Events

Justice Michel Bastarache

Justice Michel Bastarache was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1997, after serving on the New Brunswick Court of Appeal. Prior to his judicial appointments, Justice Bastarache served as a legal translator in the New Brunswick government, law professor and Dean at the University of Moncton Law School, vice-President and director of marketing at Assumption Life, and later as president and chief executive officer of Assumption Life and its subsidiaries. He practiced law in Ottawa with Lang, Michener, Lash, Johnston and in Moncton with Stewart, McKelvey, Stirling, Scales. Justice Bastarache is editor and principal author of two books: Language Rights in Canada (Yvon Blais, 1987 and 2004 (2nd ed.)) and Précis du droit des biens réels (Yvon Blais, 1993 and 2001 (2nd ed.)), as well as numerous publications in collective works and periodicals. He has received several awards, including Jurist of the Year from the Association des Juristes Francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick and the Canadian 125th Anniversary Medal. Justice Bastarache has served as a member of the editorial boards of the Revue Générale de Droit International, the Revue Québécoise de Droit International, the Revue Générale de Droit, the review C'est Ton Droit, and the Revue du Nouvel Ontario, and as editor-in-chief of the Canadian Bar Review. He has been vice-chair of the National Judicial Institute since 2004 and a member of the Canadian National Group to the Permanent Court of Arbitration since 2005. In 2002, Justice Bastarache wrote the opinion in Harvard College v. Canada (Commissioner of Patents), the leading case on patentability of higher life forms in Canada where the Court interpreted the patenting of such life to be outside of the purpose and objectives of the Patent Act. Justice Bastarache received a bachelor's degree from the University of Moncton, an LL.L from the University of Montréal, an LL.B. from the University of Ottawa, and a graduate degree in public law from the University of Nice.

Dr. B. Taylor Bennett

Dr. B. Taylor Bennett is Management Consultant - regulatory compliance and program management and Senior Scientific Advisor for the National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR). Prior to moving into his new position, Dr. Bennett served as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Resources and the Director of the Biologic Resources Laboratory of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Bennett has also served as the President of the Association of Primate Veterinarians, the President of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS), and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Biomedical Research, the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine, and the Association of Laboratory Animal Practitioners. Dr. Bennett is a Diplomat of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM).

Dr. Bennett's professional interests are centered upon improving the quality of care provided to laboratory animals. As part of this interest he has been heavily involved in many educational programs and projects at all levels of animal care and use. In this capacity, he has developed a training course for animal technicians seeking AALAS certification from which the AALAS Instructional Guide for Technician Training was developed. He served on the editorial review board for The Biomedical Investigator's Handbook for Researchers Using Animal Models, which is published by the Foundation for Biomedical Research. He has served as the senior author of the Essentials for Animal Research: A Primer for Research Personnel, which was published by the National Agricultural Library, and he was the senior editor for the two-volume ACLAM text, Nonhuman Primates in Biomedical Research. He has given more than 100 presentations and published more than 50 papers. He received his doctorate degree in Veterinary Medicine from Auburn University and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Medical School.

Dr. Thomas M. Coffman

Dr. Thomas Coffman is chief of the Nephrology Division at Duke Medicine and a staff physician at the Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center. He was the principal investigator of the Mouse Models of Diabetic Complications Consortium group at Duke University Medical Center, which, in 2000, received a five-year grant totaling more than $3.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to create new mouse models for diabetic kidney and heart disease. The group, which also includes the University of North Carolina and Stanford University, is now a part of the Animal Models of Diabetic Complications Consortium. As a result of their research, Dr. Coffman and his co-investigators published Mouse Models of Diabetic Nephropathy and Impact of Genetic Background on Nephropathy in Diabetic Mice. Dr. Coffman's clinical interests include renal transplantation and hypertension, and his research includes the study of mechanisms of kidney injury in disease states and the role of the kidney in regulation of blood pressure. This research addresses issues that are relevant to disorders such as hypertension, diabetic nephropathy, transplant rejection, and autoimmune diseases. Dr. Coffman's work uses molecular genetic technology to develop and refine mouse models of human diseases such as diabetic nephropathy, kidney transplant rejection, and hypertension.

David S. Favre

David S. Favre is Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law, where he served as interim dean from 1993 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2000. Prior to joining the Law College faculty in 1976, he was a practicing attorney in Virginia. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Animal Legal & Historical Web Center, the Web's largest animal legal resource, and has written several articles and books dealing with animal issues, including such topics as animal cruelty, wildlife law, the use of animals for scientific research, and international control of animal trade. Among Professor Favre's writings are the books Animal Law and Dog Behavior; Animal Law: Welfare, Interest, and Rights; and International Trade in Endangered Species. He serves on the ABA Committee on Animal Law and is a former President of the Board of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Professor Favre is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the William and Mary School of Law.

Dr. Barb Glenn

Dr. Barb Glenn is Managing Director of Animal Biotechnology in the Food & Agriculture Section of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), where she leads a new animal biotechnology program that aims to provide industry leadership on science and regulatory issues for the ethical application of biotechnology used to improve animal and human health for the public good. Previously, Dr. Barb worked as a research dairy scientist with the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, where she conducted research on energy and protein metabolism in lactating dairy cows. She later served as executive vice president - scientific liaison for the Federation of Animal Science Societies. In her career, Dr. Glenn has served as president of the American Society of Animal Science, chair of the Coalition on Funding Agricultural Research Missions, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, and on the Food and Drug Administration's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee. She is a fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Glenn received a Ph.D. in Ruminant Nutrition and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Kentucky, and was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Betty Goldentyer

Dr. Betty Goldentyer is the Eastern Regional Director for the Animal Care Program of the United States Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service. Dr. Goldentyer has been with the Animal Care Program since its organization as a stand alone unit in 1988. She was a field inspector for dealers, exhibitors and research facilities in Wisconsin, an Animal Care Specialist supervising inspectors in the southeast US and the Director for the Eastern Region since 1997. Before joining APHIS, Dr. Goldentyer practiced in a small animal clinic and a large humane society in the Chicago area. She is a graduate of the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine.

Dr. Charles Hamner

Charles E. Hamner, D.V.M., Ph.D. is chairman of the board of directors at The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, located in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina. The Hamner promotes the integration of safety and efficacy studies during the preclinical development of pharmaceuticals and provides a capstone specialty training experience for Ph.D. scientists from academics, industry and government. Prior to serving in this position, Dr. Hamner was President and CEO of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center for 14 years after the Center, which had been created by the N.C. General Assembly, was reorganized into a private, non-profit corporation. In this position, Dr. Hamner worked closely with political leaders, formulating difficult policy decisions and obtaining funds to apply to research in North Carolina.. Under his leadership, the Center granted the research universities $70 million to fund professors, who in turn applied to research organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for grants, winning $850 million in funding.

Prior to his work with the Biotechnology Center, Dr. Hamner was Associate Vice President for Health Affairs at the University of Virginia Medical Center for ten years. He has also consulted and worked for many years at a pharmaceutical company and served as a researcher at the University of Virginia, where he helped develop the technique of in vitro fertilization of cats. Dr. Hamner holds a bachelor's degree in animal husbandry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and three degrees from the University of Georgia: a master's degree in chemistry, a doctor of veterinary medicine degree, and a doctoral degree in biochemistry.

Throughout his research career, Dr. Hamner has authored more than 50 scientific publications, co-authored chapters in 12 books on reproductive physiology and biochemistry, and edited two editions of Drug Development. He maintains membership in the following professional societies: American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Veterinary Medical Association, Biotechnology Industry Organization, Drug Information Association, FASEB, American Physiological Society and Society for the Study of Fertility.

Rachel G. Lattimore

Rachel Lattimore is well-recognized as an expert in the US regulation of bioengineered crops and plants. Rachel's practice focuses on biotechnology and extends to broader environmental and food safety issues, litigation, as well as association and nonprofit organization matters.

Rachel's work in biotechnology includes representation of large and small technology providers, as well as industry groups serving these companies. Her clients include developers of biotechnology-derived agricultural traits, as well as companies developing therapeutic proteins for pharmaceutical and industrial use. Rachel assists these clients with understanding, interpreting and complying with the regulatory framework governing these types of products, including laws, regulations and guidance documents in this area administered by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Her expertise includes the proposed bioengineered food premarket notification requirements, the plant-incorporated protectant regulations and the National Organic Program.

Rachel's broader environmental and food safety experience includes counseling on food marketing and safety, and pesticide regulation issues. She works closely with manufacturers of a variety of biological and chemical products, advising them on compliance with the federal and state regulations applicable to those products.

Rachel received her JD from Duke University School of Law and earned BA degrees from Victoria University of Wellington and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with honors.

Cathy Liss

Cathy Liss serves as president of the Animal Welfare Institute and Legislative Director of the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (AWI's legislative division). Liss began working for the Animal Welfare Institute and Society for Animal Protective Legislation as an intern while attending Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. After graduating in 1982, she joined the institute full-time and was promoted to executive director of the Institute in 1991 and elected president in 2002. Liss works on a variety of legislative initiatives before the U.S. Congress and various state bodies, including federal legislation to end horse slaughter, prohibit interstate and foreign commerce in steel jaw leghold traps and furs obtained through their use, and to prevent the sale of dogs and cats by random source dealers. She has particular expertise regarding the federal Animal Welfare Act and has pushed for adoption of the 1985 Improved Standards for Laboratory Animals amendment to the Animal Welfare Act. Liss has extensive experience working with the varied government agencies involved in use of and/or oversight of animals. She has conducted site visits of animal research laboratories, animal dealer premises, animal auctions, animal factories and family farms, and has been involved in development of less cruel alternatives to the steel jaw leghold trap. Liss is a member of the National Wildlife Services Advisory Committee and a member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group on Humane Trap Standards, under the auspices of the American National Standards Institute.

Dr. Joseph McGonigle

Joseph McGonigle is Vice President for External Affairs at Aqua Bounty Technologies, a Massachusetts biotechnology company focused on health andcproductivity improvements in aquaculture. He is the former executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, served as chief of staff to the President of the Maine Senate and as the executive director of the Commission on Maine's Future. He has served on the U.S. delegation to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization where helped frame international standards for control fish escapes. He is an aquaculture advisor to the New England Fisheries Management Council. He worked as a reporter and an editor at several newspapers in New England and California and earned a graduate degree in agricultural economics at the University of Maine.

Dr. McGonigle will spearhead AQUA Bounty Farms' industry education program to help salmon farmers and others better understand fish-to-fish transgene technology. He will also focus on clear communication that allows farmers and consumers to make their own judgments about the risks and the benefits of the emerging "Blue Revolution" in food production.

Dr. Jeannie Perron

Dr. Jeannie Perron is a member of the Food and Drug Practice Group of Covington & Burling, LLP. In addition to her role as a practicing attorney, Dr. Perron also holds a degree in veterinary medicine. She specializes in food and drug law, with a sub-specialty in animal food and drug law. In this capacity, she represents companies that manufacture feed, feed ingredients, drugs, biologics and medical devices for animals, as well as clients in related industries. Dr. Perron's specialties also include advising clients and providing representation on matters before the United States Department of Agriculture arising under the Animal Welfare Act. Her clients include animal research companies, pharmaceutical companies, and animal dealers and exhibitors. Dr. Perron also specializes in an area of practice that relates to the importation of animal-derived ingredients and products. She advises clients on USDA regulations and procedures in this area and assists clients in securing the required permits and certifications. In her practice, she has assisted a client to design, plan, and establish a significant new animal health business, and defended and successfully settled a major administrative compliance action brought by the United States Department of Agriculture under the Animal Welfare Act.

Dr. Irina Polejaeva

Dr. Irina Polejaeva is vice president of Advanced Reproductive Technologies and chief scientific officer of ViaGen, a company that produces animal clones, licenses and sells proprietary animal genetics, and provides traits and technology for animal agriculture industries worldwide. Before joining ViaGen, Dr. Polejaeva served as head of the Cell Biology Group and project manager for the Porcine Nuclear Transfer Program at PPL Therapeutics, Inc. In that position, she produced the world's first cloned pigs by somatic cell nuclear transfer and the world's first 1,3-galactosyltransferase deficient pigs. PPL made waves in 1997 when they collaborated with the Roslin Institute to clone Dolly the sheep from a six-year-old ewe. Dr. Polejaeva received an M.S. in Animal Science from Kubanski Agricultural University, Russia, and a Ph.D. in Biotechnology/Stem Cell Biology from the National Institute of Animal Science, Moscow, Russia. She completed her postdoctoral work in Dr. Kenneth White's Laboratory at Utah State University.

Professor William A. Reppy Jr.

Professor William A. Reppy, Jr., Charles L. B. Lowndes Emeritus Professor of Law, teaches Animal Law at Duke University School of Law, a course he initiated in 2001. An active member of the Duke Law faculty, Professor Reppy has written four articles on Animal Law, including his most recent, published in 2007, "Broad Exemptions in Animal-Cruelty Statutes Unconstitutionally Deny Equal Protection of the Law," published in the journal of Law and Contemporary Problems. Professor Reppy serves on North Carolina General Statutes Commission, a position in which he has been instrumental in drafting many animal welfare bills introduced before the North Carolina General Assembly. He also serves as vice chair of the North Carolina Animal Law committee, a group working on reform of animal laws in the state. Professor Reppy began his career with two judicial clerkships, one in the Supreme Court of California, followed by another in the Supreme Court of the United States. He has held visiting professor status at the University of California - Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, the University of Michigan, the University of Washington at Seattle, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Professor Margaret Foster Riley

Margaret Foster Riley is Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law where she teaches in the areas of Bioethics and Public Health Law. She is also Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She is a graduate of Columbia University Law School and was a litigation associate at Rogers & Wells in New York and Pepper Hamilton & Scheetz in Philadelphia prior to joining the faculty at Virginia. Her areas of interest include biomedical research, genetics, reproductive technologies, stem cell research, animal biotechnology, health disparities and chronic disease. Her recent publications include "Regulating Reproductive Genetics: A Review of American Bioethics Commissions and Comparison to the British Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority" (with Richard Merrill) in the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review and "A Critique of Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council on Bioethics," in the Journal of Law and Politics. She is a member of the UVA Health Sciences IRB and the Virginia Advisory Committee on Genetics.

Dr. Bernard E. Rollin

Bernard E. Rollin (B.A. CCNY, Ph.D. Columbia) is University Distinguished Professor, Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Professor of Animal Sciences, and University Bioethicist at Colorado State University.

Rollin taught the first course ever done in the world in veterinary medical ethics, which has been a required part of the veterinary curriculum at CSU since 1978, and was a pioneer in reforming animal use in surgery teaching and laboratory exercises in veterinary colleges. He is a principal architect of 1985 federal legislation dealing with the welfare of experimental animals, and has testified before Congress on animal experimentation. Rollin has lectured extensively on many animal ethics issues all over the world. He is the author of over 400 papers and fourteen books, of which the best known is Animal Rights and Human Morality, which won an Outstanding Book of the Year Award from the American Association of University Libraries and is entering its third edition. Since 1990, he has written a popular monthly column on veterinary ethics for the Canadian Veterinary Journal. He currently edits an ethics column for the Veterinary Forum.

Rollin has worked with animal scientists and ranchers on alternatives to castration and branding and other issues, and helped galvanize the agricultural community in Colorado to pass the nation's strongest "downer" bill. Since 1981, he has taught a course for animal science students on ethical issues in animal agriculture, the world's first such course. He has been a leader in industry self-regulation of livestock showing.

Rollin was named to the Distinguished Faculty Gallery by the College of Veterinary Medicine at CSU in 1992. He has twice been awarded the Brownlee Award for outstanding achievement in Animal Welfare Science by the Animal Welfare Foundation of Canada, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association. He was named University Distinguished Professor, Colorado State University's highest honor, and was recognized as Eddy Professor, for excellence in teaching, both in 2001. In 2005, he and his business partners were awarded the Technology Transfer Award from the Colorado State University Research Foundation for the retinal identification company they founded, Optibrand. In 2005, he was awarded the Henry Spira Award in Animal Welfare by Johns Hopkins University Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. In 2006, he was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award by the Colorado State University Alumni Association and the Shomer Award by the Society for Veterinary Medical Ethics. In 2007, he received the Humane Award from the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Dr. Norka Ruiz Bravo

Dr. Norka Ruiz Bravo is Deputy Director of the Office of Extramural Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is NIHs focal point and voice for all policies and guidelines for extramural research grants, which represent approximately 85 percent of the NIH budget. She started at NIH in 1990 as a scientific review administrator in the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). Since then, Ruiz Bravo has held positions such as program director for the NIGMS Division of Genetics & Development Biology and most recently associate director for extramural activities at NIGMS, a position in which she oversaw the Institutes $1.7 billion (FY 2003) research and research training grant programs from a policy, business, and scientific perspective.

Dr. Ruiz Bravo has served in a leadership capacity on various NIH work groups, including the NIH Extramural Programs Management Committee, and has represented NIH on external work groups such as the Subcommittee on Research Business Models of the National Science and Technology Council regarding aligning mechanisms with scientific opportunities.

After earning a Ph.D. in biology from Yale University, Ruiz Bravo completed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry and molecular biology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center. Before going to NIH, Ruiz Bravo was an assistant professor in the departments of urology and cell biology at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Eddie J Sullivan

Eddie J Sullivan, Ph.D. is the Chief Operating Officer of Hematech Inc. (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), a subsidiary of Kirin Pharma Co. Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan). Dr. Sullivan is board certified High Complexity Laboratory Director by the American Association of Bioanalysis. He worked for several years as laboratory director of a successful human fertility laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona as well as a consultant for an animal diagnostics company in molecular genetics and analytical test development. His research has focused on aspects of human and animal embryology and he has worked extensively in the areas of assisted reproductive techniques as well as cloning in animal livestock species with particular interest in applied research.

In his current position with Hematech, Dr. Sullivan has been instrumental in building the company from a small start-up of six employees to a company of over seventy employees that is moving toward preclinical and clinical evaluation of their first transgenic animal made human pharmaceutical. He has worked with various committees and discussion groups that have focused on animal biotechnology including ethics and has actively participated in the discussions for establishing regulatory frameworks for this technology. He is chairman of the Animal Biotechnology Policy Committee and a member of the Food and Agriculture Section Governing Board at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). Dr. Sullivan is also currently President and founding member of the South Dakota Biotech Association which focuses on biomedical, agricultural and industrial and environmental applications of biotechnology within the state. He earned degrees from the University of Arizona and Brigham Young University and post graduate research at Utah State University in Embryology and Cloning.

Joyce Tischler

Co-founder of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), Joyce Tischler, has been helping to shape the emerging field of animal law since the agency's start, more than a quarter century ago. A California attorney, Tischler handled some of ALDF's earliest cases, including a 1981 lawsuit that halted the U.S. Navy's plan to kill 5,000 feral burros and a 1988 challenge to the U.S. Patent Office's rule allowing the patenting of genetically altered animals. She has tackled such diverse topics as challenges to hunting and trapping using the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), enforcement of the federal Animal Welfare Act, standing to sue, animal custody battles, the right to kill animals pursuant to will provisions, landlord-tenant issues and damages, and recovery for injury to or death of an animal. ALDF's executive director for 25 years, Tischler now serves as the agency's founding director, responsible for writing, promoting, and lecturing on the field of animal law.

Dr. Paul VanRaden

Dr. Paul VanRaden grew up on an Illinois dairy and became interested in genetics while working as a DHI supervisor. After receiving a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from Iowa State University, Dr. VanRaden joined USDA's Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory in Beltsville, MD, in 1988. Dr. VanRaden introduced genetic evaluations for Productive Life and Daughter Pregnancy Rate, and has combined all available traits into the Net Merit index. Dr. VanRaden's current work includes:

• Conducting research on international evaluations, genetic markers, inbreeding, and crossbreeding;
• Investigating genetic differences among dairy cattle for yield, longevity, fertility, and udder health traits;
• Determining economic values for traits included in Net Merit;
• Examining effects of inbreeding, crossbreeding, and non-additive genetic merit; and
• Developing new statistical methods to improve national and international genetic evaluations.

Dr. Robert J. Wall

Dr. Robert J. Wall is a research physiologist with the Bioscience and Biotechnology Laboratory at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland. Dr. Wall's work in genetic engineering has focused on producing healthy transgenic animals by efficient means. He discovered a method to visualize pronuclei in living cattle or swine embryos. As a direct result of this discovery, his group was able to produce the first transgenic farm animals. His lab has produced genetically engineered cattle that are resistant to infection by a mastitis causing bacterium; demonstrated that a synthetic genetic switch can be used to turn off an oncogene (thus reversing the hyperplasia caused by a virally induced cancer); and has included matrix attachment region (MARs) sequences in gene constructs to double the production of functional transgenic animals. In 1988, Dr. Wall was a member of NRC's Panel for Review of Agricultural Sciences Research Proposals under the A.I.D. Research Grants Program for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In 2005, Dr. Wall was recognized with the Beltsville Area Senior Research Scientist Award for his outstanding research accomplishments in the introduction of recombinant DNA molecules into the genome of agricultural animals. Dr. Wall received his Ph.D. in 1981 from Cornell University.

Steven M. Wise

Former president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Steven M. Wise has practiced animal protection law for more than twenty years. A professor of Animal Rights Law, Wise has taught at the Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, and the Masters Program in Animals and Public Policy at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. He is the founder and president of the Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights, which aims to advance the legal status of nonhuman animals through education and litigation. Wise has written numerous scholarly articles about animal rights and has collaborated and communicated for years with leading scientists in the fields of primatology and animal intelligence and behavior. He is the author of Though the Heavens May Fall (2005), which recounts the 1772 trial in England of James Somersett, a black man rescued from a ship heading for the West Indies slave markets, which set in motion the movement to abolish slavery in Britain and the United States; Drawing the Line (2002), which describes the relative intelligence of animals and human beings; and Rattling the Cage (2000), in which he argues that legal rights should be extended to chimpanzees and bonobos.