PFAS Issues and Responses: Where do we go from here?

This is the second installment of a two-part series on PFAS: Emerging Contaminants and Ongoing Injustices. The first part was our March 26 screening of the documentary, Nuchi nu Miji: Okinawa's Water of Life. 

Event Description: PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a family of thousands of manufactured chemicals that have been used in industry and common consumer products since the 1940s. Termed “forever chemicals”, they persist and accumulate over time and have been detected across our water, air, and food systems, our homes and workplaces, and in our bodies. These negative impacts have been concentrated in historically marginalized low-income and communities of color. This event will convene a panel of experts to present the state of the science around PFAS exposure and its health impacts, and the role of public policy in implementing forward-thinking solutions that remediate current risks while mitigating future harms of this multi-generational social justice and environmental health issue. Speakers represent a broad range of sectors navigating the multidisciplinary and omnipresent challenges that PFAS poses and will speak to experiences in Connecticut and on the regional and national levels. 

Panelists: 
Ray Frigon is the Director of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's (DEEP) Remediation Division, Bureau of Water Protection and Land Reuse. Ray is one of DEEP’s key leads in addressing PFAS in the state and co-chaired the Remediation Committee of Governor Lamont’s Interagency PFAS Task Force in 2019. Over the course of his 33-year career at DEEP, Ray has worked almost exclusively in the Remediation Division and has extensive experience in the investigation and remediation of the most complex environmental contamination in the State and the redevelopment of contaminated properties. He also served as the Assistant Director for the Remediation Division from 2018-2022 and was previously a Supervising Environmental Analyst for the Site Operations Unit where he was responsible for overseeing long-term care of state-operated landfills and decommissioning of state-owned dams.  Before entering state service, Ray worked as a chemist for two commercial environmental laboratories. Ray holds a BS in Environmental Earth Sciences from Eastern Connecticut State University.

Dr. Clare Pace (PhD, MPH) is an Assistant Project Scientist at UC Berkeley, where she co-leads the Water Equity Science Shop (WESS)--a community-engaged research partnership that supports equitable implementation of California’s Human Right to Water law and Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Pace received a doctorate in Environmental Science and Health in 2017 and a Master of Public Health in 2014 from the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research seeks to identify strategies to reduce environmental injustice related to water quality and water access.

Dr. Laurel Schaider is a Senior Scientist in Environmental Chemistry and Engineering at Silent Spring Institute in Newton, MA, where she studies exposures to PFAS chemicals from drinking water, diet, and consumer products and related adverse health effects. She works with communities to develop research studies and resources to address their concerns about chemical exposures. Dr. Schaider leads the Massachusetts PFAS and Your Health Study, part of a larger Multi-Site Study funded and coordinated by CDC and ATSDR in communities across the US. She also leads the PFAS-REACH study and co-leads the Community Engagement Core for the University of Rhode Island STEEP Superfund Research Program. Before joining Silent Spring Institute, she was a research associate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Schaider earned her master's and PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering Science from MIT.   

Dr. Helen Siegel is a CRESSLE Postdoctoral Fellow at the  Environmental Science Institute of The University of Texas at Austin. Helen received her Ph.D. in Environmental Science from the Yale School of the Environment, where she worked together with rural communities in northern Appalachia to understand water quality in regions of historic and modern fossil fuel extraction. Her research focuses on the interaction between water quality and public health through the lens of environmental justice and community resilience. Helen has experience with water quality analyses, climate modeling, and working with varied stakeholders. As part of Project CRESSLE, Helen hopes to work with Austin community members to identify key agents of contamination impacting Austin communities and develop new tools to empower community members.

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