Welcome ACMT’s New Board Members

I am pleased to be considered for election to the ACMT Board of Directors. I have been a member of the organization since its inception, some 30 + years ago. I have served the college at various times as a lecturer at pre-meeting symposia at NACCT, at monthly case conferences, as well as at our Annual Scientific Meetings in the spring. I look forward to serving on the BOD.

I believe I could bring a unique viewpoint to ACMT leadership, since I have been primarily practicing occupational medicine and occupational and environmental toxicology for the past 25 years, yet my original roots are in emergency medicine. I understand the primary pipeline to medical toxicology is through emergency medicine, but I would like to see if we can broaden the appeal of the specialty to encourage trainees from other disciplines to enter the field, especially occupational and environmental medicine. I would also like to explore ways ACMT can help train and educate interested ACMT members and non-members to be able to provide expertise for evaluation of environmental chemical exposures and what that means for public health.

I am currently the Director of Occupational Medicine for the Saratoga Hospital Medical Group and Saratoga Hospital Employee Health Medical Director, overseeing the health and safety of over 3100 employees and staff. I am also Employee Health Medical Director at Glens Falls Hospital in Glens Falls, NY, covering 2500 employees. 

My faculty appointment is as a Professor of Emergency Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY (since 2003) and faculty member of the Medical Toxicology Fellowship Training Program and Consulting Medical Toxicologist at the Upstate New York Poison Center.  

I am also Principal Medical Toxicologist at the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH) in Little Rock, AR, which is an environmental emergency response firm involved in testing air, water, and/or soil for contaminants, usually after environmental disasters such as chemical releases, spills, or contamination. In that capacity, I have personally been on-site at disaster or release/spill sites performing testing, evaluating exposures, and advising local authorities and practitioners on risks, treatment, and mitigation. I have been a participant at several of these sites for town hall meetings for risk communication to the impacted members of the local community.  

It is an honor to be considered for the board of directors of ACMT.  My route here has been a circuitous but rewarding journey.  I graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in biology.  I then received an MPH in epidemiology from the University of Michigan before graduating from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.  I then completed pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at Children’s Memorial in Chicago, followed by medical toxicology fellowship at the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center.  I currently serve as the medical director of the Cincinnati Poison Drug and Information Center where I have been since 2010.  I am an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine and also work clinically as a pediatric emergency medicine attending at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.  In addition, I previously worked as a toxicologist with the British Columbia Drug and Poison Center and clinically at Vancouver Children’s Hospital.

Since joining ACMT, I spoke at the 2012 ACMT pre-symposium and have previously worked on the ACMT spring meeting planning committee from 2014 to 2016.  In addition, I have been the ACMT pediatrics section head since 2018.  I have also been a peer reviewer for JMT.  I am on the editorial board for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published journal - Pediatrics in Review and a peer reviewer for a number of pediatrics journals.  Locally, I am on the Hamilton County child fatality review committee as well as the Hamilton County opioid fatality review committee.  I also administer and am the primary educator for a toxicology rotation for pediatric emergency medicine fellows, child abuse fellows, pediatric residents, med-peds residents, and pharmacy residents.

My interest in toxicology began after I rotated with the Chicago Toxicon group during my PEM fellowship.  One of the things that struck me was the enthusiasm and energy of that group and I have since learned that enthusiasm is shared throughout the field and, in my opinion, one of the things that sets medical toxicology apart from other fields of medicine.  As part of the ACMT board, I would hope to continue to build on the great foundation of work done by our colleagues.  One of my goals would be to promote engagement in medical toxicology especially among our pediatric colleagues and share that enthusiasm with pediatric trainees.  In my experience, toxicology remains a relatively unknown field to pediatric trainees and our field would benefit with more pediatric trained toxicologists.  I hope by working with the board I can improve collaboration with pediatric organizations like the AAP.  Thank you for your consideration.