OUR PEOPLE

Alan C. Katz, DABT, President– Alan is a board-certified toxicologist with over 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, chemical, food ingredients and supplements, cosmetic, and agrochemical fields.  He is broadly experienced in the public and private sectors, including management of toxicology, product chemistry, risk assessment, and regulatory affairs programs in industry, government, and consulting.  Following an extensive career in industrial research in chemistry, toxicology, and pharmacology, he served as a senior toxicologist with the US EPA Office of Pesticide Programs and has since spent over 20 years as a consultant in scientific and regulatory affairs.  Alan has a Master’s degree in Human Physiology.  Alan is past-president of the Society of Comparative Ophthalmology and an active member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.  He served a dual role on the editorial staff of the Journal of Applied Toxicology as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board and Editor of the Toxicology Updates feature, and he is currently on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Food and Drug Law Journal.  Alan also served as an elected member of the Awards Committee of the American College of Toxicology and is an active participant in the Society of Toxicology, where he is a member of the national Society and the Mid-Atlantic Chapter, and the Drug Discovery, Regulatory and Safety Evaluation, Neurotoxicology, Ocular Toxicology, and Risk Assessment Specialty Sections.  He also holds membership in the American Chemical Society where he has contributed to several research presentations over the years.

Christine McAlinden, DABT, UK and European Registered Toxicologist, Associate Director – Chris is a board-certified toxicologist with over 20 years’ experience within the industry. She began her career with a UK CRO as a Study Director in toxicology where she gained a solid practical understanding of toxicological studies and data evaluation.  In 2001 Chris first joined toXcel International Ltd as a consultant toxicologist, gaining added experience in the regulatory environment and advising and supporting clients on the safety assessment of animal food additives (EFSA and FDA), agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals (MHRA and EU).  Between 2007 and 2011 she continued with consultancy work and also gave toxicological support to an Indian CRO, including training and protocol/report reviewing.  She has been actively involved with REACH, providing only-representative services, consortium representation, dossier and CSR compilation and dossier submission.  Chris has served on the education committee of the British Toxicology Society and is a Panel member for the UK Register of Toxicologists. In early 2011, Chris re-joined toXcel to establish our new European office in Ledbury, England and to further develop our comprehensive REACH services.  In her role as Associate Director, Chris provides leadership in business and scientific affairs on behalf of our European operations, registered in England and Wales.   Chris has an honors degree Bachelor of Science in Applied Biology, specializing in Biomedical Sciences.

Bryan J. Katz, PE, PTOE, PMP, Vice President of Engineering – Bryan holds a Ph.D., as well as graduate and undergraduate degrees, in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia and a certified Professional Traffic Operations Engineer who brings 15 years of experience in transportation safety, operations, and construction engineering and inspection. He is also an Assistant Professor of Practice at Virginia Tech, where he teaches transportation engineering courses in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. Since 2002, he has supported research projects for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Virginia. He is a voting member on the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and serves as the Secretary of the Research Committee. In addition, he is an active member of the Transportation Research Board, serving on two technical committees, and is also an active member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. He serves as a paper reviewer for Accident Analysis and Prevention, Traffic Injury Prevention, and for three volumes of the Transportation Research Record. Prior to joining toXcel, Bryan worked for Leidos (formerly SAIC) and HNTB Corporation.

Connie Welch, Vice President – An expert in environmental laws and regulations, Connie enjoyed great success as founder and principal of Connie Welch and Associates.  Her background includes a 17 year distinguished career within the US EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP), where she held prominent leadership positions dealing with conventional pesticides, antimicrobial pesticides, and inert ingredients. During the last eight years of her tenure at EPA. Connie served as Chief of Regulatory Management Branch II in the Antimicrobial Division, Office of Pesticide Programs. This position also afforded Connie the opportunity to work with other offices within the EPA (i.e., the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, the Office of Drinking Water, and the Office of Solid Waste) and other federal agencies (the Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Products Safety Commission, and the US Department of Agriculture).  Because of Connie’s extensive EPA career and previous experience as a leading regulatory consultant to industry, she is ideally suited to providing clients with a wealth of pesticide knowledge and expertise.   Connie started her career with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and holds advanced degrees in Ministry.

Melba S. Morrow, DVM, Director of Toxicology –  Melba holds a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine degree and has over 35 years of government regulatory experience, having worked at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs. At EPA, she held several positions including team leader and senior scientist in the Health Effects Division and special assistant positions at the branch and division levels in the Antimicrobials Division. During her government career, she developed testing guidelines for domestic animal safety, wrote position papers and conducted numerous toxicity reviews for food use and antimicrobial chemicals.  She has served on hazard and risk assessment committees within the Office of Pesticide Programs and has worked with FDA on issues involving dual regulatory jurisdiction.   Melba also served as an expert panelist with the World Health Organization’s International Programme on Chemical Safety. During her tenure at the EPA, she received bronze medals for her work on endocrine disruption, anthrax remediation and programmatic issues.   

Gary K. Whitmyre, DABT, Senior Director of Exposure and Risk Assessment – Gary is a board certified toxicologist with over thirty years of technical experience focused on residential, occupational, and consumer exposure analysis, risk assessment, and toxicology of environmental chemicals.  He holds a Master’s degree in Biochemistry.  As Principal of risk sciences, LLC and Whitmyre Research and his previous experience on the staff of other scientific consulting firms, he has been engaged in a wide variety of risk assessment projects.   His experience includes probabilistic modeling of human exposure to chemicals in indoor and outdoor environments, development of expert opinions for litigation cases, regulatory compliance through product-specific exposure assessments under California Proposition 65, preparation of human health risk assessments to include in applications for US federal and state marketing approvals, and international dossiers supporting pesticides and antimicrobial products and other chemical registrations.

Jane C. Eickhoff, Director of Strategic Services – Jane has over 30 years’ experience in the environmental field, providing advice and assistance to the food industry and chemical manufacturers concerning compliance with environmental and agrochemical regulations and registration requirements.  She evaluates potential exposure and health risks of chemical contaminants, crop residues and additives in foods by conducting refined dietary and aggregate risk analyses using non-proprietary models including CARES, DEEM, and LifeLine^® software.  Her experience also includes obtaining tolerance and exemption from tolerance petition approvals, effective interaction with European, Canadian, and US regulatory authorities, ensuring compliance with regulations, evaluating data compensation issues, serving as facilitator for an industry task force, and coordination of trade association working committees for crop protection and agricultural research.  Jane holds a Master’s degree in Biology.

Sheryl Miller, PMP, Director of Human Performance and User Experience – Sheryl obtained her Ph.D. in Human Factors and Applied Cognition from George Mason University, where she focused on issues of interruption and multi-tasking, team workload and decision-making, human-computer interaction, and usability. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Psychology from the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Geneseo, minoring in Organizational and Occupational Behavior. Sheryl has 12 years of experience providing project management, research skills, and human factors expertise to a diverse range of topics. These have included pedestrian safety, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), connected vehicles, collision warning and avoidance systems, Transportation Management Centers (TMCs), and other safety or mobility techniques, technologies, and marketing approaches. As a Human Factors Psychologist, Sheryl has ensured that the user experience is included early and often in engineering projects. This has included conducting experimental studies in the laboratory and field; capturing and interpreting stakeholder perspectives with surveys, interviews, and focus group meetings; and assessing task flow and interface design with usability methods. Sheryl is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) and User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA).

Carrie Redden, Director of Health and Planning – Carrie has dual master’s degrees in Public Health and City Planning (specializing in transportation planning). She has over 14 years of experience working to support community and individual behavior change accomplished through understanding and addressing the individual, interpersonal, infrastructure, societal, and practical factors that influence decision-making at the individual, community and policy level. Ms. Redden has strong research and facilitation skills. She has provided leadership in guiding, facilitating, and implementing a variety of community health assessments required qualitative and quantitative data analysis, including key stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and data indicator analyses. Carrie has worked to identify and delineate the health impacts of changes within the transportation and planned environment, including issues such as walk to school policies, complete streets, and pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure.

Jennifer Symoun, PMP, Director of Transportation Technology – Jennifer holds an undergraduate degree in Commerce, with concentrations in Management and Management Information Systems from the University of Virginia and has over 15 years of experience in project management, outreach and communications, web development, web conferencing, and research and analysis support for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Jennifer has focused on a diverse range of transportation topic areas, including freight management and operations, work zone safety and mobility, and congestion pricing. She specializes in identifying how information technology, such as web sites, databases, and web conferencing software, can be used to effectively and efficiently inform and educate widespread audiences about transportation topics. Jennifer. Prior to joining toXcel, Jennifer worked for Leidos (formerly SAIC).

Jennifer L. Fulford, Manager of Scientific Projects – Jennifer uses her strong organizational and management skills as the manager and coordinator of numerous complex projects, providing comprehensive scientific and regulatory compliance services.  She acts as coordinator of toXcel’s Assistant staff.  Jennifer plays a key role in all aspects of preparation of international dossiers , as well as regulatory submissions to the US EPA (FIFRA) regarding pesticide active ingredients and products, and interacts directly with US EPA on behalf of clients to resolve issues during the registration process.  Jennifer has experience reviewing laboratory study reports, principally toxicology reports, and has been participated in auditing laboratories on behalf of study sponsors.  Proficient in conducting literature searches, scientific research, data evaluation, and summarization of data, Jennifer has also received training at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for the TOXNET^® databases. Jennifer is trained in the use and interpretation of the National Pesticide Information Retrieval System (NPIRS) and regularly uses the database to assist clients.  Jennifer has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and is a member of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS) and the Society of Toxicology (SOT).

Nicole F. Perkinson, RAC, Manager of Regulatory Affairs – Nicole is experienced in the preparation of a wide variety of FIFRA applications, including reduced-risk pesticide applications and compiling associated data waiver arguments. She has demonstrated proficiency for data compilation, evaluation, technical writing, and in-depth label reviews for regulatory compliance. She has practical experience in risk assessment methods and risk management policies.   Nicole has extensive experience registering both new and existing active ingredient pesticide products in all 50 states and maintains state product registrations on a routine basis. She also maintains regular contact with state regulatory authorities and is trained in using the National Pesticide Information Retrieval System (NPIRS).  She is also experienced with applications for submission to Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA).  Nicole has assisted clients with the FDA regulatory process, including OTC drug establishment registration and product listing.  She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology and is currently working on a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Management.  Nicole is a member of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS) and is Regulatory Affairs Certified.

Olwyn Diggins, Senior Associate Scientist – Olwyn began her career in a technical role with a UK contract research laboratory Foetal Pathology group before becoming a Study Director in Reproduction Toxicology, where she was active in the European Teratology Society. She has a solid understanding and practical experience with toxicological studies, including planning, protocol generation, data evaluation and report writing. In 2001, she moved into the clinical field, planning and reporting a variety of cosmetic consumer studies whilst also being responsible for the operation of the formulation department. Olwyn holds an honors degree Bachelor of Science in Zoology.  Olwyn provides scientific and technical support to toXcel’s European and other international clients for evaluating cosmetics and chemicals.

Erin D. Kissner, Senior Associate Scientist – Erin has a master’s degree in Psychology with concentrations in Human Factors and Applied Cognition and brings over 8 years of experience in human factors and transportation research design, analysis, and evaluation. She previously supported the Human Factors Team at FHWA on contract to Leidos (formerly SAIC) on-site at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center. Erin has broad experience in planning, developing, analyzing and reporting experimental research studies. She primarily provided technical support for the Traffic Control Devices Pooled Fund Study where she led the research design and evaluation of various highway signs, with results that have been considered for implementation in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).

Richard L. Knoblauch, Senior Scientist – Dick has an undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology and is a human factors psychologist with over 40 years of experience in a variety of highway safety issues. From 1981-2009 he was the founder and Director of the Center for Applied Research, Inc. a human factors oriented research organization that specialized in highway safety, crash causation, and countermeasure development/evaluation. He has conducted projects for FHWA, NHTSA, IIHS, and TRB. From 2009 to 2013 he worked for FHWA at the Turner Fairbank Highway Research Center. During that time he supervised the Speed Management Program, served as Director of the Roadway Departure Program and conducted and managed research utilizing a variety of databases, including HSIS, FARS, NASS as well as State and municipal crash data systems. He has conducted/managed over 100 FHWA/NHTSA/IIHS/TRB projects addressing such topics as crash causation, driver behavior, pedestrian crashes, exposure measures, risk measures, countermeasure effectiveness, impaired driving, enforcement, seat belt usage, older drivers, driver education, visibility, retro-reflectivity, highway sign/device effectiveness and related areas. He has been an active TRB committee member since 1973 and an Emeritus Member of the pedestrian Committee since 2005.

Paula Raymond, Senior Associate Scientist – Paula has a master’s degree in Psychology from New York University and is a research psychologist with over twelve years of experience in human factors and transportation. She has provided research support to NHTSA, FHWA, and IIHS in field and laboratory studies. She has conducted and managed investigations in a wide range of topics, including graduated driver licensing restrictions, hazard perception, restraint use, child safety seat use, driver training, older drivers, novice drivers, and countermeasure effectiveness. She has studied these issues using diverse methods, including direct field observations, instrumented vehicles, citation/conviction records, crash records, crash injuries and fatalities, questionnaires, surveys, focus groups and interviews. She has cooperated with diverse stakeholders such as law enforcement, driver education professionals, truck drivers, local school districts, advocacy groups, state database administrators, insurance companies, and local DMV offices.

Heather Rigdon, Senior Associate Scientist – Heather holds a master’s degree in Event Management and an undergraduate degree in Psychology. She has ten years of experience providing technical support to Federal and State transportation agencies covering a range of activities that include project management, program oversight, data collection and analysis, meeting coordination, and outreach. Ms. Rigdon’s data collection and analysis experience includes both qualitative and quantitative data from a number of sources, including study participants, roadside instruments, and agency crash records. In recent years, Ms. Rigdon has provided key support in the collection and analysis of data from surveys, interviews, focus groups, instruments, and field observations for studies evaluating driver comprehension and behavior in response to new or improved traffic control devices.

Doug Cobb, PE, Transportation Engineer – Doug is a Professional Engineer and his education specialized in transportation engineering. He has over 5 years of experience providing project management, traffic operations analysis, and traffic engineering to a diverse range of transportation areas.  These areas include traffic impact analysis, signal warrant analysis, safety studies, long-range transportation plan development with future traffic modeling, roadway diets, and master plans for interchange development within Virginia and Florida.  As part of this experience, Mr. Cobb has extensive experience in HCS (e.g. intersection, corridor, and freeway analyses), HSM software (e.g. IHSDM evaluations), Synchro (e.g. intersection, grid-coordinated intersections, corridor, interchange, and freeway analyses), Vissim (microsimulation of complex intersection and interchange analyses), and Vistro (e.g. capacity analyses of intersection and grid-coordinated intersections) software.

Nelson K. Cornwell, Assistant Scientist II – Nelson is disciplined in both biology and chemistry. He assists clients in understanding EPA registration requirements and potential waiver opportunities, preparing product chemistry volumes, and assembling registration application packages. Nelson shows an eye for detail in the numerous study reports he has reviewed.  Nelson has demonstrated skill for data compilation, evaluation, technical writing, and literature searches for numerous chemicals on behalf of clients.  Nelson has been involved in summarizing residue field trail study reports for submission to government agencies.  He is well versed in the National Pesticide Information Retrieval System (NPIRS) and regularly conducts searches as part of the preparation of registration applications. Nelson has demonstrated strong managerial, team building, and client care skills.  Nelson has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology.

Lisa D. Davis, Assistant Scientist II – Lisa holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and has 8 years of government experience in leadership, management, and training.  Lisa provides team-oriented project support to our senior staff scientists and regulatory affairs managers in the preparation of complete documentation for US federal and state registration application packages.  In addition to her responsibilities in the life sciences group, Lisa frequently assists the toXcel engineers with client proposals, identifying and interviewing survey candidates for human factors analyses, as well as overall data collection and reduction.  Lisa has been training in NPIRS and is a member of SETAC.

Adam Hopps, Transportation Systems Analyst – Adam specializes in communications and stakeholder management with seven years of experience supporting transportation technology research efforts. Adam has led or supported more than twenty transportation projects for the ITS Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), including projects relating to both research and education and training. He has extensive experience leading technology scans, materials development, and knowledge and technology transfer efforts. His project experience has focused on emergency response, transportation systems management and operations (TSMO), connected vehicles, shared use mobility, transit, and multimodal ITS.

Steve Jackson, Statistician – Steve serves as the team’s Statistician, managing, manipulating, and analyzing data from a variety of sources including driving simulators, instrumented roadways, the Fatality and Analysis Reporting System, and naturalistic driving experiments. He earned his master’s degree in Statistics from Texas A&M in 2012 and has since applied his skills to forecasting infrastructure requirements for the US Army, uncovering trends in innovation for the US Patent and Trademark Office, and investigating human factors and safety issues for the Federal Highway Administration and National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. He has authored or co-authored a growing number of research papers on connected vehicles, vehicle automation, collision avoidance technologies, human factors psychology and vulnerable road user safety. His attention to detail, strong analytic skills and ability to visualize and communicate complex statistical findings makes him a valuable asset to the Toxcel team.

Mary Anne Jeffers, PMP, Statistician – Mary Anne is a SAS Certified Advanced Programmer for SAS V9. In addition to being an accredited Graduate Statistician (GSTAT) through the American Statistical Association (ASA), Mary Anne obtained her master’s degree in Statistical Science from George Mason University and her undergraduate degree in Mathematics from James Madison University. Prior to joining the toXcel team, Mary Anne supported human factors research efforts for various Department of Transportation agencies, including the National Highway Safety Transportation Agency and the Federal Highway Administration. She has eight years’ experience in project management, statistical analysis, and research design. In addition, Mary Anne recently obtained the ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP) certification, thus showing her strengths in both traditional waterfall and agile project management approaches. Mary Anne is an active member in the ASA and the Transportation Research Board’s Statistical Methods committee, where she is a young member.

Nicholas Kehoe, Transportation Engineer – Nicholas received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech with his graduate degree concentrating on transportation systems. He has over six years of experience providing technical support to Federal and State transportation agencies covering a range of activities that include project management, performance measurement, program oversight, data collection and analysis, education, outreach, and professional development. His experience focuses on transportation safety, operations, and freight transportation. Recently, Nicholas spent more than two years providing on-site support to the Federal Highway Administration at the United State Department of Transportation headquarters where he analyzed freight-related data to assist in policy development and producing communications and educational materials for freight professionals.

Dana Lee, Associate Scientist – Dana has a Master of Teaching in Secondary Mathematics. Her experience includes 7 years of teaching Mathematics at both the high school and college level. More immediately prior to joining toXcel, she taught at Penn State-Berks and at Reading Area Community College. At RACC, she taught both classroom and online math courses and utilized a variety of distance-learning computer software. Dana is excited to bring her mathematical, analytical, and technical skills to the toXcel team. Since beginning at toXcel, Dana has researched and organized information to be used in literature reviews for various transportation-related projects.

Rob Redden, Applications Developer –Rob is a seasoned Information Technology consultant, having worked in application development in banking, healthcare and 3D Modeling/printing. Most recently, Rob has been focused on the modeling and simulation design within Unity3D. He’s excited that Oculus Rift is finally coming to market to create truly immersive virtual worlds. Rob often gives workshops on 3D printing for toy designers and collectors.

Kayla Sykes, EIT, Junior Transportation Engineer – Kayla holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering, as well as a Human Factors of Transportation Safety Graduate Certificate, from Virginia Tech. Her research interests include: connected vehicles, vehicle automation, collision avoidance technology, human factors psychology, driver-vehicle interfaces, vulnerable road user safety, impaired driving, driver distraction, etc. She significantly expanded her transportation research experience while completing her Master’s Thesis entitled: Human Factors Evaluation of an In-Vehicle Active Traffic and Demand Management (ATDM) System. Ms. Sykes also developed research skills throughout her work on several projects at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) and Leidos (formerly SAIC). She has been tasked with recruiting study participants, scheduling participant interviews, data collection along real and simulated roadways, survey data entry, data analysis (some experience with Matlab and JMP), and report writing/editing.

Sarah E. Taylor, Administrative & Research Assistant – Sarah graduated from Virginia Tech with a BA in Art History.  She is service and detailed oriented, with a background in graphic design. She is fluent in Spanish and has experience with a wide range of community outreach and service projects. Most of her experience comes from volunteer work while living abroad.

Crystal A. Turner, Office Administrator – Crystal is an experienced administrative associate and a member of the International Association of Administrative Professionals and the Society for Human Resource Management.  Besides her function as the office manager, she handles accounting matters and maintains financial records, conducts NPIRS and other on-line data searches, and consistently resolves complex document production issues in a timely and efficient manner.  Crystal has valuable experience with the formatting of regulatory submissions and oversees document quality assurance with great attention to detail.