GEMS Board of Directors
The GEMS Board of Directors has 13 members, including a president, president-elect, secretary, treasurer, and 9 councilors. The Board meets monthly to plan and prepare for the two annual GEMS meetings.
Past Board of Directors can be found here.
Board of Directors
President
Amy Wang, Ph.D., PMP
Dr. Amy Wang is a toxicologist in the Integrative Health Assessments Branch, Division of Translational Toxicology (DTT) at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The DTT is a part of the National Toxicology Program. At the DTT, Dr. Wang leads teams to conduct chemical hazard assessment, and functions as the program manager of the Carcinogenesis Health Effects Innovation Program. Specializing in mechanisms, Dr. Wang is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in literature-based evaluation methodologies. She served as the Vice Chairperson for an International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monograph Working Group (volume 131 on metals) and as an invited expert for the IARC Scientific Workshop on Key Characteristics-associated Endpoints for Evaluating Mechanistic Evidence of Carcinogenic Hazards. She was an invited panelist for the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals to peer review the revised US EPA Toxic Substances Control Act Systematic Review Protocol.
Before joining the NIEHS, Dr. Wang worked in the private sector. Prior to that, she was a postdoc at the US EPA where she conducted nanomaterial Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and later screened nanomaterial bioactivities using ToxCast assays. Dr. Wang received her master’s degree and Ph.D. from Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine from National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Dr. Wang recently served as a Councilor and President-Elect on the Board of Directors for GEMS. Over the years, she has served on the boards of various specialty sections and regional chapters of the Society of Toxicology (SOT), and on the board of a local chapter of the Society of Risk Analysis. She currently is currently involved in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts at the DTT, the NIEHS, and the National Institute of Health. She is looking forward to contributing more to GEMS and serving the members in all career stages.
President - Elect
Stephen Ferguson, Ph.D.
Dr. Stephen Ferguson is a multidisciplinary scientist within the Division of Translational Toxicology (DTT) at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) leading multiple initiatives to model and predict human responses to drug and environmental chemical exposures. His primary research works to develop and apply advanced cell systems that model human tissues (e.g., liver, kidney), mechanistically understand chemical-biological interactions, and predict human health effects from exposures to environmental chemicals (e.g., PFAS, glyphosate, PCBs, PACs) and natural products in context with human drug substances. His pioneering research with 3D liver and kidney microtissues, high throughput transcriptomics, and translational toxicology have contributed to the evolution of toxicology research to reduce, refine, and replace use of animals leverage human-based microphysiological systems to understand. Prior to joining the DTT, Ferguson led the ADME-Tox R&D Program of Life Technologies (now Thermo-Fisher). He received his BS in chemistry from North Carolina State University in 1994, completed a PhD there in 2000 (bioinorganic chemistry and biotechnology), and currently serves as adjunct faculty to the Curriculum in Toxicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Secretary
Elizabeth Irvin
Elizabeth Irvin is a fourth year PhD candidate in the Toxicology Program at North Carolina State University, working under the mentorship of Dr. Hong Wang. Her research uses single-molecule imaging techniques to study protein-DNA interactions that promote DNA repair. Besides serving as a GEMS Councilor, Elizabeth is an NC State Goodnight Fellow and serves as the Student and Early Career Investigator Co-Chair for the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (EMGS).
Treasurer
Nagu Keshava, Ph.D.
Coming soon!
2025-2027 COUNCILORS
Javier Huayta, Ph.D.
Dr. Javier Huayta is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University under the mentorship of Dr. Joel Meyer. He is interested in the interactions between environmental toxicology and aging under the context of mitochondrial DNA dynamics. His current research focuses on discerning the neurodegenerative effects of exposure to chemicals that disrupt the mitochondrial electron transport chain, using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering under the mentorship of Dr. Adriana San Miguel in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at NC State University. He has attended GEMS meetings since 2022, has served as president of the Latin American Student Association at NC State, and is currently serving as councilor for the Society of Toxicology Postdoctoral Assembly and as co-chair of the Genetics Society of America Equity and Inclusion Committee.
Safia Sauty, Ph.D.
Dr. Safia Sauty is a Postdoctoral Fellow mentored by Dr. Dmitry Gordenin in the Genome Integrity and Structural Biology Lab at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. She earned her B.S. in Microbiology form the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She then moved to Canada to pursue her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph, Ontario. During her doctoral research, Dr. Sauty studied epigenetic regulation of gene expression and identified DNA replication factors involved in maintaining chromatin stability. Her postdoctoral work focuses on identifying genome instability markers and somatic mosaicism in healthy humans in an effort to understand baseline mutagenesis. Throughout graduate school, Dr. Sauty has contributed to different student advocacy groups and departmental service committees. She earned the best platform talk award in the GEMS 46th Annual Fall Meeting. She is excited to be more involved with the society and the local mutagenesis community.
Jamie Scaglione, Ph.D.
Jamie Scaglione is currently the Associate Director of Investigative Toxicology at ScitoVation, where she develops in vitro assays as New Approach Methods (NAMs) to reduce animal use in toxicity testing. Before joining ScitoVation, she held various academic roles, including Senior Research Scientist at Duke University and Assistant Professor at Carroll University and Eastern Michigan University. She holds a BS in chemistry and biology from the University of Evansville and a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from Washington University in St. Louis, where she focused on the organic synthesis of neurosteroid analogues for electrophysiological structure-activity assays. She later completed postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan, investigating bacterial natural product biosynthetic pathways.
2024-2026 COUNCILORS
Joel Meyer, Ph.D.
I received a B.S. from Juniata College, and then moved to Guatemala where I worked for five years in a number of fields including appropriate technology. Building cookstoves, latrines and observing water pollution led me to pursue a Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from Duke University. My thesis research triggered an interest in toxic effects of pollutants on mitochondria and DNA, which I studied in postdoctoral research with Ben Van Houten at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. I joined the faculty of the Nicholas School of the Environment in 2007. My group has been especially interested in the response to DNA damage that is irreparable in the mitochondrial genome. More recently, we have become interested in the disparate effects of different kinds of environment-mediated mitochondrial stress. Because mitochondrial diseases are common in the population, we are also studying how the effects of mitotoxicant exposures vary in the context of genetic differences. Most of our work is with the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans or cell culture, but we also work collaboratively in invitro systems, other non-human species, and human populations.
Andre Weaver, Ph.D., DABT
Dr. Weaver is a Biologist in the Chemical and Pollutant Assessment Division of the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) in ORD at the U.S. EPA. He received his Ph.D in the Inter-disciplinary program in Physiology from Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. He pursued post-doctoral studies at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda ,MD in the Center for Cancer Prevention where he studied the molecular biology of selenoproteins using genetic approaches incorporating mouse knock-out models and at UNC’s Lineberger Cancer Center where he investigated novel strategies for targeting tumor cell using nanoparticles and chromatin remodeling. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology. After a brief stay in industry Dr. Weaver joined the CPHEA where has been actively involved in chemical health risk assessment in support of the IRIS program and as well as the Provisional Peer-Reviewed Toxicity Values (PPRTV) program and serves as a co-chair for the General toxicology, Immune and Cancer workgroup. He also has provided technical support for the Toxic Substances Control Act mandated chemical risk assessments. His current research interest include systematic review methods, genetic toxicology, cancer, and human risk assessment. He is currently a member of GEMs and a full time SOT member.
2023-2025 COUNCILORS
John Rooney, Ph.D. (2024-2025)
John Rooney is a toxicogenomics technical expert and the in vivo transcriptomics team lead at Syngenta Crop Protection. His role largely focuses on the generation and interpretation of omics data from short term in vivo studies in a predictive toxicology setting. He is also actively involved in both internal and external research efforts to further develop computational methods for -omic level data analysis in toxicology. John represents Syngenta as a member of the HESI eSTAR Molecular Points of Departure and Carcinogenomics workgroups, and the HESI eSTAR private sector chair.
John received his Ph.D. in 2015 from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University where he studied the metabolic consequences of mitochondrial DNA damage in Dr. Joel Meyer’s lab. Following graduate school, he completed an ORISE Fellowship at the US EPA in Research Triangle Park, NC. At EPA, John developed predictive gene expression biomarkers for non-genotoxic carcinogenesis in rodent liver. Prior to joining Syngenta, he has held roles as a Senior Toxicologist at Integrated Laboratory Systems where he worked as a contractor with NICEATM, and as a senior bioinformatics scientist for OmicSoft/QIAGEN.
Tess Leuthner, Ph.D.
Dr. Tess Leuthner is a Charles W. Hargitt Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Biology Department at Duke University under the mentorship of Dr. Ryan Baugh. She is broadly interested in gene by environment interactions. Her current research focuses on the contribution of genetic variation on susceptibility and response to various chemical exposures, with a particular emphasis on heavy metals and PFAS. Dr. Leuthner is harnessing the genetic variation from hundreds of wild strains of the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, from the Caenorhabditis Natural Diversity Resource to apply statistical and quantitative genetic approaches to investigate how genetic architecture affects response to chemical exposures (genome-wide associate analyses) and how exposure affects genetic architecture (transcriptomics and epigenomics approaches), with the goal to identify candidate variants that contribute to variation in toxicity and response to exposures. Dr. Leuthner earned her PhD in Toxicology and Environmental Health as a Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Joel Meyer in the Nicholas School of the Environment (Duke University). Her dissertation research focused on elucidating the effects of known nuclear mutagens and carcinogens on mitochondrial DNA damage and mutagenesis, where she adapted an ultra-sensitive error-corrected sequencing technique (Duplex Sequencing) to C. elegans. Tess has attended GEMS meetings since 2015, and is very excited to engage more closely with the society and GEMS members as a Councilor.
Arjun Keshava, MPH
Arjun Keshava, MPH is a Ph.D student and researcher in Dr. Rebecca Fry’s lab at University of North Carolina, Gillings School of Global Public Health. He is also an ORISE fellow at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He has worked on regulation on nitric oxide signaling, effect of PFAS on trophoblast migration and heavy metals in Dr. Fry’s lab for the past five years. Furthermore, at EPA, Arjun is working on a study that investigates response to low level of concentrated ambient particles as well as looking into how nutritional factors relate to PFAS exposure. Previously, Arjun interned at National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and Environmental Protection Agency where he conducted research on DNA methylation and gene expression. He has presented his work at Society of Toxicology, Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society, Genetics and Environmental Mutagenesis Society (GEMS) and earned travel awards/best poster award. Arjun was also selected as one of ten Public Health Scholars in the United States. His research area of interest includes epigenetics, environment health and heavy metals. Arjun is an active member of GEMS and his goal is to bring in the student perspective to GEMS and encourage other young researchers to get involved in society activities.
IN MEMORIAM
Tom Hughes, M.S.
Tom Hughes, M.S., was the co-founder of GEMS in 1983. He served as the GEMS President three times and served on the BOD as Councilor, Treasurer, Corporate Sponsor Coordinator and Vice President. He was awarded the GEMS Lifetime Achievement Award at the Annual Meeting in 2015. He was a QA and Records Manager at the US EPA for 17 years and a laboratory scientist at the US EPA for 5 years prior to being a QA and Records Manager. Scientifically, he was involved in the World Trade Center (WTC) research, where a 20 member Team exposed mice to dusts from the WTC immediately after the 9/11/01 disaster and in the Penobscot River Study in Maine where the water, sediment and drinking water of the Penobscot River and the fish and plants that were investigated for toxicity for the Penobscot Indian Nation. Previous to being at the US EPA, Tom was a Principal Investigator in two contract labs for 20 years, where he conducted GLP testing for industrial clients, and conducted toxicology testing for industry, NCI, EPA and NTP. Tom was the U.S. EPA QA Manager of the Year in 2002 and was a US EPA National Honor Award winner in 2014 for his work with the Penobscot Indians. He retired from the US EPA after 22 years on October 29, 2016 after which he continued to be an invaluable supporter of the mission of GEMS.
Images of Amy Wang, Stephen Ferguson and Safia Sauty were taken by Steven R. McCaw, NIEHS Multimedia Services