About PANWAT

Dr. Lisa Truong is currently an Assistant Professor (Senior Research) in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, the Deputy Director of the Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory, and Director of Zebrafish Biomedical Research Core at Oregon State University, where her research program goal is to utilize the zebrafish model to build computational models to be less reliant on animal testing and conduct toxicity-testing based on toxicity pathways. She received her PhD in Toxicology at Oregon State in 2012 and was a postdoctoral fellow at US EPA-National Center for Computational Toxicology. Dr. Truong has been conducting research utilizing the zebrafish model for the last 15 years. Dr. Truong is author/co-author of 56 publications and has mentored over a dozen students. She has been a member of SOT since 2007 and has served as a Graduate Student Representative and Councilor of PANWAT.

Dr. Tina Rogers is Senior Technical Director in the Laboratory Testing Division at WuXi AppTec, Inc., where she provides scientific and technical support to the Business Development Team and WuXi clients. She has spent her career in toxicology in the preclinical CRO industry, mostly in senior management roles. Dr. Rogers received a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Pathobiology from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1987 and continued training as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Medicine at Tufts University. Additionally, she received an MBA from Auburn University in 2005. Dr. Rogers has been a member of SOT since 1996. She has publications and presentations in the areas of sepsis, autoimmune disease, analytical cytometry, gene therapy, toxicology, and immunology. Her interests include regulatory toxicology for pharmaceuticals and mentoring students and junior level staff to increase awareness of opportunities in the preclinical drug development industry.

Dr. Yijie Geng is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, where he uses the zebrafish model in combination with high-throughput screening and deep learning to study the environmental impacts on mental health and diseases. He received his doctorate in Cell and Developmental Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2015 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard in 2016 and at the University of Utah from 2017–2022. He is an author/co-author of 10 publications. He has been a member of SOT since 2023.

Dr. Andrew Yeh is a Senior Toxicologist at Gradient where he critically evaluates toxicological, epidemiological, and mechanistic data in support of causation analyses in litigation and human health risk assessment projects. He also conducts chemical risk assessments as part of safety evaluations of consumer products and medical devices. He received his doctorate in environmental toxicology from the University of Washington (UW) in 2017 and was a Senior Fellow in the Department of Radiology at the UW School of Medicine from 2017 to 2018. Dr. Yeh is the author/co-author of 12 peer-reviewed publications, one book chapter, and one quality assurance project plan for the Washington State Department of Ecology. He has been a member of the SOT since 2014 and served as Senior Councilor of PANWAT from 2023–2024. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.

Dr. John Clarke is an Associate Professor at Washington State University Health Sciences campus in Spokane, WA. He received his BS in Biology from Brigham Young University-Idaho and his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Oregon State University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arizona. His research interests and expertise are focused on elucidating the mechanisms of inter-individual variability in xenobiotic metabolism, disposition, and toxicity. This includes research with environmental contaminants and pharmaceuticals. He has been funded through the Department of Defense pre-doctoral fellowship program, through the NIEHS-funded Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center pilot project and career development awards, and through an NIEHS-funded R00. He has previously served in SOT as the Postdoctoral Representative to the Mechanism Specialty Section (2012–2013) and as a Councilor for the SOT Postdoctoral Assembly Executive Board (2014–2015). He earned 1st and 2nd place for the prestigious Mechanisms Specialty Section Gabriel L Plaa Education Award in 2013 and 2014, respectively. He served in the Councilor chain (Junior to Senior) in the Mechanisms Specialty Section (2019–2021).

Dr. Kari Gaither received her BSc in Biology from The Evergreen State College and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Washington State University, where she studied the interplay between cellular stress and microRNA modulation of a transcription factor important in cancer. Her current field is Exposure Sciences. She uses activity-based proteomics and pharmacokinetics to assess interindividual differences in phase I and II metabolism of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in human liver and is also interested in the contribution of epigenetics to human health exposure risk. As a graduate student Dr. Gaither served in a variety of leadership roles advocating for increased diversity in STEM and participated in STEM outreach activities whenever possible. Dr. Gaither joined SOT in 2021 and attended her first annual meeting. She is excited to become involved in PANWAT, particularly in a capacity to further outreach efforts to undergraduate students. In doing so, she hopes to attract diverse individuals in the region to consider the exciting field of toxicology as a future career option.

Dr. Eric Ditzel is a Toxicology Specialist at 3M where he is responsible for ensuring the safety of products for the Consumer Business Group for Post-it, Scotch, Command, Bondo, Filtrete, and other 3M brands. He received his doctorate in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Arizona in 2015 where he studied the effects of fetal arsenic exposure on the development of cardiometabolic disease. Following that, Dr. Ditzel joined Ecolab where he managed innovation and registration toxicology matters primarily focused on biocides and food contact materials. Dr. Ditzel has been a member of SOT since 2013 and is certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology. He was the Chair of the Antimicrobial Exposure Joint Venture and previously served on the Quat Residue Group, Peroxy Compounds Task Force, Antimicrobial Exposure Assessment Task Force, and the US EPA Animal Alternatives Stakeholder group and as a Councilor for the Northland Chapter of the Society of Toxicology.

Dr. Lindsey St. Mary is a NIEHS Postdoctoral Trainee at Oregon State University, where she is screening and categorizing 6,000 distinct chemicals found in the environment and consumer products or used in manufacturing processes in order to assess phenotypic and transcriptional changes relevant to human disease. She received her doctorate in Life Sciences from Heriot-Watt University in 2020 and continued as a postdoctoral research associate at Heriot-Watt University from 2020–2021. She served as Postdoctoral Representative for PANWAT in 2022 and 2023, President of the Oregon State University Postdoctoral Association (OPA) 2021–2023, Postdoctoral Representative for her department’s TeamTOX organization, and Postdoctoral Representative/SRP trainee coordinator for the SRP Student/Postdoc/Alumni Network (SPAN) from 2022–2023. She is author/co-author on 6 publications, with 2 currently in preparation. She has been a member of the SOT from 2013–2015 and 2021–present.

Dr. Rebekah Kendall received her BA in Chemistry from Carroll College (2003) and a PhD in Toxicology from the University of Montana (2023). As a NIEHS F31 predoctoral fellow, she investigated lysosomal function in macrophages exposed to crystalline silica particles and demonstrated that modifying lysosomal function with anti-depressants or through ion channel modifications effectively reduced inflammation caused by particle exposures in macrophages. Dr. Kendall is currently a postdoctoral researcher for Dr. Andrij Holian in the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Montana where her work focuses on age-dependent changes to sphingolipid metabolism in macrophages as a possible mechanism of increased inflammation in aging. This work utilizes in vivo exposures of inhaled particles in a mouse model and -omics analysis of isolated alveolar macrophages. She is the author/co-author of 5 peer-reviewed publications. She has been a member of SOT since 2021 and has served the SOT as both the Vice Student Representative and Graduate Student Representative for the Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Specialty Section as well as serving as a member of the Graduate Student Leadership Committee for 2 years.

Sarah Kim is a fourth-year PhD student and T32 trainee in Dr. Julia Yue Cui’s lab at University of Washington. She graduated from University of Washington with a BS in Biochemistry in 2017. Her current research focuses mainly on maternal exposure to flame retardants, especially polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and the effects on the gut-liver axis and metabolic syndromes. Ms. Kim became an SOT member in 2019 and received 1st place for the prestigious Mechanisms Specialty Section Carl S. Smith Graduate Student Award in 2023.

Kyle Burns is a third-year PhD candidate at Oregon State University, where he studies the effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in primary organotypic human bronchial epithelial cells and in a co-culture model with macrophages. He received his BS in biochemistry from Ohio State University in 2021 and his MS in toxicology from Oregon State University in 2023. Mr. Burns has been an NIEHS T32 trainee at Oregon State University since September 2022. He joined SOT in February 2023.