Featured
Session Speaker Bio's
Sunday
Speakers:
Mary Nichols
Mary D. Nichols, JD, was appointed Chair of the California Air Resources
Board in July 2007, a post she held previously under Gov. Edmund H,
Brown Jr. from 1979 to 1983. At CARB she is responsible for implementing
California's landmark greenhouse gas emissions legislation as well
as setting air pollution standards for motor vehicles and fuels.
After graduating
from Cornell University and Yale Law School Ms. Nichols practiced
environmental law in Los Angeles, bringing cases on behalf of environmental
and public health organizations to enforce state and federal clean
air legislation. President Clinton appointed her to head the Office
of Air and Radiation at US EPA, where she was responsible for, among
many other regulatory breakthroughs, the acid rain trading program
and setting the first air quality standard for fine particles. She
also served as California's Secretary for Natural Resources from 1999
to 2003. Prior to her return to the ARB, Ms. Nichols was Professor
of Law and Director of the Institute of the Environment at UCLA.
Maureen
F. Gorsen
Prior to her appointment as Director, Ms. Gorsen served as the Deputy
Secretary for Law Enforcement and General Counsel at the California
Environmental Protection Agency where she was responsible for ensuring
that the enforcement efforts of Cal/EPA's various boards, departments
and local agencies were carried out in a consistent, effective and
coordinated manner to protect public health and the environment.
In addition to her work at Cal/EPA, Ms. Gorsen was a partner with
the law firm of Weston, Benshoof, Rochefort, Rubalcava & MacCuish
LLP in Los Angeles for five years, where her practice focused on environmental
compliance and land use.
From 1993 to 1998, Ms. Gorsen was appointed by Governor Pete Wilson
as the General Counsel for the California Resources Agency where,
among other duties, she was responsible for reform and revisions of
the 1998 CEQA Guidelines and issues relating to the California Endangered
Species Act, the Williamson Act and the Coastal Act.
Mark Horton
Dr. Mark Horton was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as
State Public Health Officer and Director of the California Department
of Public Health, effective July 2007. As Director, Dr. Horton provides
leadership for programs responsible for public health, disaster preparedness,
and disease prevention for all Californians.
With more than
30 years of experience, Dr. Horton has a strong background in public
health programs and clinical practice. From November 2005 through
June 2007, Dr. Horton served as State Public Health Officer and Chief
Deputy Director of the California Department of Health Services. During
that time he advised the Governor, the Secretary of Health and Human
Services, and the Director of the Department of Health Services on
public health issues.
Dr. Horton previously
served as the Deputy Agency Director and Health Officer for the County
of Orange Health Care Agency from 1999 to 2005. Prior to that, he
was Vice President for Community Programs, Director of the Center
for Child Protection, and Director of the Center for Healthier Communities
for Children at San Diego Children's Hospital and Health Center from
1997 to 1999. For the preceding six years, Horton served as Director
of Public Health for the State of Nebraska.
Monday
Speakers:
Frank
Ackerman, Ph.D.
Frank Ackerman is an economist who has written extensively about environmental
policy and critiques of cost-benefit analysis, the economics of climate
change, and other environmental issues. His latest book is “Poisoned
for Pennies: The Economics of Toxics and Precaution” (Island
Press). He is also the author of “Priceless: On Knowing the
Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing” (New Press) and
the forthcoming “Can We Afford the Future? Economics for a Warming
World” (Zed Books). He has written numerous academic and popular
articles, and has directed policy reports for clients ranging from
Greenpeace to the European Parliament. Since 2007, he has worked jointly
with two institutes at Tufts University, the Global Development and
Environment Institute (GDAE) and the Stockholm Environment Institute
US Center (SEI-US), leading their joint research on climate economics.
He is a founder and member of the steering committee of Economists
for Equity and Environment (the E3 Network), and a member scholar
of the Center for Progressive Reform. Frank received his Ph.D. in
economics from Harvard University, and has taught economics at Tufts
University and at the University of Massachusetts. In addition to
his day job, he plays the trumpet in the Second Line Social Aid and
Pleasure Society Brass Band, an amateur New Orleans-style band in
the Boston area.
Paul Sabatier
Paul Sabatier received a PhD in political science from the
University of Chicago in 1973. Since then, he has been a member of
the faculty of the Department of Environmental Science & Policy
at the University of California, Davis. His research interests have
focused on policy implementation, long term policy change, and the
role of science and “policy-oriented learning” in those
processes. He has done empirical work on (1) policy implementation
in coastal land use planning and European higher education reforms,
(2) long term policy change and the role of science at Lake Tahoe
and San Francisco Bay water policy, and (3) the factors affecting
the success of 76 collaborative watershed partnerships in Washington
and California. He also has encouraged public policy scholars to develop
and compare different theories of the policy process.
Chris
Weible
Chris Weible obtained his PhD in Environmental Policy in 2003 from
the University of California, Davis, and is currently on the faculty
of the School o f Public Affairs, University of Colorado at Denver.
His research interests include network analysis, stakeholder analysis,
and the role of science in policy making. Most of his empirical research
to date deals with marine reserves in California.
Detlof
von Winterfeldt, Ph.D.
Detlof
von Winterfeldt is Professor of Policy, Planning and Development,
and Director of the Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic
Analysis of Terrorism Events, University of Southern California, USA.
He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Psychology from the University of
Michigan. For the past thirty years, Professor von Winterfeldt has
been active in teaching, research, university administration, and
consulting. His research interests are in the foundation and practice
of decision and risk analysis as applied to technology development,
environmental risks, natural hazards and terrorism. He is the co-author
or co-editor of four books and over 100 articles, chapters and reports.
He has served on several committees and panels of the National Science
Foundation and the National Academies of Sciences. He is a fellow
of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
(INFORMS) and of the Society for Risk Analysis. In 2000, he received
the Ramsey Medal for distinguished contributions to decision analysis
from the Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS.
Thursday
Speakers:
Michael
Lerner, Ph.D.
Michael Lerner, Ph.D. is president and co-founder of Commonweal, a
health and environmental research institute in Bolinas, California,
and of Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C.
He is also co-founder of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment,
www.healthandenvironment.org, an international partnership for people
interested in or working at the interface between the environment
and human health.
Marion
H. E. Kavanaugh-Lynch, M.D., M.P.H.
Marion H. E. Kavanaugh-Lynch, M.D., M.P.H. is Director of the California
Breast Cancer Research Program. In this position, she develops strategies
and guides priorities for the $15 million per year that California
invests in research to bring an end to the disease. She recently led
a national panel that developed specific research strategies to explore
the role of environmental contaminants in breast cancer and the disparities
in breast cancer in California. Dr. Kavanaugh-Lynch attended medical
school at New York University and did her postgraduate training in
internal medicine at Case Western Reserve University, and oncology
and public health at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/University
of Washington.
Gina Solomon,
M.D., M.P.H.
Gina Solomon, M.D., M.P.H. is a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) and an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine
at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) where she
is also the Associate Director of the UCSF Pediatric Environmental
Health Specialty Unit. Her work has included over 30 scientific papers,
book chapters, and reports on air pollution, pesticides, and other
environmental and occupational threats to reproductive health and
child development. Dr. Solomon serves on the U.S. EPA Science Advisory
Board Drinking Water Committee, as well as on the California Scientific
Guidance Panel for biomonitoring. She has previously served on a committee
of the National Academy of Sciences on toxicity testing, an EPA scientific
committee on endocrine disrupting chemicals, and on the California
Expert Working Group on Environmental Health Tracking. Dr. Solomon
is co-author of the award-winning book, Generations at Risk: Reproductive
Health and the Environment, published by MIT Press. Dr. Solomon attended
medical school at Yale and did her postgraduate training in internal
medicine, public health, and occupational and environmental medicine
at Harvard.
