TNI Logo The NELAC Institute
 

Biographical Sketches - Nominees for the TNI Board of Directors


Jump to Board Nominee:
Aaren Alger
Justin B. Brown
Chris Gunning
Cheryl Nolan
Patsy Root

Jump to Ex-Officio Director:
Debbie Rosano


Aaren Alger
Chief
PA-DEP Laboratory Accreditation Program

Aaren Alger is the Chief of the Laboratory Accreditation Program of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and has been serving as the Chief of the Laboratory Accreditation Program since June of 2007. As Chief, she oversees the accreditation of environmental laboratories; regulation development, approval, and implementation; and the development and coordination of training for assessors and laboratories. Before being named Chief, Ms. Alger worked in the PA-DEP's Laboratory Accreditation Program as an accreditation officer for six years where she evaluated and participated in the accreditation of laboratories performing chemical testing of inorganic non-metals, metals, and organics in drinking water, wastewater, and solids. Ms. Alger also worked as a chemist in the Automated Analysis and Biochemistry Section of the Bureau of Laboratories in the PA-DEP and a private commercial environmental laboratory performing various analyses on drinking water, wastewater, and solids. Ms. Alger has been an active member in NELAC/INELA/TNI since 2001 and is currently the PA-DEP�s representative to the NELAP Accreditation Council. In addition, she serves as a NELAP Evaluator. Ms. Alger is a NELAP-approved assessor and a USEPA-approved drinking water certification officer.

Justin B. Brown
Director of Groundwater and Field Services
Environmental Monitoring and Technologies, Inc.
Morton Grove, Illinois

Mr. Brown has over 14 years' experience in the environmental laboratory and field sampling/data collection industry. Mr. Brown manages the overall operational activities of the field services departments at EMT. His responsibilities include oversight of strategic planning, budgeting, business development, project management, operational management and field operations. Mr. Brown also serves as a technical advisor on many projects of varying size and scope and is responsible for health and safety within the laboratory and field services divisions. His expertise in the field sampling and measurement industry has lead him to participate in an advisory role to many regional and national organizations in the areas of soil and groundwater analysis as well as field sampling and data collection. Mr. Brown is the current chair of the TNI Field Activities Committee as well as a member of the TNI Proficiency Testing Executive Committee, TNI NEFAP Executive Committee and the TNI Consensus Standard Development Executive Committee.

Chris Gunning
Accreditation Manager
A2LA
Frederick, Maryland

As the Accreditation Manager for A2LA, Mr. Gunning handles all paperwork and applications associated with the accreditation process. He serves as the point of contact for laboratories seeking accreditation in the Biological, Chemical and Environmental fields of testing and handles internal audits for A2LA. He is an approved internal and external trainer on ISO/IEC 17025. Prior to his employment at A2LA, Mr. Gunning held positions as Senior Research Technician, MTS II and Research Technician. Mr. Gunning received his BA from St. Mary's College of Maryland. He has been an active participant on the TNI LAB and Quality systems expert committees. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the vision and mission of TNI and the TNI standard.

Cheryl Nolan
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Ms. Nolan has over 25 years of experience with environmental permitting and enforcement. She served as the Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality in offices overseeing the surveillance and enforcement duties of the Department. She has been promoted through the ranks as a supervisor, manager and administrator of enforcement, air permits and currently the Public Participation and Permits Support Division of the Department. She would bring the perspective of these regulatory functions to her service on the board.

Patsy Root
IDEXX Laboratories
Westbrook, Maine

Ms. Root is responsible for obtaining world-wide government approvals for IDEXX products, for determining the specific content requirement of submission documents and for ensuring internal product development and manufacturing teams provide necessary information. She is responsible for dissemination of regulatory information to various cross-functional teams within IDEXX; participate in New Product Development to assure products' adherence to current international, regional or local rules and directives and follow any changes or revision to rules and regulations that may impact product line. She works with specific regulatory agencies (such as EPA, AFNOR (FR), DWI(UK), UBA(DE)) and associated Accreditation Bodies toward collective understanding of the needs of these agencies and how IDEXX products can fulfill those needs. Her activities include face-to-face meetings, discussion on rule changes and impact changes may have on both labs and manufacturers. Ms. Root has a BS and Ms in Biochemistry from the University of Maine, is a member of EPA's environmental Laboratory Advisory Board, a committee member of the joint task group of Standard Methods for Part 9000, and a member of TNI�s Microbiology committee.



Debbie Rosano
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Environmental Stewardship
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Environment, Health, Safety, and Security
Washington, D.C.

Ms. Rosano is the Acting Director of the Office of Sustainable Environmental Stewardship within the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Protection and ES&H Reporting in the Associate Under Secretary for Environment, Health, Safety and Security. She has worked for DOE for 6 years, but has over 30 years� technical experience in laboratory operations and analytical methods, data validation, environmental and quality management systems, auditing, environmental regulatory compliance, quality assurance, policy development, technical standards development, and program management. Debbie has extensive knowledge of nuclear, non-nuclear, and environmental QA requirements, suspect counterfeit and defective items, vendor inspections, management and independent assessments, high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, and environmental, health and safety data. She earned her BS degree in Chemistry from Emmanuel College in Boston, MA and a MBA from Salem State College in Salem, MA. Debbie has received many honors including the Secretary of Energy�s Appreciation Award and is a long standing member of the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Quality.