News Releases from Headquarters›Office of the Administrator (AO)

EPA Appoints New Members to Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee

WASHINGTON (May 20, 2020) — Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the appointment of 28 members, of which 20 are new and eight are returning members to the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC).

“Protecting children’s health is a top priority of mine for the agency,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “I appreciate the hard work and invaluable contributions of the CHPAC and after an open and public process, I am glad to appoint this new group of experts from a wide range of disciplines that will further contribute to the committee’s work.” 

The CHPAC is a body of external representatives from a cross-section of stakeholder perspectives including research, academia, healthcare, legal, state, environmental organizations and local and tribal governments. CHPAC members reflect the geographic diversity needed to ensure that CHPAC represents all 10 EPA regions and a variety of communities across our country. The CHPAC advises EPA on regulations, research, and communications related to children's environmental health.

EPA selected new members from a pool of more than 60 highly qualified candidates. Selections for the three-year term were made in accordance with the CHPAC charter to achieve balance and diversity in terms of geographic location, gender, ethnicity, and stakeholder perspective.

The new and returning* CHPAC members and their affiliations are:

• Leif Albertson, MS – University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
• *Rebecca Bratspies, JD – CUNY School of Law, Long Island City, NY
• *Lori Byron, MD, FAAP – St. Vincent’s Hospital, Billings, MT
• *José Cordero, MD, MPH – University of Georgia, Atlanta, GA
• Natasha DeJarnett, PhD – National Environmental Health Association, Denver, CO
• Diana Felton, MD – Hawaii Department of Health, Honolulu, HI
• *Julie Froelicher, MEM – The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH
• Katie Huffling, MS, RN – Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Mount Rainier, MD
• Peter Lee, MD, MPH – General Electric Company, Boston, MA
• *Maureen Little, DrPH – NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY
• Linda McCauley, PhD – Emory University, Atlanta, GA
• *Mark Miller, MD, MPH – California Environmental Protection Agency, Chico, CA
• *Olga Naidenko, PhD –Environmental Working Group, Washington, DC
• Ruth Ann Norton – Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, Baltimore, MD
• Daniel Price, PhD – University of Houston, Houston, TX
• Virginia Rauh, SCD, MSW – Columbia University, New York, NY
• *Deanna Scher, PhD (Incoming Committee Chair) – Minnesota Department of Health, St. Paul, MN
• Perry E. Sheffield, MD, MPH – Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY
• Derek Shendell, MPH – Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ
• Veena Singla, PhD – Natural Resources Defense Council, San Francisco, CA
• Alicia Smith, PhD – Freshwater Future, Toledo, OH
• Shirlee Tan, PhD – Public Heath-Seattle & King County, Seattle, WA
• Joyce Thread, MS – Saint Louis County Department of Public Health, Florissant, MO
• Kristie Trousdale, MPH – Children’s Environmental Health Network, Washington, DC
• Carmen M. Velez Vega, PhD, MSW – University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, PR
• Yolanda Whyte, MD – Taylor Health Care Group Pediatrics Hospital and Clinics, Atlanta, GA
• Ke Yan, PhD, MS – Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI
• Marya Zlatnik, MD, MMS – University of California, San Francisco, CA

EPA would like to thank the following departing CHPAC members:

• Ellen Braff-Guajardo, JD, MEd – Sierra Health Foundation, Sacramento, CA
• Caroline Cox, MS – Center for Environmental Health, Oakland, CA
• Joel Forman, MD – Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY
• Maeve Howett, PhD – University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA
• Gredia Huerta-Montanez, MD – Puerto RicoTestsite for Exploring Contamination Threats, Guaynabo, PR
• Pinar Kodaman, MD, PhD – Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
• Jennifer Lowry, MD – Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO
• Barbara Morrissey, MS (Outgoing Committee Chair) – Washington State Department of Health, Olympia, WA
• Tom Neltner, JD – Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, DC
• Greg Ornella, MD, MS – Sherwin-Williams Company, Cleveland, OH
• Stephen Owens, JD – Squire Patton Boggs  LLP, Phoenix, AZ
• Rubin Patterson, PhD – Howard University, Washington, DC
• James Roberts, MD, MPH – Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC

For more information on CHPAC, please visit: https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/children/chpac. To view the Federal Register notice, Request for Nominations to the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, please visit: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/09/11/2019-19658/childrens-health-protection-advisory-committee.