NCRP

Officers & Board of Directors

Officers

President

KATHRYN D. HELD

Held K

became President of the NCRP in January 2019. She held the position of Executive Director and Chief Science Officer from 2016 to 2018. She was first elected to the Council in 2006 and served on the NCRP Board of Directors from 2008 to 2014. She was Vice President from 2011 to 2016 of Program Area Committee 1 on Basic Criteria, Epidemiology, Radiobiology, and Risk. She also served as Chair of the Program Committee for the 2011 Annual Meeting on “Scientific and Policy Challenges of Particle Radiations in Medical Therapy and Space Missions.” Dr. Held was a member of Scientific Committee (SC) 1-22 on Radiation Protection for Astronauts in Short-Term Missions and Phase I of SC 1-24 on Radiation Exposures in Space and the Potential of Central Nervous System Effects and an advisor to several NCRP committees.

Dr. Held is an Associate Radiation Biologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology (Radiation Biology) at Harvard Medical School (HMS). At MGH, Dr. Held leads a team that is involved in research on molecular mechanisms for the induction of bystander effects by high energy particles in cells and tissues, characterization of charged particle beam induced DNA damage responses and cell killing, development of a cancer screening platform for personalized radiation medicine, and mechanisms for regulation of DNA damage response by cell-cell communication. Dr. Held also teaches radiation biology to radiation oncology medical and physics residents and graduate students at MGH/HMS and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Held earned her PhD in biology from the University of Texas, Austin. She has served on review panels for numerous federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command programs and other organizations such as the Radiological Society of North America. She is on the Editorial Boards of Radiation Research and the International Journal of Radiation Biology, and has served on committees for the National Academy of Science/National Research Council, NASA, and the American Society of Radiation Oncology. She is a past President of the Radiation Research Society.

kathryn d. held
Senior Vice President Bushberg-J

JERROLD T. BUSHBERG

Bushberg-J

is a Clinical Professor of Radiology and Clinical Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of California (UC) Davis School of Medicine. He holds the title of Director Emeritus Medical/Health Physics Programs and retired as Associate Chair of the Department of Radiology in 2018. He is currently Chair of the Board of Directors and Senior Vice President of NCRP. He is an expert on the biological effects, safety and interactions of ionizing and nonionizing radiation and holds multiple radiation detection technology patents. With over 40 y of experience, he has served as a subject matter expert and an advisor to government agencies and institutions throughout the nation and around the world, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, the World Health Organization, and the International Atomic Energy Agency in the areas of ionizing and nonionizing radiation protection, risk communication, medical physics, and radiological emergency medical management.

In 2016, Dr. Bushberg was appointed Vice Chair of the Committee on Man and Radiation, which is a Technical Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Engineering (IEEE) in Medicine and Biology Society. In addition, he is an elected member of the IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety and was recently appointed by the U.S. Health Physics Society as its representative to the International Radiation Protection Organization Committee on Non-ionizing Radiation Safety.

Former Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, among other assignments, CDR Bushberg served as Executive Officer of the Chemical/Biological/Nuclear Technical Unit 120 Pacific, a highly skilled multidisciplinary military emergency response and advisory team based out of the Alameda Naval Air Station in California.

Dr. Bushberg is an elected fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the Health Physics Society. He is certified by several national professional boards with specific subspecialty certification in radiation protection and medical physics and served as a Director and Vice Chair of the American Board of Medical Physics from 2018 to 2022.

In 2014, Dr. Bushberg was awarded the NCRP Warren K. Sinclair Medal for Excellence in Radiation Science and received the Professor John C. Christiansen Distinguished Alumnus award from Purdue University School of Health Sciences in 2016.

Prior to coming to the UC Davis Health System as technical director of Nuclear Medicine, Dr. Bushberg was on the faculty of Yale University School of Medicine Department of Radiology, where his research focused on radiopharmaceutical development. Dr. Bushberg has had responsibility for postgraduate medical education in medical physics, radiation (ionizing and nonionizing) biology, and protection for more than 30 y. The fourth edition of the textbook, The Essential Physics of Medical Imaging, authored by Bushberg, Seibert, Leidholdt, and Boone, is used extensively in radiology residency programs throughout the United States.

jerrold t. bushberg
Secretary LA AtwellLaura J. Atwell
Treasurer Myrna A. Young

Board of Directors

Bushberg-J

JERROLD T. BUSHBERG

Bushberg-J

is a Clinical Professor of Radiology and Clinical Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of California (UC) Davis School of Medicine. He holds the title of Director Emeritus Medical/Health Physics Programs and retired as Associate Chair of the Department of Radiology in 2018. He is currently Chair of the Board of Directors and Senior Vice President of NCRP. He is an expert on the biological effects, safety and interactions of ionizing and nonionizing radiation and holds multiple radiation detection technology patents. With over 40 y of experience, he has served as a subject matter expert and an advisor to government agencies and institutions throughout the nation and around the world, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, the World Health Organization, and the International Atomic Energy Agency in the areas of ionizing and nonionizing radiation protection, risk communication, medical physics, and radiological emergency medical management.

In 2016, Dr. Bushberg was appointed Vice Chair of the Committee on Man and Radiation, which is a Technical Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Engineering (IEEE) in Medicine and Biology Society. In addition, he is an elected member of the IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety and was recently appointed by the U.S. Health Physics Society as its representative to the International Radiation Protection Organization Committee on Non-ionizing Radiation Safety.

Former Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, among other assignments, CDR Bushberg served as Executive Officer of the Chemical/Biological/Nuclear Technical Unit 120 Pacific, a highly skilled multidisciplinary military emergency response and advisory team based out of the Alameda Naval Air Station in California.

Dr. Bushberg is an elected fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the Health Physics Society. He is certified by several national professional boards with specific subspecialty certification in radiation protection and medical physics and served as a Director and Vice Chair of the American Board of Medical Physics from 2018 to 2022.

In 2014, Dr. Bushberg was awarded the NCRP Warren K. Sinclair Medal for Excellence in Radiation Science and received the Professor John C. Christiansen Distinguished Alumnus award from Purdue University School of Health Sciences in 2016.

Prior to coming to the UC Davis Health System as technical director of Nuclear Medicine, Dr. Bushberg was on the faculty of Yale University School of Medicine Department of Radiology, where his research focused on radiopharmaceutical development. Dr. Bushberg has had responsibility for postgraduate medical education in medical physics, radiation (ionizing and nonionizing) biology, and protection for more than 30 y. The fourth edition of the textbook, The Essential Physics of Medical Imaging, authored by Bushberg, Seibert, Leidholdt, and Boone, is used extensively in radiology residency programs throughout the United States.

jerrold t. bushberg , Chair

WESLEY E. BOLCH

is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida (UF). He serves as Director of the Advanced Laboratory for Radiation Dosimetry Studies at UF. Dr. Bolch earned his BSE degree in environmental engineering in 1984, his ME and PhD degrees in radiological physics in 1986 and 1998, respectively, from the University of Florida. He has been certified by the American Board of Health Physics since 1994 and licensed in Radiological Health Engineering by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers since 1992. In 2011, Dr. Bolch was elected Fellow of both the Health Physics Society and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. He has been a member of the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s Medical Internal Radiation Dose (MIRD) Committee since 1993, a member of NCRP since 2005, and a member of Committee 2 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) since 2005. Within the latter, he serves as C2 Secretary and Leader of the ICRP Task Group on Computational Phantoms and Radiation Transport. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, co-authored/edited 14 books/book chapters, and served as author on two NCRP reports, two ICRP publications, and two MIRD monographs.

Dr. Bolch has managed a broad research program including (1) National Institutes of Health (NIH) and U.S. Department of Energy funded projects to construct high-resolution models of the skeleton to support dose-response studies in radionuclide therapy and radiation epidemiology; (2) NIH funded projects to develop scalable NURBS-based and voxel-based computational phantoms of adult and pediatric patients and associated software for organ dose assessment in nuclear medicine, computed tomography, interventional fluoroscopy, and radiotherapy; (3) private company funded projects to develop stereotactic kilovoltage x-ray treatments for age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma; and (4) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded projects in stochastic modeling of worker inhalation and gamma-ray exposures following radiological accidents and potential terrorist events. He is the recipient of the 2014 Distinguish Scientific Achievement Award by the Health Physics Society acknowledging outstanding contributions to the science and technology of radiation safety.

wesley e. bolch

Boyd M

Michael A. Boyd

Boyd M

is the Director of the Center for Science and Technology in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Radiation and Indoor Air/Radiation Protection Division. The Center is responsible for the development of radiation dose and risk assessment guidance and for providing technical support for radiation protection policy issues. Mr. Boyd is also the co-chair of the Federal Guidance Subcommittee of the Interagency Steering Committee on Radiation Standards. He is a member of the NCRP’s PAC 5 and was recently elected to the NCRP Board of Directors. He is a member of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Committee 4 and chairs ICRP Task Group 98 on Application of the Commission’s Recommendations to exposures resulting from contaminated sites from past industrial, military and nuclear activities. Since 2015, he has chaired the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency's Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health. Mr. Boyd is an active member of the Health Physics Society and is a delegate to the International Radiation Protection Association where he is currently a member of its International Congress Program Committee for IRPA 15, which will be held in Seoul, Korea in May 2020. He has a BS in Biology and MS in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Michael A. Boyd

Buddemeier B

BROOKE R. BUDDEMEIER

Buddemeier B

is an associate program leader in the Global Security Directorate of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). He supports the Risk and Consequence Management Division in their efforts to evaluate the potential risk and consequence of radiological and nuclear terrorism. Mr. Buddemeier is a member of NCRP and served on the scientific committees which developed Commentary No. 19 - Key Elements of Preparing Emergency Responders for Nuclear and Radiological Terrorism (2005) and NCRP Report No. 165 – Responding to a Radiological or Nuclear Terrorism Incident: A Guide for Decision Makers (2010).

From 2003 through 2007, he was on assignment with the Department of Homeland Security's as the weapons of mass destruction emergency response and consequence management program manager for Science and Technology's emergency preparedness and response portfolio. He supported Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Homeland Security Operations Center as a radiological emergency response subject matter expert. He also facilitated the department's research, development, test and evaluation process to improve emergency response through better capabilities, protocols and standards. Prior to that, he was part of the LLNL Nuclear Counterterrorism Program and coordinated LLNL's involvement in the National Nuclear Security Administration's Radiological Assistance Program (RAP) for California, Nevada and Hawaii.

RAP is a national emergency response resource that assists federal, state and local authorities in the event of a radiological incident. As part of RAP's outreach efforts, Mr. Buddemeier has provided radiological responder training and instrumentation workshops to police, firefighters, and members of other agencies throughout the nation and abroad. He has also provided operational health physics support for various radiochemistry, plutonium handling, accelerator and dosimetry operations. He is Certified Health Physicist who received his Master's in Radiological Health Physics from San Jose State University and a BS in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

brooke r. buddemeier

Polly Y. Chang

Polly Y. Chang

is the Scientific Director of the Non-clinical Development Program in SRI International's Biosciences Division. Dr. Chang received her BA in mammalian physiology, MA in bioradiology, and PhD in radiation biology/biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the principal investigator (PI) on a number of National Institute of Health, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and commercially-sponsored projects, using both in vitro and in vivo model systems to understand mechanisms of radiation injury and efficacy of medical countermeasures. As PI for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases-supported medical countermeasure product development program, she and her team conducted a battery of studies that contributed to the Food and Drug Administration's approval of Romiplostim for hematopoietic syndrome under the Animal Rule. During her tenure at SRI, Dr. Chang has led multiple nonclinical product development programs for vaccines, biologics, metal decorporation agents, and small molecules that have resulted in over 10 approved investigational new drug applications. In collaboration with a team of SRI investigators, she is working on a BARDA-funded biodosimetry project to develop a hand-held field-deployable device for early detection of radiation exposure and triage. She has served on NCRP Scientific Committees for Report No. 181 on the evaluation of the biological effectiveness of low energy photons and electrons in inducing cancers in humans and Report No. 183 on radiation exposure in space and the potential for central nervous system effects.

Polly Y. Chang

Willie O. Harris

has over 42 y of experience in radiation protection at power reactors, which has included over 25 y in program management and oversight. Prior to retirement he was the corporate radiation protection manager of the largest fleet of nuclear power plants in the United States. He is currently Senior Director of Radiation Protection for CN Associates. In this role, he has written several technical reports for the Electric Power Research Institute, provides consulting services for several sites in decommissioning and operational radiation protection programs at nuclear power plants.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in radiation protection. He is a certified health physicist, a registered radiation protection technologist, and held a senior reactor operator certification.

Mr. Harris has served on the Council since 2017 and is a member Program Area Committee 2 and the budget committee. He has been a member of the Health Physics Society since 1990. He is currently the Secretary for the AAHP Executive committee.

Willie O. Harris

KATHRYN D. HELD

Held K

became President of the NCRP in January 2019. She held the position of Executive Director and Chief Science Officer from 2016 to 2018. She was first elected to the Council in 2006 and served on the NCRP Board of Directors from 2008 to 2014. She was Vice President from 2011 to 2016 of Program Area Committee 1 on Basic Criteria, Epidemiology, Radiobiology, and Risk. She also served as Chair of the Program Committee for the 2011 Annual Meeting on “Scientific and Policy Challenges of Particle Radiations in Medical Therapy and Space Missions.” Dr. Held was a member of Scientific Committee (SC) 1-22 on Radiation Protection for Astronauts in Short-Term Missions and Phase I of SC 1-24 on Radiation Exposures in Space and the Potential of Central Nervous System Effects and an advisor to several NCRP committees.

Dr. Held is an Associate Radiation Biologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology (Radiation Biology) at Harvard Medical School (HMS). At MGH, Dr. Held leads a team that is involved in research on molecular mechanisms for the induction of bystander effects by high energy particles in cells and tissues, characterization of charged particle beam induced DNA damage responses and cell killing, development of a cancer screening platform for personalized radiation medicine, and mechanisms for regulation of DNA damage response by cell-cell communication. Dr. Held also teaches radiation biology to radiation oncology medical and physics residents and graduate students at MGH/HMS and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Held earned her PhD in biology from the University of Texas, Austin. She has served on review panels for numerous federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command programs and other organizations such as the Radiological Society of North America. She is on the Editorial Boards of Radiation Research and the International Journal of Radiation Biology, and has served on committees for the National Academy of Science/National Research Council, NASA, and the American Society of Radiation Oncology. She is a past President of the Radiation Research Society.

kathryn d. held
Kathryn A. Higley

Kathryn A. Higley

is the Oregon State University (OSU) Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering. She recently served as the Interim Director for the Center for Quantitative Life Sciences at OSU, a genome-enabled and data-driven, high-performance computing research center in the life and environmental sciences. For more than a decade she was Head of the School of Nuclear Science and Engineering. Dr. Higley received her PhD and MS in Radiological Health Sciences from Colorado State University and her BA in Chemistry from Reed College. She has held Reactor Operator and Senior Reactor Operator's licenses and is a former Reactor Supervisor for the Reed College TRIGA reactor. Dr. Higley started her career as a Radioecologist for Portland General Electric. She later worked for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a Senior Research Scientist in environmental health physics. Dr. Higley has been at Oregon State University since 1994, teaching undergraduate and graduate topics on radioecology, dosimetry, radiation protection, radiochemistry, and radiation biology. She previously served as Vice Chair of the International Commission on Radiological Protection's Committee 4 (Application of the Commission's Recommendations). She is a fellow of the Health Physics Society and a Certified Health Physicist.

Dr. Higley was first elected to the Council in 2014, appointed to the Board of Directors in 2023, and has been a member of the Budget and Finance Committee since 2022. She was Co-Chair of Council Committee (CC) 2 on Meeting the Needs of the Nation for Radiation Protection and a Member of CC 1, Radiation Protection Guidance for the United States; Program Area Committee 5, Environmental Radiation and Radioactive Waste Issues; SC 46-17, Radiation Protection in Educational Institutions; and SC 64-23, Cesium in the Environment. She was a member of the 2016 Annual Meeting Program Committee on "Meeting the Needs of the Nation for Radiation Protection" and presented "Education or Training: Does it Matter?" the same year. Dr. Higley served on the WARP (Where Are the Radiation Professionals?) Initiative Workshop. At the end of the 2024 Annual Meeting she will become the seventh President of NCRP.

Her areas of interest include environmental transport and fate of radionuclides, radioecology, radiochemistry, radiation dose assessment, nuclear emergency response, environmental regulations, and risk communication.

Kathryn A. Higley

DONALD L. MILLER

is the Chief Medical Officer for the Office of Radiological Health at the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health. He earned a BA from Yale University and an MD from New York University, and completed a residency in diagnostic radiology and a fellowship in interventional radiology at New York University Medical Center. He is board certified in Diagnostic Radiology and Vascular and Interventional Radiology. Prior to joining FDA, he practiced interventional radiology for three decades at the National Institutes of Health and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Miller was elected to NCRP in 2006. He currently serves on the Board of Directors and as Chair of Program Area Committee 4 (Radiation Protection in Medicine). He is an author of NCRP Reports Nos. 168, 172, 177, 180, 184, and 185, and Statements Nos. 11 and 13. He served on the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Committee 3 (Protection in Medicine) as a member from 2010 to 2013, and as Vice-Chair from 2013 to 2017. He is an author of ICRP Publications 117, 120, 135, and 139. He was Vice-Chair for the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration’s Federal Guidance Report No. 14, is a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and is a member of the World Health Organization’s Core Group of Experts on radiation protection of patients and staff.

Dr. Miller was Professor of Radiology at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland from 1993 to 2012. He has served as Associate Editor of Radiology and the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology and is an author of more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and more than 40 book chapters and reports. He is a Fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) and the American College of Radiology (ACR), and an Honorary Member of both the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the International Organization for Medical Physics. He chaired SIR’s Safety and Health Committee from 1999 to 2011 and the ACR Guidelines Interventional Committee from 2008 to 2012. His research interests have centered on radiation protection in medicine.

donald l. miller

SeibertJA

J. Anthony Seibert

SeibertJA

is Professor of Radiology at the University of California (UC) Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento, California. He received a PhD in Radiological Sciences from UC Irvine in 1982, specializing in quantitative digital fluoroscopic imaging. Directly thereafter, he took a faculty position at UC Davis Medical Center, pursuing digital imaging research, physics education efforts for graduate students and radiology residents, as well as quality control for medical imaging equipment in Diagnostic Radiology. He has continuing academic interests in digital mammography, computed tomography, interventional radiology, imaging informatics, and radiation dose tracking, assessment, and reporting. Former president of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) in 2011 and current Governor of the American Board of Radiology, Dr. Seibert has served and continues to interact with many professional committees in regards to medical imaging issues and presenting technical / educational events for the AAPM, International Atomic Energy Agency, and other professional societies. For NCRP, he is a member of Program Area Committee 4. As a co-author of The Essential Physics of Medical Imaging textbook for diagnostic physics education, Dr. Seibert continues with the development of cutting edge imaging technologies and medical physics education to improve the state of imaging science for the betterment of patient care.

J. Anthony Seibert

StoryM

MICHAEL D. STORY

StoryM

is a professor at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas. Dr. Story earned his PhD from Colorado State University. He holds the David A. Pistenmaa, MD, PhD Distinguished Chair in Radiation Oncology, serves as Vice-Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, Chief of the Section of Molecular Radiation Biology, and Director of the Pre-clinical Radiation Core Facility. Dr. Story serves on the editorial board of Mutagenesis, Scientific Reports, Translational Cancer Research and the Publications Committee of the Congress of Space Research (COSPAR). Dr. Story is a member of the Scientific Program sub-Committee and Executive Committee of the Particle Therapy Cooperative Group (PTCOG). Dr. Story is also a member of the Board of Directors of NCRP.

Dr. Story directs the radiobiology course for the Medical Physics graduate program and the Radiation Oncology medical resident program and was a faculty member for National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Space Radiation Summer School. Dr. Story's research is focused on five areas associated with radiation exposure: (1) delineating the effects of novel superoxide dismutase compounds that can act as both radioprotector and radiosensitizer in the same setting; (2) understanding and exploiting the biological effects of tumor treating fields in combination with radiation and/or chemotherapy agents; (3) developing biomarkers of the radioresponse of lung and liver tissues to high linear-energy transfer radiation exposures, including the development of biomarkers of carcinogenic risk; (4) enhancement of carbon ion radiotherapy for pancreatic and head and neck cancers; and (5) identification of genomic or epigenomic factors that predict or are prognostic for the radioresponse in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Dr. Story's research is funded by the National Cancer Institute, NASA, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, and industry.

michael d. story

Jeffrey J. Whicker

Jeffrey J. Whicker

worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a health physicist and scientist for over 30 y. He received an MS in Health Physics and a PhD in Environmental and Radiological Health Science from Colorado State University and is certified by the American Board of Health Physics. Dr. Whicker is an elected Board Member of NCRP, served as a Board Member of the Health Physics Society, consulted for the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2018 on environmental sampling and remediation decisions, and was on the Editorial Board for the journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry for 8 y. He has been the recipient of numerous achievement awards including the U.S. Department of Energy Secretary’s Honor Award (2020). He is an author or co-author of hundreds of scientific publications, invited talks, book chapters, and presentations mostly on indoor and outdoor radiological air quality and measurements that span issues ranging from worker protection, homeland security, radiological dose and risk assessment for the public and the environment, and environmental quality. His research in outdoor air quality focused on aerosol transport through wind-driven suspension of contaminated soil and the effects of ecosystem disturbance on environmental transport rates. This research has broad implications for both public and ecosystem health.

Jeffrey J. Whicker

Jessica S. Wieder

Jessica Wieder is an expert in radiation risk communication. As a member of NCRP’s Program Area on Radiation Education, Risk Communication and Outreach, Ms. Wieder helped write NCRP Report No. 179, Guidance for Emergency Response Dosimetry, and plan the outreach for high profile publications such as NCRP Report No. 180 on Management of Exposure to Ionizing Radiation: Radiation Protection Guidance for the United States (2018), and Commentary No. 27 on the Implications of Recent Epidemiologic Studies for the Linear-Nonthreshold Model and Radiation Protection. Also working through NCRP, Ms. Wieder and Brooke Buddemeier became TED educators on how to survive nuclear fallout.

Ms. Wieder is the Director of the Center for Radiation Information and Outreach at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She served at EPA’s senior radiation public information officer during the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, facilitated international panels on emergency response public communication, and was part of the contingency planning team for the 2011 launch of the Mars Science Laboratory. In 2013, she was awarded EPA's Exemplary Customer Service Award for her leadership in enabling all levels of government to provide quick, effective communications to the American people in response to large-scale radiological emergencies.

In 2010, Ms. Wieder was detailed to Federal Emergency Management Agency's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives Branch, where she created the intergovernmental Nuclear/Radiological Communications Working Group. With her guidance, this group developed the nuclear detonation messaging document Improvised Nuclear Device Response and Recovery: Communicating in the Immediate Aftermath.

Jessica S. Wieder

Support Personnel

Ethics Contact

KATHRYN D. HELD

Held K

became President of the NCRP in January 2019. She held the position of Executive Director and Chief Science Officer from 2016 to 2018. She was first elected to the Council in 2006 and served on the NCRP Board of Directors from 2008 to 2014. She was Vice President from 2011 to 2016 of Program Area Committee 1 on Basic Criteria, Epidemiology, Radiobiology, and Risk. She also served as Chair of the Program Committee for the 2011 Annual Meeting on “Scientific and Policy Challenges of Particle Radiations in Medical Therapy and Space Missions.” Dr. Held was a member of Scientific Committee (SC) 1-22 on Radiation Protection for Astronauts in Short-Term Missions and Phase I of SC 1-24 on Radiation Exposures in Space and the Potential of Central Nervous System Effects and an advisor to several NCRP committees.

Dr. Held is an Associate Radiation Biologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology (Radiation Biology) at Harvard Medical School (HMS). At MGH, Dr. Held leads a team that is involved in research on molecular mechanisms for the induction of bystander effects by high energy particles in cells and tissues, characterization of charged particle beam induced DNA damage responses and cell killing, development of a cancer screening platform for personalized radiation medicine, and mechanisms for regulation of DNA damage response by cell-cell communication. Dr. Held also teaches radiation biology to radiation oncology medical and physics residents and graduate students at MGH/HMS and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Held earned her PhD in biology from the University of Texas, Austin. She has served on review panels for numerous federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command programs and other organizations such as the Radiological Society of North America. She is on the Editorial Boards of Radiation Research and the International Journal of Radiation Biology, and has served on committees for the National Academy of Science/National Research Council, NASA, and the American Society of Radiation Oncology. She is a past President of the Radiation Research Society.

kathryn d. held
EEO Contact Myrna A. Young

(as of March 29, 2022)

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Last modified: April 8, 2019