SOT is pleased to showcase the five newly elected members of the Awards Committee: Patrick Allard, PhD; Brittany L. Baisch, PhD, DABT; Suzanne E. Fenton, PhD; Erin P. Hines, PhD, DABT; and Jacqueline Kinyamu-Akunda, DVM, PhD. The Awards Committee is charged with reviewing all suggestions and recommendations regarding the awards it has been designated by Council to confer and with selecting the recipient or recipients for each award.
Patrick Allard
Dr. Allard is a recognized scholar, based at University of California Los Angeles, whose work resides at the intersection of toxicology, genetics, and epigenetics. This has been made possible by his extensive training in molecular biology, toxicology, genetics, and developmental biology through his studies at the University of Paris, McGill University, and Harvard Medical School. His primary research leverages various model organisms and systems and advances in multi-’omics to elucidate the impact of environmental exposures on biological function across the life course and across generations.
Dr. Allard’s work has been published in numerous high-profile journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Cell Reports, PLOS Genetics, and Environmental Health Perspectives. Additionally, his work has been recognized by multiple awards and grants, including a Colgate-Palmolive research grant, a Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Research grant, and a Burroughs Wellcome Innovations in Regulatory Science Award. Since 2020, Dr. Allard has served as Associate Editor of Environmental Health Perspectives.
Since joining in 2008, Dr. Allard has an extensive record of SOT service, most notably as Chair of the Collaborative Conferences Committee, President of the Stem Cells Specialty Section, and as a member of the Education Committee where he focused on international educational opportunities. Within SOT and at his home institution, Dr. Allard is a passionate advocate for mentoring, diversity, and inclusion and has presented at several SOT mentoring and diversity-focused sessions during the Annual Meeting and ToxExpo.
Goals for SOT
I am excited about the opportunity to keep contributing to the SOT mission. I am particularly passionate about education, mentoring, diversity, and inclusion and see awards as a unique opportunity to recognize talent at all steps of someone’s journey and career. Talent and success can take on many forms, and it is my goal to (1) promote an inclusive environment where potential candidates feel empowered to apply to SOT awards; (2) develop new ways to continue honoring SOT awardees throughout the year, i.e. beyond the time of the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo; and (3) assess the needs of the SOT community for new award mechanisms. It is an honor to help support the success of the SOT community through my work on this Committee.
Brittany L. Baisch
Dr. Baisch is the Regulatory Toxicology Lead at Enko, a crop health company that designs safe and sustainable solutions to farmers’ biggest crop threats from pest resistance to new diseases. She is also an adjunct professor at Western Connecticut State University in the Chemistry Department. Prior to her role at Enko, she built and led the North American toxicology program for laundry and home care products as the Research Fellow–Toxicology at Henkel and had begun those efforts in her prior role of Principal Toxicologist for the Sun Products Corporation.
Dr. Baisch began her career in the food industry as a toxicologist at the Kraft Heinz Company. She holds three bachelor’s degrees from Western Connecticut State University in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Spanish and has MS and PhD degrees from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Molecular Toxicology and Environmental Medicine. Dr. Baisch is a Diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology (ABT) and serves on the Board of Directors of ABT.
Since joining SOT in 2010, Dr. Baisch has held several elected and appointed leadership positions, most recently serving on the Education and Career Development Committee and in the presidential chains of Women in Toxicology (WIT) Special Interest Group and the Sustainable Chemicals through Contemporary Toxicology Specialty Section. With her WIT service—first as Graduate Student Representative, then Secretary/Treasurer, and finally on the presidential chain—she had the pleasure of identifying and facilitating the award candidate packages of outstanding female applicants. Through this experience over the past decade, she has a thorough understanding of the awards’ criteria and the value of upholding the standard of awarding the most excellent candidates according to processes.
In Dr. Baisch’s spare time, she enjoys volunteering within the Connecticut community. She supports award application review processes as a member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities Foundation, which sponsors and disseminates scholarship funds to deserving candidates across 17 institutions in Connecticut. These volunteer opportunities have included fundraising activities, promoting sponsorship to support awards and endowments, and publishing communications to encourage applicants. She has a passion for service and recognizing the contributions others make in both scientific and leadership capacities.
Goals for SOT
My goal is to uphold the standard of the award review process, including evaluating candidates against specific criteria such that the most deserving candidates are awarded the Society’s prestigious recognitions. In cases where a candidate is not awarded, I am a strong advocate of providing feedback so that informed decisions can be made to update or resubmit candidates’ packages. In addition, I would like to enhance our mechanisms of outreach and advertisement for awards so that each award has a diverse pool of qualified and excellent candidates.
Suzanne E. Fenton
Dr. Fenton was employed in the federal government for 25 years (US Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) and was recently recruited to North Carolina State University as Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Center for Human Health and the Environment.
Dr. Fenton has been active in the US Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) Society, where she has served as a Councilor and on the organizing committee of two recent national meetings. She has been an active member of the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention (BDRP) for more than 15 years, serving as Chair of the Awards Committee and Vice-Chair of the Science Committee while serving on the Communication Coordination Committee and Publications Committee. She also served on the Editorial Board of the BDRP journal, Birth Defects Research, for more than 10 years and has served as an Associate Editor for Environmental Health Perspectives since 2017. She continues to review for many other top environmental health and toxicology-based journals, including Toxicological Sciences.
Dr. Fenton has been working with the SOT Women in Toxicology Special Interest Group nomination team for the last two years and has written many successful nominations and supporting letters for SOT member and trainee awardees; she is well-versed in the criteria for basing these awards. Dr. Fenton joined SOT in 2001 and has served as a Councilor for the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section.
Goals for SOT
My goals are to (1) make sure that the decisions made by the Committee are fair and well-informed; (2) increase the diversity of awardees by reaching out to my many colleagues in academic, government, industry, and nonprofit organizations to encourage them to nominate their colleagues or themselves (and help them think of letter writers) when they might not otherwise—I would like to see increased nominations for individuals representing historically black colleges and universities and state and federal policy-based organization representatives; and (3) work hard with my fellow Committee members to select individuals that are respected, impactful, and have “moved the needle” in the specific category that they have been nominated.
Erin P. Hines
Dr. Hines is an experienced Board Certified Toxicologist with a demonstrated history of working in the federal government (US Environmental Protection Agency [US EPA], National Aeronautics and Space Administration), academia (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center [LSUHSC]), and the Good Laboratory Practice industry (Chrisope). She is a diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology with extensive environmental toxicology background.
Dr. Hines began her career with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) focused in physiology at LSUHSC. She is experienced in developmental and reproductive toxicology work with laboratory animals and epidemiologic studies, as well as in support of US EPA Clean Air and Safe Drinking Water policy decisions. She worked for 11 years generating the Integrated Science Assessment documents in support of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards as mandated by the Clean Air Act. Dr. Hines has extensive familiarity with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey panel of environmental chemicals, especially as an expert in partitioning of environmental chemicals to human and rodent milk, with extensive understanding of mammary gland development. She has 20 years of expertise working with perfluorinated chemicals from work in the lab with experimental animal models and epidemiologic work, as well as generation of US EPA Drinking Water Health Advisories for PFOA and PFOS.
Dr. Hines is internationally recognized as joint WHO/FAO expert and received an SOT grant for an international ToxScholar visit. She has a history of collaborative work across multiple federal agencies and across sites. Dr. Hines has been recognized for excellence at all levels of her career from National Science Foundation Young Scholar in high school to Presidential Scholarship Awardee and All-Conference Athlete in College to US EPA Silver, Bronze, and Scientific and Technological Achievement awardee.
Dr. Hines joined SOT in 2004 and currently serves on the Board of Publications and as part of the North Carolina Higher Education Faculty and Mentor Network. She previously served as Chair of the Committee on Diversity Initiatives, President of the North Carolina Regional Chapter, and Secretary/Treasurer of the Mixtures Specialty Section.
Goals for SOT
I would like to increase the impact that the Society has in communities by increasing its undergraduate education footprint. I would like to see an expansion of opportunities for and recognition of early- and mid-career scientists.
Jacqueline Kinyamu-Akunda
Jacqueline Kinyamu-Akunda is a Senior Director at Johnson and Johnson Innovative Medicines (J&J) and serves as the Nonclinical Safety, Therapeutic Area Lead for Oncology. She has a key role in shaping the nonclinical strategy and plans, issue resolution, and nonclinical content of clinical and regulatory submissions for a portfolio that spans target entry to registration. Dr. Kinyamu-Akunda’s notable contributions include guiding selection of pharmaceutical drug candidates, enabling first-in-human studies, and approval of multiple innovative medicines for a diverse range of therapeutic modalities.
Prior to joining J&J in 2020, Dr. Kinyamu-Akunda worked at the Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research and Eli Lilly and Company in various roles of increasing responsibilities and as a Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Program in Toxicology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
Since joining SOT in 2005, Dr. Kinyamu-Akunda has served as President and Councilor for the then-Comparative and Veterinary Specialty Section and was a member of the Executive Committee that oversaw the merger of the Specialty Section with the Toxicologic and Exploratory Pathology Specialty Section to form the Comparative Toxicology, Pathology, and Veterinary Specialty Section.
Goals for SOT
I am honored and enthusiastic about the opportunity to serve. My experiences as a member of and contributor in various leadership capacities of SOT and my training and professional career as a toxicologist provide insight and knowledge that inspires my willingness to do more. It will be a privilege to contribute to an effort that enables the recognition of outstanding achievements by individuals who have made extraordinary contributions in toxicology.
I am committed to and a supporter of considering all voices and that unique perspectives are heard as we participate in the awards selection process. By working with colleagues on the Awards Committee, I will encourage consideration of a diverse slate of highly qualified candidates that represents various sectors, our global presence, and the diverse membership of SOT. I believe that the continued recognition of excellence in toxicology and the emerging talent in our field are essential to our continued success.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog is based on the biosketch provided by electees for use as part of the election ballot. These citations are being shared under the Secretary’s name as part of their official duties and should not be interpreted as their personal or professional opinions.
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