Donna Vorhees (1992)

Fellowship Year: 1992
Academic Background: Harvard University School of Public Health - Sc.D. 1996
Donna Vorhees specializes in multi-pathway exposure assessment and human health risk assessment of chemicals in the indoor and outdoor environments. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health where she teaches Risk Assessment Methods. Dr. Vorhees has nearly 20 years of consulting experience and has conducted deterministic and probabilistic exposure and risk modeling for chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans, petroleum hydrocarbons, and metals (e.g., arsenic, lead, and mercury). Her risk assessments have been used to make decisions on a wide range of environmental health issues, such as determining whether and to what extent contaminated sites should be remediated, identifying research priorities and comparing risks among dredged material management alternatives for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, providing guidance for responding to and evaluating petroleum spills, and determining whether a contaminated aircraft carrier can safely be used as an artificial reef. Some of her projects involve contamination that gives rise to community concerns. Therefore, she has communicated results of risk assessments to a wide range of audiences at both public and private meetings. Dr. Vorhees is a Councilor for the Society for Risk Analysis and recently served on two National Research Council Committees (Health Risks of Phthalates and Sediment Dredging at Superfund Megasites).
Expertise: Environmental & Public Health