Addy Alt-Holland, Ph.D.

Addy Alt-Holland, Ph.D. is associate professor at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM) in Boston, Massachusetts. She was assistant professor and a research associate at TUSDM, a post-doc associate at SUNY at Stony Brook, and a post-doc fellow at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Prior to that, she earned her Ph.D., with highest distinction, in molecular and cell biology from Bar-Ilan University, where she also received her M.Sc and B.Sc degrees.

As a full-time faculty member and a head of a cancer research lab, Addy mentors students, research interns, and residents from TUSDM and other academic institutions in New England and overseas. She serves as a reviewer for a range of scientific journals and is a member of multiple scientific-focused committees in national and patient-centered organizations. Currently, Addy is the president of the Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB) for 2022-2024. She is also a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the SIVB, for the 2020 to 2026 term.

Nancy Douglas, Ph.D.

Nancy Douglas, Ph.D. earned her bachelor’s degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from the University of Colorado and then participated in studies of photoreceptor proteins in plants at the Plant Gene Expression Center of the University of California, Berkeley and of HIV and SIV protein structure/function in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of the University of California, San Francisco. She went on to receive her Ph.D. in biochemistry, molecular and cell biology from Cornell University examining DNA replication in budding yeast. She then worked for 10 years in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell exploring how temperature and pH changes influence disease and microbial community dynamics in Caribbean corals. During that time, Dr. Douglas also acted as a scientific consultant to the Regulatory Testing Division of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals reviewing and commenting on proposed US and European chemical testing protocols and plans involving animals. She currently works in the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, developing optimized fluorescent proteins for biological imaging and detection.

John W. Harbell, Ph.D.

John Harbell, Ph.D. serves as the current chairperson of the IFER Scientific Advisory Board and is a former president of the Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB). His term as SIVB president ended in 2020. He earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Most recently he was the principal scientist at Mary Kay, Inc. and was responsible for directing pre-clinical and clinical evaluations and performing final safety clearance on cosmetic ingredients. He served as an internal and external consultant on the use of in vitro methods for preclinical safety and efficacy testing. Dr. Harbell partnered with external collaborators in bringing modern toxicological methods to the regulatory arena in China. He now serves as an independent consultant in product safety assessment with special emphasis on non-whole animal methods.

Dr. Harbell was co-founder, vice president and chief scientific officer at the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, Inc., where he provided scientific direction for laboratory-based programs and developed and designed in vitro bioassay programs for corporate clients to evaluate toxicology and efficacy. Dr. Harbell has also served on extramural panels (ECVAM Ocular Irritation Task Force and OECD Test Guideline task forces) supporting the promotion of in vitro methods in regulatory applications. He has been an active member and officer of the Society for In Vitro Biology where he has recently served as president and is an associate editor for their journal. He has an impressive list of published articles. Dr. Harbell retired from the USAR in 2001 after a distinguished military career, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Helena Hogberg, Ph.D.

Helena Hogberg, Ph.D. is a staff scientist at the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) within the Division of Translational Toxicology (DTT), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). She is conducting research drawing on her broad expertise in applying in vitro methods to assessing developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) potential of chemicals.

Previously she was the Deputy Director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) within the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School for Public Health where she developed 3D organotypic models, and transcriptomics and metabolomics approaches.

She received her Ph.D. in toxicology from Stockholm University but performed her research at the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) in Ispra, Italy where she developed new in vitro approaches to detect chemicals with DNT potential, with a focus on gene expression and electrical activity recordings.

She serves on the expert group for DNT of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); the Scientific Advisory Board for the European Commission-funded Horizon 2020 grant, “Novel Testing Strategies for Endocrine Disruptors in the Context of Developmental NeuroToxicity (ENDpoiNTs)” and the Michael J Fox foundation.

Previously she served the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Scientific Advisory Panel for the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; on new approach methodologies for DNT assessment and for AxoSim Inc. a company providing in vitro neurological platforms.

Borko Jovanovic, Ph.D.

Borko Jovanovic, Ph.D., retired in 2021 from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University as an associate professor in Preventive Medicine, Division of Biostatistics. He had worked there since September 1999. From 1989-1999, he was a faculty member at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

While at Northwestern University, Dr. Jovanovic served as director of biostatistics and bioinformatics for the SPORE in prostate cancer at the RH Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute. He was the director of biostatistics for several submissions of SPORE in lymphoma, and a member of the biostatistics group for the SPORE submission in breast cancer. For 10 years, he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee at the General Clinical Research Center funded by the National Institutes of Health.

His teaching responsibilities included developing a course in statistical consulting at UIC, a course in phase I, II and III clinical trials, and teaching a course in probability.

Dr. Jovanovic is a lifetime member of the American Statistical Association, past president of the Chicago chapter of the American Statistical Association, a representative to the national Council of Chapters, and has been a member of the CCASA Board since 2005.

Richard J. Miller, Ph.D.

Richard J. Miller obtained his Ph.D. from Cambridge University. In 1975 he was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology of the University of Chicago, where he conducted research for 25 years. In 2001 he moved to the Department of Pharmacology at Northwestern University, where he is now Professor Emeritus. Dr. Miller's research has involved understanding the way that psychotropic drugs interact with the nervous system. He has published more than 500 scientific papers and four books. His latest book critiques the use of animals in biomedical research and discusses the many alternatives now available for conducting state of the art research that involves humans rather than animals.

Pamela Osenkowski, Ph.D.

Pamela Osenkowski, Ph.D. is a science advisor for the National Anti-Vivisection Society and joined the IFER SAB in 2012. Dr. Osenkowski earned her bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in cancer biology at Wayne State University. She conducted her postdoctoral studies in Alzheimer’s disease at Harvard Medical School and later obtained a faculty position at Michigan State University-College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is currently a senior lecturer in the Biology Department at Loyola University Chicago, where her teaching efforts are focused in the areas of genetics and cellular biology.

Sarah Pagni, Ph.D.

Sarah Pagni, Ph.D. is an assistant professor and biostatistician at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Mount Holyoke College, a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in microbiology from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and an MPH with a concentration in quantitative methods from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

At Tufts, Dr. Pagni collaborates with pre- and post-doctoral students, faculty, and staff on study design and statistical analysis on research projects from a variety of fields including public health, dental education, periodontology, and cancer biology. She serves as a peer reviewer and statistical reviewer for several dental journals.

Alicia N. Pate, Ph.D.

Alicia Pate, Ph.D. earned her bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from the University of Missouri at Columbia and her Ph.D. in Pharmacological and Physiological Sciences from Saint Louis University. She spent many years in the pharmaceutical industry in research and development, quality control, and medical affairs before returning to academia in 2014. Alicia’s teaching efforts focused on medical anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology, and she conducted research focused on sex-specific differences in cardiovascular and metabolic regulation. She served as the research and MSMS coordinator for Ponce Health Sciences University School of Medicine and was awarded the American Physiological Society’s Science Policy Advocacy Fellowship in 2019. Alicia is currently the Director of Physiology Education at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. 

Woojung Shin, Ph.D.

Woojung Shin, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), in the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering. She earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Chemical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, co-affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Shin was a previous IFER graduate fellowship awardee. Her research aims to better understand host-microbiome crosstalk in human disease milieus and develop microbiome-based therapeutics by applying engineering principles. She joined the Scientific Advisory Board in 2023.

Lauren Stein, Ph.D.

Lauren Stein, Ph.D., earned her B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Missouri and her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Physiology from Saint Louis University. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, where she investigated the neural mechanisms that control energy balance. Dr. Stein previously worked as a bioinformatics scientist at Spatial Genomics and served as an advocacy fellow with the American Physiological Society. Her career spans more than 10 years in basic biomedical research and focuses on utilizing innovative and ethical methodologies to advance the field toward alternatives to animal models. She now serves as the Director of Science and Research Programs for the National Anti-Vivisection Society.

Sherry L. Ward, Ph.D., MBA, EMS

Sherry L. Ward, Ph.D. is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Global Campus and a consultant at BioTred Solutions.

Dr. Ward has many years of experience as a scientific grant reviewer for various private and federal grant programs and was honored to serve as a proposal reviewer for the final year of the NIST Advanced Technology Program.

Dr. Ward holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in biochemistry from Pennsylvania and Michigan State Universities, respectively, and has conducted research in various fields, including vascular cell biology, prostaglandin enzymology, antibody and protein chemistry, molecular immunology, human ocular cell biology, and in vitro toxicology.

As a staff scientist at the Gillette Company in the 1990s, Dr. Ward developed and characterized the first human conjunctival epithelial cell lines and developed an extensive program of industry-academic research collaborations to study human models and mechanisms of eye irritation. She also developed and managed the first prospectively planned interlaboratory validation study based on ICCVAM guidelines, which assessed the performance of the HCE-T human cell-based corneal model for predicting eye irritation. Although the results were very promising, the company submitted only the pre-validation results to ICCVAM. Several similar corneal models now have OECD Test Guidelines. While working in ocular toxicology, Dr. Ward served on several ICCVAM peer review panels, was a member of the ILSI-HESI Animal Alternatives Task Force, organized and participated in a number of ARVO research symposia, and presented and published in this area. She has also published numerous online articles on the animal alternatives website AltTox.org.