Posted on August 21, 2022

ADAO Hybrid 17th Annual International Asbestos Awareness and Prevention Conference
“Where Knowledge and Action Unite”
September 16-17, 2022

2022 Conference Info | Registration | Agenda | Speakers | Friday “Asbestos: Art, Advocacy, and Action” Festival | Saturday Academic Conference | Saturday Honorees and Keynote Speaker | Sponsors  Meet the Speakers Blog Series | Conference Video Library 2006-2021|

Meet the Speakers Blog Series Landing Page
17th Asbestos Awareness and Prevention Conference Agenda

AGENDA 

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is proud to present our weekly series, “Meet the Speakers and Honorees,” which will highlight the esteemed participants of our highly anticipated 17th Annual International Asbestos Awareness & Prevention Conference! The ADAO conference, which will take place virtually on September 16- 17th, 2022, 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.

The Academic Conference featuring our esteemed expert speakers will be live-streamed globally from Emory University Conference Center at 9:00 am- 4:00 pm ET. For more details, please visit our official 2022 Conference Website. 

*Remote

Session I: Progress and Challenges from the Frontline (MODERATOR: Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH)
9:00am Linda Reinstein, Opening remarks
9:15am Mavis Nye, International Mesothelioma Warrior*
9:20am Warriors: Sean and Nicole Shields*
9:30am Linda Reinstein CEO, Co-Founder of ADAO
9:40am Richard Lemen, PhD, MSPH
9:50am Arthur Frank, MD, PhD
10:00am Bob Sussman, JD*
10:10am Q&A

Session II: Medical Advancements: Diagnosing and Treating Mesothelioma and Other Asbestos-Related Diseases (MODERATOR: Arthur Frank,MD, PhD)

10:30am Warrior: Laura Baker 
10:40am Christine Oliver, MD, PhD, MPH, MS*
10:55am Steven Markowitz, MD, DrPH*
11:10am Brad Black, MD*
11:25am Jacqueline M. Moline, MD, MS
11:40am Andrea Wolf, MD, MPH*
11:45am TBA
12:00pm Q&A

The Andrew Schneider Memorial Lecture (MODERATOR: Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH)
12:10pm Introduction/Setup: Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH
12:15pm Introduction: Kathy Best*
12:25pm David Boraks, The Andrew Schneider Memorial Lecture 
1:00pm Q&A

Session III: Prevention: Legacy Asbestos: What Is It? Where Is It? What Do I Do? (MODERATOR: Tom Laubenthal)
1:15pm Warrior: Toby MacDonald*
1:25pm Raja Flores, MD*
1:35pm Brent Kynoch
1:45pm Mark Catlin
1:55pm Tony Rich
2:05pm Tom Laubenthal*
2:15pm Q&A

Session IV: Global Ban Asbestos Action (MODERATOR: Brent Kynoch)
2:30pm Warrior: Sharon Gayoso*
2:40pm Barry Castleman: Italy
2:50pm Fernanda Giannassi, Brazil*
3:00pm Carmen Lima: Portugal*
3:10pm Rory O’Neill: United Kingdom*
3:20pm Barry Robson: Australia*
3:30pm TBA
3:40pm Q&A

SPEAKER BIOS

Laura Baker is a concerned citizen, grieving family member, and avid activist. After the Libby Montana Asbestos Health Emergency was declared in 2009 and three of her immediate family members fell ill, Baker spurred into action. For over a decade, Laura Baker has been a loyal supporter of Libby Montana Center for Asbestos Related Disease Clinic, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, and Just Moms STL Organization. Her tireless work includes corresponding with leaders such as former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, and Congressman Lacy Clay; attending EPA and White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council meetings; and participating in fundraisers such as Miles for Meso, Meals for A Million, and more. Laura Baker’s dedication to advocacy and activism are strides towards ending generations of harm from asbestos. 

Kathy Best: After four decades writing and editing stories designed to make a difference in readers’ lives, Kathy Best moved to academia in June 2019 to train the next generation of investigative reporters as the inaugural director of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland. The center’s first project on the impact of global warming on the urban poor, a collaboration with NPR, won three national awards in professional contests. Students in the center have gone on to win national awards for coverage of homelessness, the failure to protect legal migrant workers during the pandemic, and the role of white-owned newspapers across the U.S. in inciting lynchings and racial terror during the Jim Crow era. Best was previously the executive editor of The Seattle Times, which she helped lead to two Pulitzer Prizes. She was also the editor of the Missoulian in Missoula, Montana, and a top editor at The Sun in Baltimore, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She met her late husband, Andrew Schneider, while working in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau covering Congress and national politics. Andrew’s work inspired her to lead the Howard Center to make sure journalism has more reporters who know how to dig deeply and watch out for those without power.

Brad Black, MD is Senior Medical and Research Advisor for CARD. He retired from his position as CEO and Medical Director in May of 2021, but he continues to be a leading advocate for healthcare, treatment, and research to benefit those impacted by Libby amphibole asbestos. A pediatrician by specialty, he additionally spent 10 years as the Medical Director for Libby’s urgent care center and served as an emergency room physician prior to CARD. Lincoln County Health Officer since 1984, Dr. Black has become dedicated to developing the healthcare infrastructure for the county including asbestos related disease healthcare. He was integral in the planning and implementation of the original ATSDR asbestos health screening program and the development of CARD Clinic. With support from Dr. Alan Whitehouse, a Spokane Pulmonologist, and many years of experience, Dr. Black has become an expert in identifying and managing Libby amphibole asbestos diseases. His dedication is appreciated greatly by CARD as well as the community.

David Boraks covers climate change, energy, and the environment for WFAE, the NPR affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina. At WFAE since 2016, he also has covered housing and homelessness, government, transportation, and business. He also occasionally hosts WFAE’s news and talk shows. His project “Asbestos Town” was named Best Radio Documentary by the Society of Professional Journalists in 2022. David formerly published the online news network DavidsonNews.net and CorneliusNews.net near Charlotte. He has been an editor and reporter at The Charlotte Observer, American Banker, The China News in Taipei, The Cambridge (Mass.) Chronicle, and The Hartford Courant, among others. He was the Batten Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Davidson College in 2013 and has a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and master’s degree from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT. 

Barry Castleman, ScD is an Environmental Consultant trained in chemical and environmental engineering. He holds a Doctor of Science degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He has been a consultant to numerous agencies of the US government and other governments, international bodies, and environmental groups dealing with a wide range of public health issues. He has testified as an expert in civil litigation in the US on the history of asbestos as a public health problem and the reasons for failure to properly control asbestos hazards. Dr. Castleman has spent the past. 40 years working on asbestos as a public health problem. 

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.

Raja Flores, MD, is the Chairman for the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Mt. Sinai Medical Center and ADAO Science Advisory Board Co-Chair Member. Raja is a recognized leader in the field of thoracic surgery for his pioneering efforts in the treatment of mesothelioma. Dr. Flores’ research interests include numerous past projects relating to the multimodality management of malignant pleural mesothelioma. He helped pioneer the use of intraoperative chemotherapy for mesothelioma, and led a multi-center trial designed to improve patient outcomes. He changed the surgical management of pleural mesothelioma cancer with a landmark study comparing extrapleural pneumonectomy and pleurectomy/decortication. An expert in his field, Dr. Flores has appeared on many national and local television news reports to discuss mesothelioma. With over 150 related publications to date, his energies and commitment to the plight of mesothelioma patients remains paramount.

Arthur L. Frank, MD, PhD is a physician board certified in both internal medicine and occupational medicine and currently serves as Professor of Public Health and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia. He is also a Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary) at the Drexel College of Medicine. He also holds a position at Drexel as Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. A life-long academic, Dr. Frank has previously taught at Mount Sinai, the University of Kentucky and in the University of Texas System. He has served many governmental agencies in the US and has carried out research and has been a governmental advisor internationally. Trained in both occupational medicine and internal medicine, Dr. Frank has been interested in the health hazards of asbestos for more than 35 years. He has published a great deal of work on the hazards of asbestos, and clinically cared for asbestos affected patients. He has lectured internationally about the problems of asbestos, and worked in many settings looking at the diseases caused by this material. His research interests have been in the areas of occupational cancers and occupational lung diseases, as well as agricultural safety and health. For thirty-seven years he held a commission in the U S Public Health Service (active and inactive) and served on active duty both at the NIH and at NIOSH. Arthur is the ADAO Science Advisory Board Co-Chair.

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. The Gayoso’s sons (Andrew and Adam) are also vital members of the family’s support system, even altering their career goals based upon their father’s illness. Andrew changed his focus in law school and is now an asbestos litigator. Adam is currently pursuing a PhD in Computational Biology/Genomics (personalized cancer treatment). Together, the Gayoso’s 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.

Fernanda Giannasi is a Civil and Occupational Safety Engineer and was a Labor Inspector for 30 years at the Brazilian Labor Ministry, in the inspection of health and safety conditions at the workplaces with emphasis on the insalubrity, lethality and dangerousness of carcinogenic agents (asbestos, nuclear, silica) and other toxic substances such as POPs – Persistent Organic Pollutants mercury, among others. She founded the GIA-Grupo Interinstitutional of Asbestos and was manager of the State Program for the Banning of Asbestos. Currently retired, she is a health, labor and environmental consultant for workers’ organizations and victims of industrial processes. She founded the Brazilian Association of People Exposed to Asbestos (ABREA) and was one of the creators of the CONTREN-National Commission of the Workers on Nuclear Energy, which was involved with a relevant role during all antinuclear activities at Rio/92 (UNCED). She also coordinates the Virtual-Citizen Network for the Banning of Asbestos for Latin America and is a member of the Brazilian Environmental Justice Network. She was the vice-coordinator of the CEA-Committee for Asbestos Studies, which regulated the 162 ILO Convention to deal with the protection of workers exposed to asbestos. She is part of the Italian Academy of Sciences of the Work World (Collegium Ramazzini), which awarded her the Ramazzini Prize in November 2018. Her struggle has been recognized for several times receiving awards, including the Occupational Health of the American Public Health Association (APHA) in Chicago/1999; the title of “Anti-Asbestos G-Woman in Tokyo in 2004 and the Rachel LEE Jung-Lim Award in 2017 in South Korea. She was recognized for her work in favor of citizenship by the National Progressist Entrepreneurs Basis-PNBE, which awarded her as an Outstanding Citizen in 2001; she was also the winner of the Claudia 2001, which annually awards projects that contribute to improving the quality of life developed by women, as well the Personality in Engineering in 2012 and in 2018 received the 2017 FazDiferença (Makes the Difference) Prize from the prestigious Newspaper “O Globo. She also received commendations from the Order of Judicial Merit of Labor from the TST-Superior Labor Court (2014) and from the TRT-Regional Labor Court (2015).

Brent Kynoch is the Managing Director of the Environmental Information Association, headquartered just outside of Washington, DC in Chevy Chase, MD. He has been the Managing Director of the Association since 1996, but previously had served EIA in other volunteer roles on the Board of Directors as an officer, and ultimately as the President of EIA in 1988 and 1989. EIA has spent over 30 years at the forefront in providing its members with the information needed to remain knowledgeable, responsible and competitive in the environmental health and safety industry. Mr. Kynoch is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where he received a degree in mechanical engineering. He is called upon frequently as a speaker, as a writer and as an expert regarding environmental contaminants. He has testified before both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate regarding asbestos, and has written numerous articles on asbestos management and control.

Tom Laubenthal (US Training & Regulations) is the Director of Operations for the Southeast Region for AirQuest Environmental, Inc in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Many know Tom from his many years of work in the classroom with the The Environmental Institute in Marietta, GA. He has more than 37 years of industry service and is considered a nationally recognized expert within the asbestos and lead-based paint control industries. He has worked as a Technical Expert for the NIST/NVLAP PLM laboratory accreditation program since 1988; held a variety of leadership roles including as a past National President of the Environmental Information Association; served on a variety of national-level professional association committees and boards; including managing the complete revision of the EPA’s 1985 document “Guidance for Controlling Asbestos-Containing Materials in Buildings” known as the “EPA Purple Book.” He has served on EPA, NIOSH and NVLAP regulatory review panels, 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.

Richard Lemen, PhD, MSPH is a retired Assistant Surgeon General of the United States and also served as the Acting Director and the Deputy Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health before his retirement. He has been a practicing epidemiologist for more than forty years and has taught graduate level courses on environmental and occupational health issues, including asbestos, at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. He has also testified on behalf of asbestos victims; Dr. Lemen is a world-renowned author, speaker, and lecturer on this topic.

Carmen Lima is coordinator of the Quercus’s Waste Information Center, founder and Coordinator of SOS AMIANTO – Portuguese Asbestos Victim Support Group. She has a degree in Environmental Engineering, a postgraduate degree in Environmental Management and Sustainable Construction, and a Master in Planning and Sustainable Construction. She is attending the PhD course in Environmental Engineering, dedicated to the issue of Asbestos. She has participated as a speaker and moderator in several conferences and auditions in Portugal, Cape Verde, Belgium, Brazil and the USA. She frequently participates in television programs, interviews and articles for the media.

Toby MacDonald was born and raised on PEI, Canada, Toby graduated from the PEI School of Nursing in 1992, knowing that caring for people was her calling, an honour and a duty she took very seriously. Married and raised her family in Summerside, PEI. When word was leaked of asbestos and lead breaches that occurred with students present at her daughter’s school during major renovations, she acted. This is when her two greatest duties came together forging her passion in advocating for and implementing the TOSH Student Registry. She has since petitioned the government to no longer have students present when hazardous materials are being abated, and for better communication between parents, schools and government. Toby furthers her calling of helping her community by joining the Green Party Provincial Council to foster positive change.

Steven Markowitz, MD, DrPH, is an occupational medicine physician and epidemiologist, directs the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment at Queens College, City University of New York and is a member of the ADAO Science Advisory Board. He is Adjunct Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. He was educated at Yale University (BA) and Columbia University (MD and DrPH in epidemiology) and trained in internal medicine (Montefiore Medical Center) and occupational medicine (Mt. Sinai School of Medicine). With the United Steelworkers union, Dr. Markowitz directs the largest occupational lung cancer screening program in the United States (Worker Health Protection Program), using low-dose CT scanning to screen nearly 14,000 Department of Energy nuclear weapons workers for early lung cancer since 2000.. Dr. Markowitz served for 12 years as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine and was the Associate Editor of a major textbook, Environmental and Occupational Medicine, 4th Edition. He serves or has served on Federal EPA, NIOSH, NTP, and DOL Committees and Boards. Dr. Markowitz is the Medical Advisor to the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers.

Jacqueline M. Moline, M.D., M.Sc. is an Occupational Medicine specialist and Professor of Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and Prevention and Internal Medicine at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. She obtained her medical degree from the Pritzker School of Medicine of the University of Chicago. She completed residencies in Internal Medicine at Yale University and Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she obtained her Masters of Science degree. She is the former Director of the NIOSH funded New York/New Jersey Education and Research Center in Occupational Safety and Health. After 19 years on the faculty at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, she joined Northwell Health as the founding Chairperson of the Department of Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and Prevention. Dr. Moline continues to maintain a clinical practice, focusing on patients with occupational exposures such as asbestos. Since 2001, many of Dr. Moline’s endeavors have been centered on the medical evaluation and treatment of World Trade Center (WTC) responders. While at Mount Sinai she directed the WTC health program, which she now runs at Northwell Health in Queens, NY. In 2010, Dr. Moline was the recipient of the Kehoe Award of Merit from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine for significant contributions to research in the field of occupational and environmental medicine and she has received numerous awards for her service to WTC responders.

Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH is a professorial lecturer in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, and liaison to the ADAO Science and Prevention Advisory Boards. Her research includes assessment of worker health and safety laws and policies, and their effectiveness in protecting workers from illnesses, disability and death. She has published articles on strategies used by economic interests, including the asbestos industry, to manipulate scientific evidence to create uncertainty about health risks in order to delay protective regulatory action and compensation. Prior to her academic appointment, Dr. Monforton was a federal employee at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA, 1991-1995) and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA, 1996-2001). Dr. Monforton served on the special panels appointed by the West Virginia Governor to investigate the January 2006 and April 2010 coal mine disasters that killed a total of 41 workers. Dr. Monforton received the 2018 Advocate of the Year Award from the American Public Health Association (APHA), serves on the organization’s Action Board and in a leadership position with APHA’s Occupational Health and Safety Section. She was elected in 2015 as a fellow in the Collegium Ramazzini.

In 2009, Mavis Nye was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a consequence of the asbestos fibers that often coated her husband Ray’s uniform from the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham. She was told that she had 3 months to live. However, rather than accept this prognosis, Mavis decided to fight. She fought in treatment, and by getting involved in the MesoWarriors, an online support group that assists asbestos victims and their families. Today, almost nine years after the three months she was originally given to live, Mavis — and Ray — continue their work with the MesoWarriors, which allows Mavis to share her story across the UK and around the world giving hope to asbestos victims and demanding change from people with the power to create it. As she puts it, she has been given another chance at life so that she can help other sufferers.

Christine Oliver, MD, MPH, MSc is an adjunct professor in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Health in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto in Toronto, ON. She is a consultant to Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW). Dr. Oliver has an occupational and environmental medicine consulting practice in Brookline, MA. She was formerly an associate clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Department of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care Division) at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Oliver’s primary specialty is occupational and environmental medicine, with an emphasis on occupational lung disease. Dr. Oliver is a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini and has done research and published in the area of occupational lung disease, with a focus on asbestos-related disease. She has lectured frequently on this topic, including more recently the determination of risk for asbestos-related lung cancer. Dr. Oliver has testified before Congress and OSHA on issues related to asbestos and other workplace exposures. She has also testified as a medical expert on behalf and at the request of asbestos victims and their families.

Rory O’Neill, CMIOSH, FRSPH, Hazards Editor, is the occupational health and workplace safety adviser to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), represents unions at global health and safety negotiations, leading on hazardous substances, and coordinates an informal global union health and safety network. He played a pivotal role in the successful negotiations that led this year to the recognition of occupational health and safety as an International Labour Organisation (ILO) fundamental right at work. He is a visiting professor at Queen Mary University of London and for far too many decades has been editor of the not-for-profit workers’ health and safety publication Hazards magazine. Rory has been a trade union health and safety activist even longer, and exposed to the unforgivable harm caused by asbestos longer still – as a child, he saw relatives die of asbestos diseases and he started work in an asbestos lagging and roofing firm the day he left school. His twitter feed describes him as “a would-be slayer of capitalist dragons.” He’s still working on it.

Linda Reinstein is the President/CEO and Co-Founder of Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO). Reinstein became an activist when her husband, Alan, was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2003. She co-founded the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization in 2004, and now serves as President and CEO.  Reinstein has been a strong political voice for justice in every major asbestos-related issue. Reinstein, a highly sought-after international speaker, has frequently served as a Congressional witness and presented at the Department of Labor (OSHA), British House of Commons, United Nations Congress, American Public Health Association, and to other audiences around the world. Recognized as an expert with nearly 40 years of nonprofit experience in building and sustaining grassroots organizations, Reinstein specializes in developing, implementing, and leveraging integrated social media campaigns. Focused on national and international occupational and environmental disease prevention, Reinstein’s proficiency in the powerful advocacy space of online media has greatly increased the effectiveness of ADAO’s core mission of education, advocacy, and community support actions. She has won many prestigious awards including the Global Impact Award (2013), from the Independent Asbestos Training Providers; Bruce Vento Hope Builder Award (2011), from the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation; the highest level of the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for her 4,000 hours of volunteerism during her lifetime (2010); and the Heart and Soul Award in from the Manhattan Beach Women in Business Association (2005). Recently, after months of collaboration with experts in the U.S. and Australia, Reinstein spearheaded the launch of a new website, “Know Asbestos”, to educate about the dangers of asbestos exposure and prevention.

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 28 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 and conference exhibits, and even as legal evidence.

Barry Robson, the President of the Asbestos Disease Foundation of Australia (ADFA), became a Union delegate of the Waterside Workers Federation in 1970 and was elected as Senior Vice President of that Union in 1988. In 1995 he was elected Assistant Branch Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, a position he held until retirement from the workforce in 2003. From 1991 to 1995 he was a Councilor on Blacktown City Council. He became a delegate to ADFA in 1996 and was appointed President in 2002 and elected President in 2003, a position he holds today. He has been appointed to the following, Asbestos Research Institute in 2004, Federal Government Asbestos in Telstra Infrastructure in 2013 and Federal Asbestos Safely and Eradication Agency (ASEA) in 2013. Barry has been awarded three Life Memberships, Maritime Union of Australia, St Mary’s Baseball Club and Blacktown Mt Druitt Cardiac Support Group.

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.

Andrea Wolf, MD, MPH, is Director of the NY Mesothelioma Program and Associate Professor of Thoracic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.  She graduated Cum Laude from Princeton and earned highest honors at Harvard Medical School. She served as Chief Resident in Surgery at the MGH and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she completed a Thoracic Oncology Research Fellowship while earning her MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health.  She has expertise in surgery for pleural mesothelioma and VATS lobectomy, and research interests in mesothelioma, health care disparities, and lung cancer. She and her team at the NY Mesothelioma Program received the 2020 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Care Team Award. She has presented at numerous national and international meetings, is co-editor of the third edition of Sugarbaker’s Adult Chest Surgery and has published extensively on pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer. She has one son and loves to run.