2008 Board of Directors Election

The Election will be conducted September 5-15.  Members in good standing will be notified via email with instructions for voting.  See the candidates' biographical sketches below.

How to vote (members only):

1. Visit the ballot login page at www.electionsonline.us/election.
2. If you do not know your username and password, submit your email address to have it emailed to you immediately.
3. Once you have your username and password, login and vote.

Thank you for your participation!

Note: Members must provide GEMS with a valid email address in order to vote. Please contact us if you do not get an email with voter instructions by September 5th.  Contact us at email.gems@gmail.com.

President Elect candidate

John E. French, Ph.D., NTP, NIEHS

Dr. French earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Biochemistry and Molecular Toxicology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Following post-doctoral studies in radiobiology in Bethesda, MD, he joined the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research of the USFDA. In 1982, he joined the Division of Toxicology Research and Testing of the NIEHS, RTP, NC. He is currently serving as Acting Chief, NTP Host Susceptibility Branch (HSB). He is an active member of the Complex Traits Consortium, the Environmental Mutagen Society, and the Society of Toxicology. The HSB research mission is to investigate the genetic basis for population-level differences for both toxicant and/or disease susceptibility in genetically-defined animal models that will lead to a better understanding of how and why substances in our environment are hazardous to some individuals and not to others. Asthma, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity are a few examples of diseases resulting from gene-environment interactions. Dr. French has investigated the genetic basis and demonstrated the use for genetically altered rodent models of mutation and cancer. His current research is focused on the identification of genes and their allelic variants associated with susceptibility to DNA strand break damage and the loss of tumor suppressor genes and dysregulation of tumor suppression for hazard identification and investigation of the mode/mechanism of carcinogenesis and toxicity. 

Councilor candidates

Jacquelyn J. Bower, Ph.D.

Dr. Bower received a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame in 2001 and her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences in 2006 from West Virginia University. Her graduate studies were performed under the direction of Dr. Xianglin Shi at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown, West Virginia, and focused on the induction of DNA damage response proteins upon the generation of hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals during the cellular response to arsenic and other heavy metals. In 2006, she accepted a postdoctoral position with Dr. William Kaufmann at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill where she is studying the role of topoisomerase II expression and activity in the cell cycle checkpoint responses to DNA damage and catenated chromatids. She is currently a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, Sigma Xi, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As a graduate student, she was active in the West Virginia Chapter of the Association for Women in Science and served as their Treasurer and Fundraising Chair, as well as serving on the School of Pharmacy Advisory Board as the graduate student representative. She is new to GEMS this year and looks forward to being a part of the organization.

Perpetua (Peppy) Muganda, Ph.D.

Dr. Muganda earned a B.S. degree in Biology (1976) from Lock Haven State College, and a M.Sc. degree in Biochemistry (1978) from Howard University. After receiving her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1983) under the direction of Dr. Howard J. Edenberg at Indiana University School of Medicine, she joined the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Research Center as a postdoctoral fellow (under the direction of Dr. Eng-Shang Huang) in 1984. There she studied tumor virology and cancer molecular biology, with funding through the Institutional National Research Service Award fellowship, followed by a supplemental grant from the National Cancer Institute. Upon securing an Assistant Professor of Virology position at the University of Texas at El Paso in 1988, Peppy continued her NIH-funded research in tumor virology, focusing on viral-cellular interactions involving human cytomegalovirus and p53, proto-oncogenes, and casein kinase II. In 1995, Peppy accepted an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences position at Southern University, Baton Rouge, and was promoted to full Professor of Biological Sciences and Environmental Toxicology in 2000. In August 2007, Peppy joined the faculty at North Carolina A&T State University as Professor of Biology. Peppy’s current research, which was initiated upon receipt of NIEHS funding in 1999, focuses on the cellular and molecular toxicology of butadiene. This research, which is now funded by NIGMS, utilizes various (including genetic) approaches to deduce butadiene-induced p53-mediated apoptotic signaling pathways. Peppy is a chartered member (2006-2010) of the NIH National Center for Scientific Review CAMP Study section, and regularly reviews manuscripts for Toxicology In Vitro. She is a member of American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society for Microbiology, and the Genetics and Environmental Mutagenesis Society (GEMS).

Ram Ramabhadran, Ph.D.

Dr. Ramabhadran is the Branch Chief of the Cellular and Molecular Toxicity Branch of the Neurotoxicology Division (NTD) of the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratories (NHEERL) of the Office of Research Development (ORD) of US EPA. Following early training in physics, biophysics and radiological physics, he received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Texas at Dallas, elucidating the molecular mechanism of growth inhibition induced by near ultraviolet radiation. After postdoctoral training at the Washington University in St. Louis in animal virology, he worked in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry until two years ago, when he joined the EPA. During his industrial career, Dr. Ramabhadran took a midcareer break and spent two years at the Rockefeller University in NY, in the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience with Dr. Paul Greengard. Throughout his career, Dr. Ramabhadran has held adjunct academic appointments at several leading academic institutions such as Rockefeller University, the Nathan Kline Institute of the New York University, and currently holds adjunct appointments in the Division of Neurology, Duke University School of Medicine and in the Curriculum in Toxicology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Over the last twenty years, Dr. Ramabhadran’s research has covered the molecular aspects of radiation damage, interferon action, biological drugs, viral gene delivery, and Alzheimer’s disease. More recently his research is focused on designing a novel molecular approach to rapid screening of environmental toxicants.

Stephanie L. Smith-Roe, Ph.D.

Dr. Smith-Roe received a B.S. in Zoology and Psychology with a specialization in Biochemistry in 1998 from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Stephanie began her scientific career in the field of behavioral neuroscience by studying neural substrates of learning, memory, and stress as an undergraduate at UW-Madison and later at Wisconsin Psychiatric Institute and Clinics. In 2006, Stephanie received her Ph.D. from the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University where she was supported as an NIEHS Trainee. For her dissertation, she studied gene-environment interactions by exposing mismatch repair (MMR)-deficient mice, a model for Lynch syndrome, to a DNA-adduct forming food-borne carcinogen. Stephanie joined William K. Kaufmann’s laboratory at UNC-CH in 2006 as a postdoctoral scholar and is supported by the NIEHS Environmental Pathology Training Grant. Presently, she is studying the role of two newly discovered proteins, Timeless and Timeless-interacting protein (Tipin), in DNA replication and intra-S checkpoint signaling in response to DNA damage (UV exposure). Stephanie is a member of the Environmental Mutagen Society (2002-present) and the Society of Toxicology (2002 – present) and is a recent member of GEMS. She served as the Pacific Northwest Association of Toxicology Student Representative to SOT in 2005 - 2006.

Dennis A. Simpson, Ph.D.

Dr. Simpson received a Ph.D. (Microbiology & Immunology, 1996) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, under the supervision of Dr. Robert E. Johnston, where he studied the biology of Alphavirus pathogenesis using a rodent model system. Prior to entering the graduate program at UNC he was a research technician at Michigan State University where he investigated the differences between pathogenic Niesseria gonorrhoea that cause either a local or disseminated infection. Following completion of his Ph.D. studies, Dennis accepted a Post-Doctoral position at the UNC Gene Therapy Center under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Walsh. There he carried out investigations into the biology of Fanconi Anemia. In 1998 Dennis moved the laboratory of Dr. William K. Kaufmann in the Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UNC. He is currently funded by a Center for Environmental Health & Susceptibility grant through UNC (2007 – 2008) and as a co-investigator on a program project award from the National Institute of Environmental Health and Susceptibility (2007 – present). Dennis’s research currently involves understanding and modeling how the various known and probable unknown proteins are involved in the G2 checkpoint response of normal human cells. This work involves collaboration with experimental mathematicians to build and test a very detailed model of the G2 phase of the cell cycle. The second aspect of his research is to better understand the genetic changes involved in malignant progression of a melanocyte to a melanoma.