2017 ACT Award Recipients

Dr. Linda S. Birnbaum is the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health and director of the National Toxicology Program.

A board-certified toxicologist, Birnbaum has served as a federal scientist for over 37 years. Dr. Birnbaum has received many awards and recognitions, including the North Carolina Award in Science, Women in Toxicology Elsevier Mentoring Award, the Society of Toxicology Public Communications Award, US EPA’s Health Science Achievement Award and Diversity Leadership Award, the National Center for Women’s 2012 Health Policy Hero Award, Breast Cancer Fund Heroes Award, and 14 Science and Technology Achievement Awards, which reflect the recommendations of US EPA’s external Science Advisory Board, for specific publications.

Dr. Birnbaum was also elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, and received an honorary degree from Ben-Gurion University in Israel. Dr.  Birnbaum is a former president of the Society of Toxicology, the largest professional organization of toxicologists in the world, former chair of the Division of Toxicology at the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and former vice president of the American Aging Association. She is the author of more than 800 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and reports. She is also an adjunct professor at several universities, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University.

A native of New Jersey, Dr. Birnbaum received her MS and PhD in microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Adam Woolley has more than 40 years of experience in toxicology and nonclinical development, including 18 in contract research and 9 in the pharmaceutical industry. He is certified as a toxicologist in both Europe (European Registered Toxicologist) and the US (DABT), and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences.

During a career that has spanned a number of jobs, countries, and committees, he has been passionately interested in educating future generations of toxicologists, being a regular lecturer at Surrey University and Aberdeen University in the UK, and at courses such as the ACT Practical Application of Toxicology in Drug Development, and having presented at numerous conferences on a wide range of subjects, including assessment of extractables and leachables. In 2012 he initiated the idea of a series of 12 webinars to offer basic training in toxicology, which resulted in the Basic Training in Toxicology E-Learning Series, sponsored by ACT and the British Toxicology Society (BTS), starting in 2016.

He has been on a wide range of committees, including the Education Subcommittee of the BTS and its descendant, the Education Training & Career Development Subcommittee; the Executive Committee of the BTS for a total of eight years, including two as Treasurer; the Registration Panel of the UK Register of Toxicologists, including several years as Chair; and as Chair of the panel of examiners in toxicology for the Royal College of Pathologists. In addition, he is a member of the editorial boards of the ACT International Journal of Toxicology and of Toxicology Reports. From 2005 to 2009 he was a Director of the American Board of Toxicology and has remained with the Board as European Liaison Officer. He is the author of two editions of Guide to Practical Toxicology: Evaluation, Prediction, and Risk published by Taylor and Francis and, with David Woolley, of the third edition—Practical Toxicology: Evaluation, Prediction, and Risk, published by CRC Press in 2017.

He joined ACT in 2011 and has been a member of the Webinar Subcommittee since 2013.

Carol S. Auletta recently retired from a career of more than 40 years in the nonclinical CRO industry. She began as an animal technician and has held a number of positions, including department head, study director, director of toxicology and, most recently, director of program management, at Bio/dynamics/ Pharmaco LSR/Huntingdon Life Sciences/Envigo in New Jersey.

She has a BA in biological sciences from Douglass College (Rutgers University), NJ, and an MBA from Rider University (NJ) and is board certified in toxicology (DABT) and regulatory affairs (RACS). She is active in and has served in leadership positions in several professional toxicology and regulatory societies; ACT is her favorite!

She served on ACT Council from 2004 through 2007 and on the “Presidential Chain” (VP, President Elect, President, Past President) from 2007 to 2011, with a term as ACT President from 2009 to 2010. She chaired the Membership Committee from 2005 to 2007, served on the Nominating Committee in 2013/2014 and 2015/2016 and is currently a member of the Resource Committee. She has also helped coordinate ACT education programs in China and India and has worked with her UK colleagues at Envigo to encourage establishment of an ACT liaison with the British Society of Toxicological Pathology.

Dr. Auletta is an advocate of educating, mentoring, and providing practical information and guidance to new and developing toxicologists; she has helped ACT to attain these goals by her long-term participation in the ACT Study Director Course, an early fixture of the Continuing Education Program at the annual ACT meeting. She was a lecturer for this course from 2001 through 2011 and contributed a chapter on “Prestudy Preparation, The Protocol, Data Interpretation and Reporting” in the ACT publication of the Study Director Course (The Role of the Study Director in Nonclinical Studies… 2014, Bill Brock, ed., Barbara Mounho, Lijie Fu, assoc. eds.). She also served as an organizer (with Drs. Brock, Fu, and Rao) and participated as a speaker for three ACT co-sponsored Study Director Courses in Asia (Beijing, 2010; Bangalore, 2012; Shanghai, 2016).

Other educational activities for ACT have included chairmanship of several symposia and courses with industry colleagues, and presentations in areas including dermal toxicology/practicalities, regulatory issues, alternative procedures to reduce animal use, and other relevant topics. She continues to encourage industry colleagues and Envigo co-workers to be active participants in ACT.

Dr. William J. Brock provides pharmacology and toxicology research and testing advice for the pharmaceutical, chemical, and consumer product industries. Dr. Brock has authored and co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, and several books and book chapters. He is an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where he mentors and directs graduate student research into the mechanisms of druginduced liver toxicity. He has served with several national and international toxicology organizations, including the National Toxicology Program (NTP), ILSI Heath and Environmental Health Sciences Institute (HESI), American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC), Program for Alternative Fluorocarbon Toxicity Testing (PAFT), and others. Dr. Brock is currently an expert reviewer for the Expert Panel of the International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council (IPEC) and the Workplace Environmental Exposure Level (WEEL). Dr.  Brock has been an invited speaker for the Committee on Toxicology, the National Research Council, IPEC, and others. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (ABT) and a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (ATS), and has served as a board member and President for both ABT and ATS. He is a member of the American College of Toxicology, Society of Toxicology, Roundtable of Toxicology Consultants, and the Drug Information Association.

For ACT, he has served on Council, and on the membership, nomination, continuing education, program, and awards Committees. Dr.  Brock has co-chaired the ACT-sponsored Advanced Comprehensive Toxicology course since its inception in 2014 and the Study Director Training course in India and China. He also has been an organizer and presenter in several ACT symposia and CE courses.

Dr. Brock is an associate editor for International Journal of Toxicology, is on the editorial board for Toxicology and Industrial Health, and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for Food and Chemical Toxicology, Toxicological Sciences, and other leading toxicology journals.

2017 International Journal of Toxicology: Volume: 35 (4): 410–419, 2016 Paper Title: “Toxicologic Pathology Analysis for Translational Neuroscience: Improving Human Risk Assessment Using Optimized Animal Data.”
Authors: Sharma A.K., Morrison J.P., Rao D.B., Pardo I.D., Garman R.H., Bolon B.

Dr. Heidi Hsieh is currently working as a study director at Covance Laboratories Inc. in Madison, WI. At Covance, Dr. Hsieh is responsible for directing nonclinical studies in the areas of acute, subchronic, and chronic toxicology. Her responsibilities include overall study design and monitoring the technical conduct of all phases of the study. She is also responsible for the analysis, interpretation, documentation, and reporting of study results. Prior to completing her doctoral studies, Dr. Hsieh worked as a principal researcher at Procter & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati, OH. Dr. Hsieh earned her MS and PhD in toxicology from the University of Cincinnati and her AB in chemistry from Harvard University. Dr. Hsieh has been a member and active participant in the ACS and the Society of Toxicology since 2011 and in the ACT since 2014. Dr. Hsieh served as the chair of the ACT Webinar Subcommittee from 2015 to 2016 and as an editorial assistant for the ACT International Journal of Toxicology from 2013 to 2015.

Muhammad Avais, PhD, DVM, Pakistan

Alexander Eckhardt, PhD, Germany

Stefan Masjosthusmann, Germany

Chiagoziem Otuechere, PhD, Nigeria

Ganna Shayakhmetova, PhD, Ukraine

Michael Kerins, The University of Arizona

Sumira Phatak, Utah State University

Allison Phillips, Duke University

Eric Uwimana, The University of Iowa

Oladimeji Aladelokun, University of Connecticut

Roxanne Andaya, Michigan State University

David Babayemi, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria

Josephine Brown, University of Cincinnati

Pallavi Kompella, University of Texas at Austin

Caroline E. Moore, University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine

Justin Schumacher, Rutgers University

Dahea You, Rutgers University