Mr. Hallinger’s educational background includes a B.S. degree in Ecology from
Penn State University and an M.S. degree
in Environmental Science from Rutgers University.
He has spent the past 20 plus years in the environmental field as a
consultant dealing with various aspects of the natural environment, including
ecotoxicological assessments, ecological evaluations, and ecological habitat
enhancement/restoration work aimed at increasing biodiversity and
sustainability. His recent
professional responsibilities include client and staff management, staff
mentoring, strategic and technical planning, conceptual design, project
implementation, and budget management.
In addition to his professional career as an environmental scientist, other past
experience includes an internship at the Peace Valley Nature Center, where he
served as an environmental educator and naturalist, and volunteering at the
Mercer County Wildlife Center, a non-profit wildlife rehabilitation center.
More recently, Mr. Hallinger has served on the Board of Directors of the
Steamboat Floating Classroom, Inc., a Princeton-based non-profit environmental
education organization, where he conducts environmental education activities
related to the Delaware River watershed and assists with boat maintenance on a
volunteer basis.
His scientific research background includes conducting small mammal research on
woodlots in central Pennsylvania, laboratory osmoregulation experiments with
turtles, bioaccumulation studies with hard clams, seed bank regeneration in
wetlands, and research on acidified lakes in northwestern New Jersey.
Jim works for Colgate-Palmolive in the Environmental, Occupational Health &
Safety department, which is a perfect fit for him, as he’s always been
interested in the environmental sciences. His education has served him well in
his current position. He studied Biology in College and is currently working on
a masters degree in Environmental Management.
Since working in the EOHS department He’s become more interested in how industry
manages concerns regarding environmental toxicity. He says, “A company like
Colgate-Palmolive is particularly concerned since many of our products end up
going down the drain to wastewater treatment, and later into the environment.
I'm happy to be part of a department that investigates our formulation
choices in order to minimize the impact we may have on the environment.” Jim has
conducted several environmental evaluations of raw materials, and has had the
opportunity to be involved with a life cycle assessment project. He recalls that
conducting a life cycle assessment has proved to be very challenging and
fascinating. Through conversations with other scientists and engineers within
the company and at conferences Jim has gained a deeper appreciation of the
complexity of environmental issues surrounding the actions of industry.
Jim is aware that SETAC is a global society with several geographical units,
however he didn't know that there were local chapters within North America as
well. He was excited to hear about
the Hudson/Delaware Chapter since it is the region where He both works and
lives. He states, “It's a pleasure to be able to travel only a short distance to
meet like-minded professionals and to be able to learn from and share
experiences with them. I would like to serve on the Board of Directors so that I
may help ensure the continued existence of this valuable forum and to share my
enthusiasm for environmental science/toxicology as well as expand my knowledge
in the field.”
Eileen Murphy
currently works as a manager in the Division of Water Supply with the NJ Dept.
of Environmental Protection. Before
that, she served as the Director of the NJDEP’s Division of Science, Research
and Technology from 2004-2009 and as Assistant Director from 2000-2004.
For 11 years, she worked as a research scientist within the group.
Dr. Murphy
has focused much of her career on drinking water science, including contaminant
occurrence and fate & transport. She
provides leadership and direction to the drinking water program on the issue of
unregulated organic contaminants in drinking water, having authored the
Interested Party Review discussion paper outlining various technical and policy
recommendations to address the occurrence of these contaminants in drinking
water. She has worked with
colleagues from US Geological Survey and other research groups to investigate
the occurrence, fate and transport, and toxicity of low levels of these
unregulated contaminants in both drinking water and wastewaters.
She has testified before the state legislature on this issue.
Dr. Murphy
has served on the NJ Drinking Water Quality Institute for 20 years (four years
as a voting member) and has been invited to testify before the Clean Air
Council, Drinking Water Quality Institute, Environmental Justice Task Force, and
Mercury Task Force among others. She
has chaired the state’s Chromium Workgroup, the PFOA Task Force and Indoor Air
Quality Workgroup and currently chairs the Standards Coordination Committee,
which she co-founded.
Mindy Pensak is a Biological Technical Assistance Coordinator for the Region 2
EPA CERCLA program. In this position Ms. Pensak participates as member of the
national EPA Ecological Risk Assessment Forum and provides a broad range of
technical support to the Superfund program.
Her work encompasses the development of sampling and analysis plans,
assessing data, and developing screening level and baseline level ecological
risk assessments with the goal of quantitatively evaluating ecological risk at
Superfund sites. She has been
employed in this current position for the past 16 years, and during this time
has had the opportunity to employ her technical skills at a variety of DOD and
other complex sites, including many with significant sediment contamination.
More recently she has been involved with military munitions investigations at a
DOD facility.
Prior to joining the CERCLA program, Ms. Pensak headed the EPA Region 2 Indoor
Air Program and worked with FEMA to educate and train nuclear power plant
employees in responding to emergencies in which radioactive materials may be
released. Ms. Pensak has a Bachelor of Science in International Environmental
Studies and a Masters in Environmental Science, both from Rutgers University.
Dr.
Dibyendu (Dibs) Sarkar is a Professor of Environmental Geochemistry and the
Director of the Environmental Management PhD program at Montclair State
University, New Jersey. Dibs joined MSU in August of 2008 to create and develop
this unique PhD program, and within less than a year, he has already created
tremendous visibility of this brand new program as evidenced in last year's
HDC-SETAC annual meeting in Bear Mountain, NY where 3 of his PhD students won
the cash prizes in the student presentation category. His program has also been
highlighted in a
New York Times
news article
as one of only four such doctoral programs in the United States that aims to
produce "scientists who understand policy, and policy people who understand
science." Dibs is one of the few academic leaders of this generation who
understands and implements the value of a holistic approach in solving
environmental problems realizing the need to train the next generation in the
same to help them develop as future leaders of the green sustainability
movement.
Prior to joining Montclair State, Dr. Sakar served as a Professor and Associate
Dean at the University of Texas at San Antonio, developing a PhD program in
Environmental Science and Engineering. In his 8 years of academic service so
far, he has graduated 3 PhD students, 14 MS students, and has trained 8
post-doctoral research associates. He has published over 200 journal articles,
book chapters, conference proceedings and technical abstracts including two
books. He has generated more than $2.5 million in grant funding to support his
research activities and those of his students. Dr. Sakar has always believed in
the value of academia-industry interactions and collaborations, and created an
environmental R&D, SIROM Scientic Solutions, currently operating out of
Montclair, and among other projects, developing a green, low-cost remediation
system for metal removal from military sites. He has also been very active in
Professional Society activities. Dibs is an active member of several
international scientific organizations, including but not limited to the
Geological Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, American Society
of Agronomy, American Geophysical Union, Clay Mineral Society, American
Association of Petroleum Geologists, and of course, HDC-SETAC. He has organized
numerous symposia and theme sessions for these societies. He serves as the
Associate Editor of Geosphere (the online journal of the Geological Society of
America) and of Environmental Geosciences (the quarterly journal of the Division
of Environmental Geosciences of the American Association of Petroleum
Geologists). In the 2008 annual meeting of the AAPG, Dr. Sakar was the Oral and
Poster Committee Chair of the DEG. He serves as a reviewer for more than 25
journals and of grant funding agencies, such as NSF, USGS, USDA, USEPA, etc.