Biographical Sketches - Nominees for the TNI Board of Directors

Jump to Board Nominee:
Aaren Alger
Justin Brown
Kristin Brown
Susan Jackson
Stephanie Rippeon
Patsy Root
Michelle Wade

Aaren Alger
President
Alger Consulting & Trading, LLC ("ACT")

Aaren is the president of Alger Consulting & Training, LLC ("ACT") and she provides various training and compliance assistance services to environmental laboratories. Prior to founding ACT in 2020, Aaren served the Commonwealth of PA for over 20 years as an analyst, laboratory accreditation officer and assessor, and accreditation program chief. Throughout her time with PADEP and now with ACT, Aaren has continued as an active member of TNI, serving on the Board of Directors and various committees and taskforces. She is also a TNI Lead Evaluator and the Executive Director of PA Association of Accredited Environmental Laboratories.

Justin Brown
General Manager
Sterling Labs
Chicago, Illinois

Mr. Brown has over 20 years' experience in the environmental laboratory and field sampling/data collection industry. In his current role as General Manager, Mr. Brown is responsible for all of Sterling Labs' daily operations including direct oversight of the laboratory, field services, customer service/sales, quality assurance, accounting and support operations. His expertise in the field sampling and measurement industry has lead him to participate in an leadership and 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 past chair of the TNI NEFAP Executive Committee and TNI Field Activities Committee and has served as a member of the TNI Proficiency Testing Executive Committee, Consensus Standard Development Executive Committee, and the TNI Board of Directors.

Kristin Brown
State of Utah

Kristin is the Program Manager for the Utah Environmental Laboratory Certification Program. She has over 20 years of experience working for a NELAP AB and 10 years of that experience as running the program. The list of TNI committees and subcommittees she has participated in includes the LASEC, LASEC-SIR Subcommittee, NGAB Working Group, membership in the Quality Systems Expert Committee, AB Evaluation Teams and she is currently the Chair for the NELAP Accreditation Council.

Susan Jackson
Division Director - Analytical and Radiological Environmental Services
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control

Susan has been employed by the SCDHEC for 27 years where she has worked as an analyst for 7 years, a Certification officer for 13 years, including 3 as the Program Manager for environmental laboratory certification, and most recently as the Division Director for the Analytical and Radiological Environmental Services Division. She has served on TNI's PT Program Executive Committee for over 14 years, on the PT Expert Committee for 6 years and is also currently on the Policy Committee.

Stephanie Rippeon
Environmental Program Manager
A2LA
Frederick, Maryland

Stephanie is the Environmental Program Manager with A2LA and serves as the main point of contact for all of A2LA's Environmental programs and associated regulators. She has previous lab experience and 10 years experience in accreditation related activities at A2LA. She has extensive experience in laboratory quality system management, accreditation processes and environmental testing. In her roles at A2LA, she has worked to develop over 18 environmental testing focused accreditation programs and from that experience, she has gained an understanding of regulatory frameworks, accreditation requirements and the challenges of environmental laboratories. She is currently a member of the TNI Chemistry Expert Committee. She is also very active in other related industry groups including FSEA, ACIL and CWEA.

Patsy Root
Regulatory Affairs Manager
IDEXX Water
Westbrook, Maine

Patsy has over 13 years' experience in water microbiology, water-related regulations and environmental laboratory accreditation. She has worked with a variety of regulatory agencies worldwide in attaining regulatory approval for IDEXX methods and on Validation/verification of methods. Patsy is a long-time participant in various standards development organizations including with TNI, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater and ASHRAE. The list of her affiliations is extensive. She has been a member of the TNI Board of Directors and currently serves as Secretary to the Board. She is also the Chair of the Policy Committee, past chair of the Microbiology Expert Committee and Microbiology Proficiency Testing Expert Committee.

Michelle Wade
Principal Consultant
Wade Consulting and Solutions
Lawrence, Kansas

Michelle has been an independent consultant providing laboratories and accreditation bodies services including assessments, AB evaluations, data validation and other technical support for the past 13 years. Her prior experience includes management of the environmental laboratory accreditation program for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, for 5 years, numerous laboratory related experiences including laboratory operations management, training consultant, quality control and bench analysis, and method development. She has a BS and an MS in Forensic Science. She has been a very active contributor to TNI since 2009, including the ELAP AC KS representative in 2011-2014, a member and Vice Chair of the Quality Systems Expert Committee and member and Chair of the Chemistry Committee.