gently encouraging others to do the same through dialogue and demonstration.

Dr. Riederer received her B.S. in Neuroscience from Brown University in 1989, M.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University in 1991, and Sc.D. in environmental science and engineering from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2004. Her research focuses on assessing exposures of children and women of childbearing age to developmental neurotoxins, including pesticides, heavy metals, and other environmental contaminants. From 1998-2004, Dr. Riederer held a U.S. Superfund Basic Research Program Training Fellowship to study lead, mercury and PCB exposures at the former Clark Air Base, Philippines. From 1991-1998, she worked for Ha gler Bailly Consulting on air, water and waste regulatory program development for the Philippines, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Mexico, and Egypt for various bi- and multilateral development agencies. She directed the company’s Manila, Philippines office from 1994-1998. Dr. Riederer worked as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow, hosted by the Assistant Administrator of the Office of Research and Development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She was also adjunct faculty in the department of environmental health at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, where she served as research assistant professor and co-director of the Global Environmental Health Program from 2004 to 2010. She is currently an associate professor of environmental health at the University of Washington.

Dr. Robinson holds a Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics from Basel University. In 1994 he joined Green Cross Switzerland where he serves today as international director of its Legacy of the Cold War Programme. The Programme addresses the full implementation of arms control and disarmament agreements; safe and environmentally sound destruction of weapons arsenals; conversion and clean-up of military facilities and lands; reduced environmental impacts of military practices; improvements in the areas of public health, education, and social infrastructure in regions affected by military legacies; stakeholder involvement on military-environmental issues; and the building of a civil society. Since 1995, the facilitation of chemical weapons destruction in both Russia and the U.S. has been a focus point of the Programme, which operates a network of 11 local and regional public outreach offices, the organization of a Russian National Dialogue on chemical weapons destruction, as well as practical community projects to improve emergency preparedness and health infrastructure. Other activities include the clean-up of a major oil spill at a nuclear missile in the Baltic area; the scientific investigation of a site of former chemical weapons destruction (open pit burning site); different risk assessments of military facilities; an inventory of the Soviet nuclear legacy; and epidemiological studies of public health impacts by chemical weapons storage. Dr. Robinson is regularly in Eastern Europe for on-site visits of projects and for meetings with various groups of stakeholders from government officials to local citizens.

Mr. Roux received an M.A. in geology from Queens College, City University of New York, and a B.S. in engineering science from C.W. Post College, Long Island University. A certified Professional Geologist and Hydrogeologist, he has served on the editorial board of “Ground Water Monitoring and Remediation” and currently is on the Board of Registration of the American Institute of Hydrology. Mr. Roux has over 35 years of experience with contaminated soil and groundwater remediation at industrial plants and landfills. He has worked at a number of the largest and most complex Superfund sites in the US, as well as major chemical and petroleum facilities. Roux Associates, which was founded in 1981, currently has more than 230 professional employees in five offices. The firm provides a broad range of consulting and project management services to solve complex environmental, health, and safety problems associated with air, water, land and interior pollution; hazardous materials; and toxic waste treatment and disposal. Roux Associates was twice named as one of America’s 500 fastest-growing private companies by “Inc. Magazine,” and since 1996 has been listed as one of the top 200 environmental consulting firms by “Engineering News Record.”

Dr. B. Sengupta worked previously at the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India for more than 30 years in different capacities. He was Member Secretary of CPCB for more than 10 years (1998‐2008). He also worked at the University of Florida, Gainesville, on air quality management and control. He has vast experience in the field of Air and Water Quality Management, Industrial Pollution Control, Standard Development (Ambient and Source specific), Environmental Impact Assessment Studies, Fuel Quality improvements, Clean Technology, Waste Minimization, Pollution Prevention issues, Pollution Control in SSI units, Climate Change, Hazardous and Solid Waste Management. He has represented India in many International Meetings/Seminars/ Workshops organized by UNEP/USEPA/WHO/World Bank/UNIDO etc. Dr. Sengupta has published more than 250 technical reports while working at CPCB and also presented/published more than 50 papers in National and International peer reviewed Journals.

Mr. Stubbs is a Geoscientist at ExxonMobil with experience in seismic interpretation and well log correlation for petroleum exploration. He also has exploration scale experience in the Permian Basin, offshore W. Africa.

Ms. Lusine Taslakyan, based in Armenia, has over 15 years of experience in water and environmental projects implemented through USAID, UNDP/GEF, EU and the WB in Armenia and the Southern Caucasus. She has a Masters Degree in Water Science, Policy and Management from the University of Oxford, UK, MSc in Environmental Science from the University of Idaho, USA and MSc in Biology and Ecology – Armenian State Pedagogical University.

Bryn Thoms is a hydrogeologist with Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s (ODEQ’s) Cleanup Program in Eugene, Oregon. Since 1998, Bryn has worked in ODEQ’s Cleanup Program with prior experience in environmental consulting. Bryn oversees a variety of cleanup projects including solvent groundwater plumes, legacy pesticide sites, former wood products mill sites, petroleum releases, and abandoned mine lands. His work on abandoned mine lands has led him to assisting on cleanup of mercury mines and artisanal gold mines internationally. In 2015, he became active with ITRC in the Bioavailability of Contaminants in Soil Team as a result of overseeing one of the first ODEQ projects that utilized bioavailability adjustments in human health risk assessment. Bryn helped develop the Decision Section of the Bioavailability Guidance document, where his regulatory experience provided valuable perspective on incorporating bioavailability into the regulatory cleanup process. He has led presentations on assessment and cleanup of mercury and arsenic-contaminated sites to several university geochemistry classes, NGOs, and the Peru Ministry of Environment. Bryn earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon in 1992. He has been an Oregon registered professional geologist since 1997.

Umed has consulted on a variety of international projects, and is active in many environmental and human rights advocacy issues. Umed works to help the Tajikistan government review its current chemicals policy and create a national strategy to identify and remediate toxic hotspots.

Dr. Marcello Veiga has worked for the past thirty one years, as a metallurgical engineer and environmental geochemist for mining and consulting companies in Brazil, Canada, US, Venezuela, Chile and Peru. He has worked extensively on environmental and social issues related to mining. As an associate professor of the Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering at the University of British Columbia, since 1997, his research and teaching topics are focused on different topics that lead to improve the image of mining and contribute for sustainable mining communities.

Mr. Wilson is the program manager for the International Lead Management Center in North Carolina, responsible for the design and implementation of multi-stakeholder lead risk reduction programs. Before joining the Center, he worked for 15 years in the oil industry, followed by 18 years with MIM Holdings in the metals industry. He left the United Kingdom and MIM UK as the group personnel manager in 1996 to join the Center after a career that spanned smelter production, industrial relations and human resource management. He has worked with UN Environmental Programme, UN Conference on Trade and Development, and the Basel Secretariat on Lead Risk Reduction and Recycling projects in the Far East, Russia, Central and South America, the Caribbean and West Africa.

Indira Zhakipova is a Chemicals and Waste Expert at Ekois based in Bishkek. Previously, Indira was a Regional Country Program Coordinator at Pure Earth.