John R.G. Challis, Ph.D., was educated in England, receiving his Ph.D. from Cambridge University, until his post-doctoral work led him to the University of California, San Diego and Harvard Medical School. He returned to the University of Oxford as a Research Scientist in 1974. Two years later, he moved to McGill University as a Medical Research Council Scholar and in 1981, Dr. Challis was appointed Full Professor at the University of Western Ontario. He was founding Director of the Lawson Research Institute, Vice President Research at St. Joseph's Hospital in London, Ontario, and Director of the MRC Group in Fetal and Neonatal Health and Development from 1989 to 1995. Currently a Professor and Chair in the Department of Physiology at the University of Toronto, Dr. Challis' research interests include studies of hormone mechanisms during pregnancy, fetal development, the control of birth, and the influence of intrauterine development on disease after birth. A Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (U.K.), Dr. Challis is a past President of the Physiological Society of Canada, and of the Perinatal Research Society, and President elect of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation. He is also Chair of the Council on Fetal Origins of Adult Disease.

Barbara Anne Croy, Ph.D., is currently a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Guelph. She received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Guelph, in Canada in 1969 and a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the University of Toronto in 1974. Dr. Croy has had a career long association with breeding programs for immune deficient mice and with use of these highly specialized animals to develop in vivo research models. Dr. Croy's research program is focused upon immunology of the uterus. She has received international recognition for her work on lineage analysis of a large, but transient, population of heavily granulated lymphocytes found in the uterus during pregnancy. Her recent studies on the functions of these cells, which are known as uterine Natural Killer cells, were the first to identify a role for the cells in regulating initiation of changes to the major maternal arteries supplying blood to the placenta and developing fetus (the decidual spiral arteries).

Immune deficient, gene ablated and transplanted mice are currently being used in Dr. Croy's laboratory to address mechanisms for uterine lymphocyte recruitment and activation and for localization of different lymphocyte subsets to specific microdomains within implantation sites. Mixed human/mouse models have beenexplored. Women develop a large, analogous population of transient uterine Natural Killer cells early in normal pregnancy. It is thought that Dr. Croy's models provide insights into the functions of human uterine lymphocytes and into potential anomalies in the uterine Natural Killer cell subset that may correlate with pre-eclampsia or recurrent pregnancy loss. These models could be readily adapted to studies of effects of environmental toxicants on the uterine immune system. Dr. Croy's animal investigations are supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Studies involving human materials are funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

Karla Damus, RN, M.S.P.H., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and the Director of Community Programs in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Women's Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and is the Director of Epidemiology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center. In addition, she is the Senior Research Associate in the Office of the Medical Director at the National Office of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, providing clinical expertise and epidemiological and statistical assistance to the Perinatal Data Center. She is a perinatal epidemiologist and a nurse, having received her PhD in epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Damus currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the District of Columbia Infant Mortality Initiative sponsored by NICHD. Dr. Damus also serves as a consultant to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration. She was a member of the MCH Research Committee of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health and was also a member of the Technical Expert Group for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Dr Damus is on the board for the New York State Perinatal Association, a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and is a member of the Nurse Advisory Council for the National March of Dimes. Dr. Damus was a charter member of the National Advisory Council for the National Institute for Nursing Research at NIH. Between 1988-1992 she was the Director of Research and Epidemiology in the Bureau of Maternity Services and Family Planning of the New York City Department of Health.

Her past and current work focuses on low birthweight, preterm delivery, perinatal substance abuse, SIDS, infant botulism, hepatitis, preconceptional health, integrated information systems development, perinatal health surveillance, and cervical cancer. Dr. Damus also has expertise with perinatal health and fetal infant mortality reviews and the evaluation of community-based programs and perinatal services.

Donna S. Dizon-Townson, M.D., is a Co-Director of Perinatal Center at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Dizon-Townson received her M.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. She has authored or co-authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, is an editorial consultant for the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and several other professional journals. Dr. Dizon-Townson has won numerous awards, including the Outstanding Clinical Professor Teaching Award from the University of Utah, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Award of Research Excellence. She is a member of several professional societies, including American Medical Association, American college of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and others. Her research interests include factor V Leiden, thromboembolism during pregnancy, molecular genetic aspects of thrombosis, and molecular genetics of preterm labor and delivery.

Robert E. Garfield, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of Reproductive Sciences in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and has a dual professorship in the department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas. Dr. Garfield did his graduate work in Pharmacology at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where he received a Ph.D. He did Post Doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in the department of Physiology. He took his first faculty appointment at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario where he was appointed as an Assistant Professor and advanced to the level of Professor. In 1991 he came to the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas. Throughout his career he focused his research on the function of smooth muscle with emphasis on control and regulation contractility of the uterine function during pregnancy. More recently he has included studies of the cervix. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts and about an equal number of abstracts.

William Gibb, Ph.D., is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and Ph. D. from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Postdoctoral studies were carried out at the University of Colorado in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Biochemistry. In 1976 he moved to the University of Montreal, Canada, to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Research Center at Sainte Justine Hospital. Since 1989 he has been at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

His research interests have focused on the study of the human fetal membranes and placenta and their role in the onset of parturition, with particular interest in the role of steroids in the regulation of prostaglandin formation. More recently, he has also been involved in studies on in regulation of prostaglandin formation at parturition in the sheep.

Robert L. Goldenberg, M.D., is a professor in University of Alabama’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and co-director of the Center for Research on Women’s Health. He is holder of the Charles E. Flowers Endowed Professorship in Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of the $20-million national program office for Smoke-Free Families, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Goldenberg is principal investigator on a wide range of multimillion-dollar grants. His work has taken him throughout Alabama and the rural South and on to Zambia (the former Northern Rhodesia) and Pakistan. He has distinguished himself in a career devoted both to the provision of care for low-income and minority pregnant women, as well as research aimed at understanding why these women have such poor pregnancy outcomes. In addition to providing health services in the United States and in developing countries, Dr. Goldenberg has devoted a substantial portion of his career to epidemiological research. His first major effort was an analysis of the epidemiology of poor pregnancy outcomes, with a focus on psychosocial status, nutrition, and infection. In addition to Journal of American Medical Association, Dr. Goldenberg’s research has been published nationally in dozens of other professional journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. Dr. Goldenberg received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University and his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine. After postgraduate training at Duke, NIH, Columbia, and Yale, he joined University of Alabama’s faculty in 1976. He served as director of the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health at the Alabama Department of Public Health. He was named chairman of Cooper Green Hospital’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1987, a position he held until 1991. He served as chairman of University of Alabama’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1995 to 1999. He was a member of the Council of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development from 1995 to 1999 and in 1996 was elected to the Institute of Medicine, where he chairs the section on obstetrics and pediatrics.

Lynn R. Goldman, M.D., is a pediatrician and an epidemiologist. She is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, where her areas of focus are environmental health policy and children’s environmental health. In 1993, Dr. Goldman was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve as Assistant Administrator for the EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) in 1993. In that position, she was responsible for the nation's pesticide, toxic substances and pollution prevention laws. Under her watch, EPA expanded right-to-know under the Toxics Release Inventory and overhauled the nation’s pesticides laws. Dr. Goldman made significant progress on the issues of testing of high volume industrial chemicals and identification of chemicals that disrupt endocrine systems. At EPA she was successful in promoting children’s health issues and furthering the international agenda for global chemical safety.

Prior to joining the EPA, Dr. Goldman served in several positions at the California Department of Health Services, most recently as head of the Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control. She has conducted public health investigations on pesticides, childhood lead poisoning and other environmental hazards. She has a BS in Conservation of Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley, an MPH from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and an MD from the University of California, San Francisco. She completed pediatric training at Children’s Hospital, Oakland, California.

Fernando A. Guerra, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.P., is currently Director of Health for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, and a practicing pediatrician. He is the Founding Medical Director of the now federally qualified Community and Migrant Health Center-The Barrio Clinic. Dr. Guerra received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas-Austin, his medical degree from the University of Texas at Galveston and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and a founding scholar of the Public Health Leadership Institute. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Urban Institute; the Institute of Medicine’s Board on Children, Youth and Families; the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s All Kids Count Advisory Committee and several other national advisory boards. He served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Using Performance Monitoring to Improve Community Health; and is on the Board of Directors for the National Association of City & County Health Officials and the CDC’s Committee on Environmental Health, and Guidelines for Community Preventive Services. He has served on the NICHD panel on Human Embryo Research, on the Secretary of Health and Human Service’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality, the Advisory Committee for Blood Safety and Availability, and the March of Dimes Bioethics Committee.

Maureen Hack, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics, Director of High Risk Follow Up Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital School of Medicine Case at the Western Reserve University Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Maureen Hack received her medical degree (M.B.,Ch.B.) from the Pretoria University Medical School in South Africa. Following a pediatric residency at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel she completed a research fellowship in Neonatology at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, associated with the School of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She established the High Risk Follow Up Program at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in 1977 and since that time has followed successive cohorts of preterm and very low birth weight survivors of neonatal intensive care.

Jennifer L. Howse, Ph.D., is President of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. Under Dr. Howse's leadership, the March of Dimes has achieved unprecedented revenue growth and significant expansion of mission initiatives.

Dr. Howse joined the March of Dimes as Executive Director of the Greater New York Chapter. Prior to that, Dr. Howse held a number of top public service positions in health related organizations, including State Commissioner for Mental Retardation in Pennsylvania, Associate Commissioner of Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities for New York State, and Executive Director of the Federal Court Appointed Willowbrook Review Panel. Dr. Howse holds a Ph.D. in Child Language Development from Florida State University.

Carol J. Rowland Hogue, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Terry Professor of Maternal and Child Health and Professor of Epidemiology in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Hogue conducts research on disparities in women's and infants' health. She received her MPH and Ph.D. in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina and subsequently was Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at UNC (1974-77). She was a member of the Biometry faculty at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (Assistant then Associate Professor, 1977-82)and consultant to the National Center for Toxicologic Research. With Carole Kimmel and others, she conducted an analysis of the reliability ofanimal models for predicting human teratogens. One of the key findings ofthat study is the important of growth retardation in cross-speciescomparisons. In 1982, Hogue went to the Centers for Disease Control, whereshe was Chief of the Pregnancy and Infant Health Branch (1982-88) andDirector of the Division of Reproductive Health (1988-92) in the National Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, prior to returning to academia in 1992 in her present position at Emory University. During her tenure at CDC, she helped establish both national birth/death record linkage analysis and the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), as well as to maintain abortion surveillance. Hogue served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on Unintended Pregnancy, several National Institutes of Health committees and sits on several editorial boards, including the Journal of the National Medical Women's Association. Dr. Hogue has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, and the Latin American Perinatal Center. She is a founding Fellow and President-Elect of the American College of Epidemiology. She has been president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, Chair of the MCH Council for the Association of Schools of Public Health, is a fellow of the American Epidemiological Society, and a member of the Epidemic Intelligence Service alumni association.

Woodie Kessel, M.D., M.P.H., is Assistant Surgeon General. For more than twenty years Dr. Kessel has been a public health professional and practitioner, advocate, and public policy leader on behalf of America’s children and families. Combining the disciplines of pediatrics, primary care, and public health, with first-hand experience in underserved inner-city urban communities, Dr. Kessel has championed the advancement of child health science, the prevention of illness, and the promotion of maternal and child health and well-being. Dr. Kessel has served with distinction as an officer in the United States Public Health Service attaining the rank of Assistant Surgeon General. He has been an advisor on child health matters to White House officials in four administrations, and throughout the Department of Health and Human Services directly serving seven Secretaries and five Surgeon Generals. Dr. Kessel is presently on special assignment serving as the Co-Director of the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children. The Task Force, comprised of nine Cabinet Officials and seven White House Office Directors, is focusing on reducing asthma suffering, eliminating lead poisoning, preventing unintentional injuries from autos and bikes, preventing cancer from pesticides and other environmental exposures, and gaining a better understanding of what is harmful, harmless, and helpful to healthy growth and development throughout the life cycle.

Carole A. Kimmel, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist in the National Center for Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Dr. Kimmel earned her Ph.D. in anatomy and teratology from the University of Cincinnati, and did a postdoctoral fellowship in toxicology at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Kimmel’s research career at Harvard Medical School, the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, the National Center for Toxicological Research/FDA, and the EPA has focused on the causes and mechanisms of developmental toxicity, including prenatally-induced birth defects, mortality and growth retardation, as well as longer-term functional (e.g., neurological, cardiovascular) alterations. Dr. Kimmel has led the EPA’s efforts in the development of risk assessment guidelines for noncancer health effects, including improved methods for quantitative risk assessment for developmental toxicity. She also has served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Toxicology and chaired the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Subcommittee. She is Past President of the Teratology Society and the Neurobehavioral Teratology Society, past Councilor of the Society of Toxicology (SOT), Past-President of the National Capital Area Regional Chapter of SOT, and Vice President-Elect of the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section of SOT. Dr. Kimmel has worked with the International Programme on Chemical Safety/WHO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in their joint project to harmonize risk assessment for reproductive and developmental toxicity. Dr. Kimmel has over 125 publications, including three books and several symposium proceedings. Dr. Kimmel has won numerous awards, including the EPA’s Science Achievement Award in Health Sciences twice for her work in developmental toxicity risk assessment and quantitative risk assessment, the FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation for her work on pregnancy labeling of drugs, and the Society of Toxicology’s Arnold J. Lehman Award for her contributions in risk assessment. Most recently, Dr. Kimmel chaired the Toxicology Working of the EPA’s 10X Task Force which developed recommendations for toxicology data requirements related to protecting children’s health from pesticide exposures. Currently, she chairs the EPA’s Technical Panel to re-examine the RfD and RfC processes, serves as co-chair of the Developmental Disorders Working Group for the Presidential Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children, and is a member of the Interagency Coordinating Committee for planning The Longitudinal Cohort Study of Environmental Effects on Child Health and Development.

Mark Klebanoff, M.D., is currently Director of the Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH. Dr. Klebanoff received his undergraduate, medical, and master of public health degrees from Johns Hopkins University, and completed his pediatric residency at the University of Rochester. He has been a tenured scientist at the NIH since 1987. Dr. Klebanoff's research interests focus on the epidemiology of pregnancy complications, particularly reduced fetal growth and preterm birth. He has served as President of the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research;and is a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology and a member of the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Epidemiological Society.

Daniel Krewski, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of the R. Samuel McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment at the University of Ottawa, where he is involved in a number of activities in population health risk assessment within the new Institute of Population Health. Dr. Krewski has also served as Adjunct Research Professor of Statistics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Carleton University since 1984. Prior to joining the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa in 1998, Dr. Krewski wasDirector, Risk Management in the Health Protection Branch of Health Canada. While with Health Canada, he also served as Acting Director of the Bureau of Chemical Hazards and as Chief of the Biostatistics Division in the Environmental Health Directorate. Dr. Krewski obtained his Ph.D. in statistics from Carleton University and subsequently completed an M.H.A. at the University of Ottawa. His professional interests include epidemiology, biostatistics, risk assessment, and risk management. Dr. Krewski is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Society for Risk Analysis. He currently Chairs the U.S. National Academy of Science's Committee on Acute Exposure Guidance Levels for Highly Hazardous Substances.

Rita Loch-Caruso, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of Toxicology at the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in Toxicology from the University of Cincinnati in 1982, then pursued postdoctoral research training at Michigan State University. She has been a member of the University of Michigan Faculty since 1986. Dr. Loch-Caruso has served as President of the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology, President of the Michigan Regional Chapter of the Society of Toxicology (SOT), and a member of several NIH study sections. She currently serves on the Environmental Health Sciences Review Committee of the NIEHS, NIH, the Michigan Great Lakes Protection Fund Technical Advisory Board and the City of Ann Arbor Environmental Commission. Her current research focuses on uterine muscle responses to environmental chemicals and their mechanistic involvement in the etiology of preterm, postterm and ineffective labor. These projects span molecular, cellular, tissue and whole animal responses, with the aim of developing model systems for toxicologic studies of chemical effects on parturition.

Charles J. Lockwood, M.D., is Stanley H. Kaplan Professor and Chairman of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York University, School of Medicine. He received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine. Dr. Lockwood moved to New York as a post-doctoral fellow at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Lockwood has won numerous awards, including Award for Best Genetic Research in Perinatal Medicine, 7th Annual Meeting, Society of Perinatal Obstetricians; Second Prize Award for Best Paper in Perinatal Medicine 8th Annual Meeting Society of Perinatal Obstetricians and numerous other awards. His research interests include blastocyst implantation, uterine bleeding, and preterm delivery biochemical marker.

Matthew Longnecker, M.D., received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Antioch College in 1978 and an MD from Dartmouth Medical School in 1981. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia (1981-1984) and is board certified in internal medicine. After receiving an ScD in Epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health in 1989, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles (1989-1995), and was a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. Dr. Longnecker became a tenure-track intramural scientist in the Epidemiology Branch of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in 1995. He also serves as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has authored or co-authored over 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals, is an associate editor for the American Journal of Epidemiology and for the Annals of Epidemiology, and was on the study section for the American Institute for Cancer Research for five years.

Dr. Longnecker’s research program is focused on the health effects of persistent organic pollutants. His main project is a study of background-level intrauterine exposure to organochlorine residues (e.g., the DDT metabolite p,p'-DDE, and polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs]) in relation to birth defects and neurodevelopment. These associations are being examined using the Collaborative Perinatal Project (CPP) serum and data bank, containing material for over 40,000 mothers and their children, with children followed to age 7 years. Over 2800 CPP maternal serum specimens have been analyzed at the Centers for Disease Control for organochlorine compounds, and the analysis of data is ongoing. His recent work has looked in particular at the reproductive toxicity of p,p’-DDE, including the association with increased risk of preterm birth.

Stephen Lye, Ph.D., undertook graduate training with Professor David Porter at University of Bristol, UK, completing his Ph.D. in Reproductive Biology in 1980. He then moved to London, Ontario as a post-doctoral fellow with John Challis investigating the contribution of the fetal endocrine system to the onset of labour. He was appointed as Assistant Professor within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Western Ontario in 1984 and received an Ontario Ministry of Health Career Scientist award. In 1988 he was recruited to Mount Sinai Hospital as Head of the Division of Perinatology at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute (SLRI) and Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Toronto. He currently holds the position of Professor of Ob/Gyn and of Physiology at U. of T. and Joint Head of the Program of Development and Fetal Health at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute. He was recently also appointed as Director of the Research Training Centre at the SLRI. Dr. Lye has published over 80 scientific papers and has received extensive peer-review research funding. Most notably, he was Director of the MRC Program in Birth and Perinatal Development from 1990 – 1995 and is currently Director of the CIHR Group in Development and Fetal health. His research on the molecular regulation of labour and the regulation of placental development was recognized by the Society of Gynecologic Investigation through his receipt of the President’s Scientific Achievement Award in 1997 and the award of a Canada Research Chair in Fetal, Neonatal and Maternal Health.

Donald Mattison, M.D., is the Medical Director of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. From 1990 to 1998, he was the Dean of the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. He has also served as Acting Director of the Human Risk Assessment Program at the National Center for Toxicological Research, a component of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Mattison received an M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has researched and written extensively in the areas of reproductive and developmental toxicology, risk assessment, and clinical obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Mattison has served as Co-Chair of the IOM Committee on Environmental Justice and as chair of the IOM Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and he is a member of the Commission on Life Sciences and the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He has also served on several other Academy committees.

Peter Nathanielsz, Ph.D., obtained his bachelor’s degree and his Ph.D. and medical training from the University of Cambridge in England. He taught initially on the faculty at the University of Cambridge and then at the University of California in Los Angeles and is currently on the Faculty at Cornell University. His research involved the mechanisms of labor and delivery, myometrial contractility, and the influence of the fetus on the timing of birth. His other interests are in fetal programming and how adverse intrauterine environments can alter life time health. Dr. Nathanielsz has served on several NIH committees. He chaired the Maternal-Child Health Research Committee of the NICHD He has written three books, Life Before Birth; Life in the Womb and the Prenatal Prescription to inform the general lay public of issues related to fetal development and fetal programming.

E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, is currently the Abraham Roth Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Temple University School of Medicine. In that department he also serves as the Director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. He completed a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from Long Island University; an M.D. degree from New York University School of Medicine; a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica, and a MBA degree from the Fox School of Business & Management of Temple University. He completed an internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University/Presbyterian Hospital, and a postdoctoral fellowship in perinatology at Yale University School of Medicine. He remained on the full-time faculty at Yale for almost 10 years. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, he maintains an active clinical practice in obstetrics and perinatology and continues to perform all basic and advanced procedures in his field. He regularly participates as a teacher and mentor in the students' residents' and fellows' educational programs. His research focuses on diabetes in pregnancy, birth defects and prenatal diagnosis. For many years he and his laboratory group have been studying the mechanism of diabetes-induced birth defects. They have determined that there are specific cytoarchitectural changes at the epithelial level associated with these anomalies. Biochemical changes include depletion in membrane lipids and phospholipids as well as excess free radicals. They are now studying the molecular mechanisms, and methods to prevent these anomalies. He and his colleagues have also developed the technique of embryofetoscopy for early prenatal diagnosis and eventually for curative fetal therapy. He has published extensively in the scientific literature, over 400 articles, chapters and abstracts; 9 textbooks (including revisions) and 4 monographs. He is a member of the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences and many other national scientific organizations. He serves on many governmental and civic organizations and committees such as, the FDA; the IOM; the NIH; the Secretary of Health & Human Services Committee on Infant Mortality; The March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation; the Board (Chairman) of the Nelly Berman Classical Music Institute and the Agnes Irwin School for Girls.

Janet Rich-Edwards, D.Sc., is an epidemiologist and Assistant Professor at the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Her primary research lies in the intersection of the health of women and that of their children. Grounded in the belief that health and disease processes originate early in life, her research seeks to identify determinants of women’s reproductive health across the lifecourse, as well as the impact of prenatal and childhood factors on the development of adult chronic disease. Specifically, Dr. Rich-Edwards’ research is focussed on:social and psychologic stressors affecting risk of preterm birth; nutritional and lifestyle determinants of women’s fertility and pregnancy outcome; and prenatal and childhood predictors of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Current projects include: investigation of the role of maternal experiences of violence and racism as correlates of CRH levels and risk of preterm birth; use of birth certificate data to explore evidence for interactions between maternal age and social position in predicting pregnancy outcome (the "weathering hypothesis"); an exploration of specific socioeconomic stressors impacting birth outcomes in community health centers in Boston; a study of early life exposures, such as birthweight and breastfeeding, as predictors of chronic disease in adulthood.

James M. Roberts, M.D., is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Professor of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, the Elsie Hilliard Hillman Chair of Women’s and Infants’ Health Research, Vice President for Research Magee Women’s Hospital and Director of Magee-Womens Research Institute. Dr. Roberts early work was on signal transduction in myometrium. For the last 12 years he has concentrated on the pregnancy complication preeclampsia. He has received national and international recognition for this work. He was he recipient of the Chesley Award for lifetime achievement in the study of hypertension in pregnancy of the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy. He is the author of more than 160 publications and is a reviewer for numerous medical and scientific journals. He has served on the editorial boards of several journals including Developmental Physiology, Placenta, The Journal of Gynecological Investigation, and Hypertension in Pregnancy. He has served on scientific review boards of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Medical Research Council of Canada (MRC), the Food and Drug Administration and the March of Dimes. He served as chair of the NICHD Maternal Fetal Medicine Network from 1990 –1999 and is past president of the Perinatal Research Society, the North American Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy, and the Society of Gynecological Investigation. He is the President of the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy. Dr. Roberts was formally admitted to fellowship ad eundem of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in September of 2000. His research has been funded for the past 20 years by numerous agencies including the NIH and the March of Dimes.

The Honorable Paul Grant Rogers, J.D., is a Partner at the law firm of Hogan and Hartson. He is serving as Chair of this roundtable with an extensive background in health policy and environmental health law. His areas of practice include antitrust, corporation, environmental, administrative and regulatory law, with special emphasis in health law. Known as "Mr. Health," Mr. Rogers also served twenty-four years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Eight of those years he served as Chair of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, and was responsible for key legislation that led to the Clean Air Act, the National Cancer Act of 1971 and 1977, and the Safe Drinking Water Act, as well as other prominent health injunctions. Mr. Rogers has received honorary degrees from various universities and was awarded the Public Welfare Medal by the NAS in 1982, the "Year 2000" award from the National Cancer Institute in 1987, the 1991 Health Policy Award from the National Lawyers Association, the 1994 Distinguished Leadership Award from the University of Florida Health Sciences Center, and the 1997 American Cancer Society Distinguished Service Award. Currently, he serves as Chair for the following organizations: Research!America, the National Osteoporosis Foundation and the Friends of the Library of Medicine; he is Co-Chair of the National Leadership Coalition on Health Care. Mr. Rogers is also on the Board of Directors of the Scripps Research Institute, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and the Foundation for Biomedical Research. He is a member of the Harvard School of Public Health Dean’s Council, the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, the Council of the Washington University School of Medicine, the University of Virginia Health Science Council, and the University of Chicago Council for the Division of Biological Sciences. Mr. Rogers is also a member of the Roundtable on Research and Development of Drugs, Biologics, and Medical Devices, and has served on several other IOM committees. Mr. Rogers is a member of the Institute of Medicine.

Jeannette Rogowski, Ph.D., is a Senior Economist at RAND with over 15 years experience studying the economics of the health care system. In recognition of leadership in her fields of work, Dr. Rogowski has been named a Fellow of the Association for Health Services Research. One of Dr. Rogowski’s primary areas of research is the economics of preterm birth. Recent work includes studies of the cost-effectiveness of care for very low birth weight infants and the economic implications of quality improvement efforts in neonatal intensive care. In addition, she has developed the system for measuring and monitoring treatment costs for high risk infants in the Vermont Oxford Network (VON). VON is a voluntary, collaborative network of neonatal intensive care units that contains 40 percent of the NICUs in the United States and data on half of all very low birth weight infants born in the country each year. In other work on vulnerable children, Dr. Rogowski is leading the evaluation of welfare reform on disabled children for the Social Security Administration. Dr. Rogowski also serves as the director of RAND’s Center for Employer-Sponsored Health and Pension Benefits and the co-director of the Center for Health Care Markets and Vulnerable Populations.

Barbara M. Sanborn, Ph.D., is tenured Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Texas Medical School Houston. She was President of the Society for the Study of Reproduction (2000-01). She directs the NIH Training Program in Mammalian Reproduction and is Director of Research, Office of Women's Health, University of Texas Health Science Center Houston Women's Health Initiative. Dr. Sanborn's research focuses on elucidating hormonal mechanisms regulating uterine contraction/relaxation.

David Savitz, Ph. D., received his undergraduate training in Psychology at Brandeis University and a Masters degree in Preventive Medicine at Ohio State University in 1978. He worked as a researcher for two years at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio prior to enrolling in the doctoral program in Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. He became Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He moved to the University of North Carolina School of Public Health in 1985 as an Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1989 and Full Professor in 1993. He became Chair of the Department of Epidemiology in 1996. He also is a Fellow of the Carolina Population Center and a member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Teaching is focused on epidemiologic methods and reproductive epidemiology. He has directed doctoral dissertations of 20 students at the University of North Carolina and 13 masters theses. He served in the past as Editor at the American Journal of Epidemiology and as a member of the Epidemiology and Disease Control - 1 Study Section of the National Institutes of Health, and now serves as an Editor of Epidemiology. He is the Past-President of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and the North American Regional Councilor for the International Epidemiological Association. His primary research activities and interests are in reproductive, environmental, and cancer epidemiology. Current work on reproductive issues focuses on identifying the causes of preterm birth and spontaneous abortion. A comprehensive study funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development addresses the role of infection, micronutrients, tobacco, cocaine, psychosocial stress, and other candidate risk factors for preterm birth. Completed projects have addressed electromagnetic fields in relation to childhood and adult cancers, the role of pesticides in breast cancer and reproductive health outcomes, and occupational influences on pregnancy. He continues to work on environmental factors related to cancer, including pesticides and breast cancer and electromagnetic fields.

Catherine Y. Spong, M.D., is currently Chief of the Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch and Senior Staff Fellow of the Section on Developmental and Molecular Pharmacology at the National Institutes of Health. She is also serving as a Clinical Instructor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Ob/Gyn, at Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Spong received her bachelors and medical degrees at the University of Missouri-Kansas. She is the recent recipient of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine Award for Best Presentation, and has won numerous other honors and awards to include the Young Investigator Award, European Neuropeptide Society. Professional societies for which she is a member to include: the Society for Gynecologic Investigation, the Society for Neuroscience, and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine. Dr. Spong also serves as an editorial consultant for the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Journal of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, as well as a being a member of the Editorial Board for Contemporary Ob/Gyn.

Xiaobin Wang, M.D., M.P.H., Sc.D., is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Maternal and Child Health at Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Wang received her MD degree from Beijing Medical University, MPH degree from Tulane University, and Sc.D. degree in the field of Maternal and Child Health from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Wang also received postdoctoral training in Environmental Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is also a board certified attending pediatrician at the Boston Medical Center.

In the past five years, Dr. Wang’s research has focused on environmental and genetic determinants of adverse reproductive outcomes and gene-environmental interactions in diverse populations. Dr. Wang has served as the PI of several molecular reproductive epidemiology projects, funded by Boston University, the March of Dimes, and NIH.

Allen J. Wilcox M.D., Ph.D., is Chief of Epidemiology Branch at Environmental Diseases & Medicine Program, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Wilcox received both the BA and MD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He served an internship in Medicine and Psychiatry at Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, NY, and a residency in Preventive Medicine at University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He received both MPH and PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, after which he came to NIEHS as a Research Medical Officer in 1979. He was Acting Chief of the Epidemiology Branch 1984-1986, and has been Chief, Reproductive Epidemiology Section, since 1989, and Chief, Epidemiology Branch since 1991. He also serves as Adjunct Professor, Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is Board Certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine and licensed in North Carolina. Dr. Wilcox is a Past President of the Society for Pediatric Epidemiologic Research (1996), and a Past President of the Society for Epidemiologic Research (1998). Dr. Wilcox’s research interests include conception and early pregnancy, birthweight, and the role of genetic susceptibility to environmental teratogens.

Lynne Wilcox, M.D., is director of the Division of Reproductive Health at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Dr. Wilcox received her M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia. After receiving her M.D., Dr. Wilcox began a three-year family medicine residency at the Medical Center of Middle Georgia in Macon, GA. While still in medical school, Dr. Wilcox contacted the State Health Department in Atlanta, and was employed as a medical officer in the Georgia Department of Human Resources’ Division of Public Health. She later earned a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in perinatal epidemiology in the Department of Maternal and Child Health.

Dr. Wilcox then returned to the CDC, where she worked as epidemic intelligence service officer for two years until she became chief of the Fertility Epidemiology Section in the Division of Reproductive Health. She was promoted to assistant for family and infant health to the deputy director for public health practice and to deputy chief. Dr. Wilcox is board certified in family and preventive medicine and a graduated scholar of the Public Health Leadership Institute. Dr. Wilcox has also been involved in a variety of international health activities, including CDC representation at World Health Organization meetings in Geneva, Switzerland and a position as U.S. co-chairwoman of the Working Group on Adult Women for former U.S. Health and Human Services Director Donna Shalala’s 1998 Binational Israel-USA Conference of Promoting Women’s Health Across Generations in Jerusalem.

Chandrasekhar Yallampalli, D.V.M., Ph.D., is currently a professor in the departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Anatomy & Neurosciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. He received his veterinary degree from APA University in India and his Ph.D. from the University of Adelaide in Australia in 1986. After completing a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, he joined UTMB as an assistant professor in 1988. He was promoted to associate professor in 1994 and to professor in 1997. His current activities at UTMB, besides research, include teaching to both medical and graduate students and direct the Assisted Reproduction Technology laboratory.