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Haley & Aldrich expands human health and ecological risk assessment practice with five integral hires

Burlington, Mass., February 25, 2019 – Haley & Aldrich announced today the significant expansion of its human health risk assessment practice with the addition of key staff, including industry expert Adrienne LaPierre as Principal Consultant and Toxicologist, Todd Bernhardt and Susan Shiu as Technical Experts/Senior Risk Assessors, Ruth Arestides as Senior Technical Specialist/Risk Assessor, and Gunjan Sikri as Technical Specialist/Risk Assessor.

The new additions complement the company’s current human health and risk assessment capabilities and expand its presence nationally, particularly on the West Coast. With the addition of the new practitioners, Haley & Aldrich will provide even more comprehensive risk assessment solutions for its clients in the electric, gas, energy, real estate developers, manufacturing, and aerospace markets. The additional staff also strengthen the company’s vapor intrusion practice.

“Adrienne, Todd, Susan, Ruth, and Gunjan each bring a strong skill set crucial to providing our clients with comprehensive risk assessment services,” said Marcel Guay, Chief Operating Officer at Haley & Aldrich. “Collectively, the team brings decades of toxicology, human health, and ecological risk assessment experience. They are each experts in their field and we are confident that our clients will gain tremendous value from their expertise and ability to continually seek new ways to solve complex risk-based and regulatory challenges.”

Background on Haley & Aldrich’s new risk assessment practitioners:

Adrienne LaPierre has over 25 years of experience in environmental consulting, with a focus on toxicology and human health risk assessment. She has managed over 50 multi-pathway risk assessments for petroleum release sites, Superfund sites, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act facilities, manufactured gas plant sites, and various types of industrial properties. LaPierre has extensive experience in California including providing strategic, risk-based guidance for numerous industrial clients during the investigation, remediation, and closure stages of projects, and successfully negotiating cost-effective, risk-based closure strategies with California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Toxic Substances Control and the Regional Water Quality Control Boards. She has detailed understanding of the numerous California regulatory programs and risk assessment guidance, including California’s AB2588 Air Toxics Hot Spots Program and Proposition 65.

LaPierre is on the forefront of evolving technical health risk assessment issues and is skilled in helping disparate parties find common ground in solving complex technical environmental problems. She brings exceptional risk communication skills to all projects and is adept at leading community meetings to explain complex technical health risk issues to public audiences and stakeholders.

LaPierre is a member of the Society for Risk Analysis and the Groundwater Resources Association of California. She has an M.S. degree in Environmental Health Sciences from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a B.Sc. degree in Environmental Toxicology from the University of California at Davis.

Todd Bernhardt specializes in toxicology and human health risk assessment, with over 20 years of consulting experience focused on multi-chemical, multi-pathway human health risk assessment projects, specifically under the regulatory oversight of the California Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Toxic Substances Control, and Regional Water Quality Control Boards. Bernhardt has completed human health risk assessments for Navy sites, solvent release sites, power plants, utility service stations, and former manufactured gas plant sites, with evaluation and interpretation of the vapor intrusion pathway being a key component of most projects. Bernhardt has also conducted several consumer product risk assessments for compliance with Proposition 65 and has provided technical support for testimony in toxics-related litigation. Bernhardt has an M.S. in Environmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment from Duke University and a B.A. in Biochemistry from Occidental College.

Susan Shiu has more than 25 years of experience in environmental consulting focused on human health risk assessment and analytical data management and validation. Shiu has managed or performed multi-pathway risk assessments for Navy sites, solvent release sites, former manufacturing gas plant sites, and various types of industrial properties and proposed school sites. She is highly adept at controlling costs and managing schedules during the preparation of multiple risk assessment documents as well as effectively responding to comments raised by regulatory agencies during the agency review process. Shiu has a B.S. in Biochemistry with a minor in Environmental Toxicology from the University of California at Davis.

Ruth Arestides takes a creative problem-solving approach to project management integral to human health risk assessment teams. Her project experience ranges from authoring stand-alone technical reports to large collaborative endeavors involving multiple consulting firms. Arestides has prepared multi-pathway risk assessments for land designated for redevelopment at former military bases and manufactured gas plant sites. She has managed risk assessments including initial database review, fate and transport modeling, completion of quantitative human health risk assessments, and drafts of technical reports. Arestides has an M.S. in Environmental Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Arkansas.

Gunjan Sikri specializes in analyzing and evaluating data to quantify potential risks and hazards to human health and ecological communities. Her project experience includes developing conceptual site models, researching and assembling inputs for exposure and food-web models, and interpreting results to draft technical reports for a diverse set of clients in defense, chemical, and utilities sectors across the U.S. She has also supported risk assessments for consumer product companies to determine compliance under California’s Proposition 65. Sikri has an M.S. in Environmental Systems and Management from Johns Hopkins University and a B.Eng. in Environmental Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering.

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