Posted on April 28, 2021
**As we are still in the process of finalizing our conference, all of the speaker line-ups are tentative**
ADAO Virtual 16th Annual International Asbestos Awareness and Prevention Conference
“Where Knowledge and Action Unite”
September 17-18, 2021
2021 Conference Info | Honorees and Keynote Speakers | Registration | Agenda | Friday “Art, Advocacy, and Shared Stories” Film Festival | Saturday Academic Conference | Saturday Awards and Recognition Ceremony | Sponsors | Exhibitors |Media | Meet the Speakers Blog Series | Previous Conferences |
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is proud to present the weekly series “Meet the Speakers and Honorees,” which will highlight esteemed participants of our highly-anticipated 16th Annual International Asbestos Awareness & Prevention Conference! The ADAO conference, which will take place virtually on September 17-18th, 2021, combines expert opinions, victims’ stories, and new technological advancements from nearly 10 countries across the globe into one united voice raising awareness about asbestos. ADAO is the only U.S. nonprofit that organizes annual conferences dedicated solely to preventing asbestos exposure and eliminating asbestos-caused diseases. 
Session III “Prevention: What Is It? Where Is It? What Do I Do?” Speakers: Simon Butt-Bethlendy, Mark Catlin, Sharon Gayoso (Invited), Tony Rich, Bob Sussman, and Kelly Trautner
Session III Moderator: Tom Laubenthal
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Simon Butt-Bethlend, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (Video)
Mark Catlin is the former Occupational Health and Safety Director (retired) for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), representing two million healthcare, service and public workers in the United States and Canada. An industrial hygienist and health and safety activist, since 1981, he has been involved with asbestos issues over his entire career, from investigating asbestos problems at worksites, schools and homes to conducting EPA and OSHA asbestos training for thousands of workers and managers. Mark has advocated for strong public policies to eliminate asbestos use and exposure. In the early 1990s, he was the clinic industrial hygienist for the Harborview Occupational Medicine Clinic at the University of Washington and conducted many occupational histories for workers with asbestos-related disease. Mark is honored to serve on the ADAO Prevention Advisory Board.
In 2014, Sharon Gayoso’s husband, Jay, was diagnosed with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma at age 53. After an extensive history, the Gayoso’s realized that Jay’s asbestos exposure took place 36 years prior; and as a corporate attorney, Jay understood that both medical consultation and legal issues must be explored. Sharon immediately became both a caregiver and mesothelioma patient advocate. She learned as much as possible about medical treatment, the vast quantities of asbestos exposure, and the legal process associated with the disease. Together, with her son’s Andrew and Adam, they have taken action to advocate for mesothelioma patients and their families. Prior to her husband’s diagnosis, Sharon was a public relations/marketing professional, who ran her husband’s legal practice while maintaining her own college consulting business. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations from the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications and is a Miami-Dade Public School Educational Excellence School Advisory Council board member.
Tom Laubenthal, serves as the Training Supervisor & Technical Chief for The Environmental Institute in Marietta, Georgia. He has 36 years of industry service and is considered a nationally recognized subject matter expert within the asbestos and lead-based paint control industries. He has served in a variety of industry leadership roles including as a past National President of the Environmental Information Association and has been a recipient of the EIA’s Snyder Lifetime Achievement Award. He has published extensively in print and e-media, and is regularly invited to speak at technical meetings on topics of asbestos detection and control. He received his B.S. in Geology from Georgia State University.
Tony Rich, Industrial Hygienist, Photographic Historian and ADAO Prevention Advisory Board Member, has literally served “in the trenches” as an industrial hygienist and environmental technician in the consulting field for the past 24 years, specializing in asbestos-related work, including: inspection surveys, abatement monitoring/sample analyses, regulatory compliance, and worker training. He has also received microscopy training from McCrone Research Institute for identification of bulk asbestos via polarized-light microscopy (PLM). Through the course of his occupation and personal endeavor, Tony has developed an extensive and compelling collection of asbestos-related photographs, product materials, artifacts, historical books, industry documents, film archives, and other related media which have been utilized in a multitude of applications for various organizations worldwide, including, but not limited to: product and material research, asbestos awareness education blogs, informational presentations, corporate and governmental training programs, regulatory guidance documents, science and trade publications, university textbooks, museum & amp; conference exhibits, and even as legal evidence.
Robert Sussman, JD, is the principal in Sussman and Associates, a consulting firm that offers advice on energy and environmental policy issues to clients in the non-profit and private sectors. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and was a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School. Bob served in the Obama Administration as C0-Chair of the Transition Team for EPA and then as Senior Policy Counsel to the EPA Administrator from 2009-2013. He served in the Clinton Administration as the EPA Deputy Administrator during 1993-94. At the end of 2007, Bob retired as a partner at the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he headed the firm’s environmental practice in DC. Bob was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress in 2008. He is currently serving on the Board on Environmental Science of the National Academy of Sciences and as a Commissioner of the Interstate Commission for the Potomac River Basin. Bob is a magna cum laude 1969 graduate of Yale College and a 1973 graduate of Yale Law School. Bob has posted numerous blogs on the Brookings Institution Website and elsewhere and published articles in the Environmental Law Reporter and other publications.
Kelly Trautner, is a trade unionist who believes communities are safest when frontline workers have a seat at the table where decisions are made, advocating for themselves and the people they serve, a central precept to her work as director of the American Federation of Teachers’ Health Issues program. Kelly’s drive to empower workers began while representing an emergency nurse who was permanently disabled with respiratory illness due to failed equipment and protocol while caring for a patient transported from an explosion at a chemical plant. She has been honored for her contributions to the labor movement in her state and received the Ohio Nurses Association’s inaugural solidarity award, created in her name. Kelly holds a Juris Doctor from Capital University Law School and is a licensed attorney.
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In unity,
Linda
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