AECOM’s North America Industrial PFAS Lead, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Mr. Cuthbertson is an associate vice president with AECOM and has over 29 years of environmental consulting experience supporting primarily industrial clients. His primary focus during the past six years has been PFAS, and during this time has managed and supported over 80 projects across North America involving various PFAS constituents. He is experienced in analytical testing and methodologies, PFAS fate and transport, assessment and investigation, and treatment technologies. Mr. Cuthbertson has worked seamlessly with clients’ management and legal executives to develop internal PFAS programs/policies and strategies, has led and directed clients’ national PFAS programs, and has assisted with addressing risk management issues.

Americas PFAS Lead at AECOM, Washington D.C. Metro Area
Dr. Gwinn has provided technical and project management expertise to private and government clients for over 25 years. Her focus has primarily been on the characterization and remediation of environmental contamination including chlorinated solvents, explosives, and metals. Dr. Gwinn’s specialty focus areas range from bioremediation to applying statistics to environmental questions relating to risk, distribution, and trends. She developed an incremental sampling methodology to characterize the level of munitions constituents in stream sediments. Dr. Gwinn has successfully managed federal and commercial projects in values ranging from $10K to $20M, and is a certified project manager.

Professor Jaffé’s research interests relate to the physical, chemical, and biological processes that govern the transport and transformation of pollutants in the environment and their application toward the remediation of contaminated systems. Areas of current emphasis include laboratory and field experiments as well as mathematical simulations of biogeochemical processes in porous media, such as: (1) understanding the mechanism as well as environmental distribution of the Feammox process (ammonium oxidation under iron reducing conditions); (2) Applications of the Feammox process for ammonium removal in engineered systems and for the cometabolical degradation of recalcitrant organics such as PFAS; (2) biogeochemically mediated dynamics of trace metals, metalloids, and radioisotopes in sediments, wetland soils, and groundwater; (4) nitrogen processing in urban settings coupled to urban hydrology; and (5) design of novel biological waste treatment processes.

GHD’s Environmental Risk Assessment Lead, North Wales, PA
Francis C. Ramacciotti is a Principal and Senior Risk Assessor of GHD with over 20 years of experience in environmental health risk assessment, with a specialty in human health assessments. He approaches and uses risk assessment/evaluation as a tool to inform and guide site characterization, remediation, communication, and completion of remedial activities (as appropriate) to ensure protection of human health and the environment. He uses risk-based principles under RCRA, CERCLA, and state cleanup programs to ensure collecting data of sufficient quality and quantity to perform a risk assessment that can be used to balance the risks, benefits, and trade-offs associated with competing remedial alternatives, while also being able to communicate the decisions. He has contributed to ITRC’s technical guidance documents on Risk Communication Toolkit (trainer), RISK-3 (section lead), TPHRisk-1 (section lead and trainer), 1,4-dioxane (section lead), and the Soil Background & Risk teams.  

Drawing on his experience as an environmental engineer with a background in per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) treatment and remediation research, Mr. Yates designs innovative solutions to address existing and anticipated PFAS-related regulations. In addition to leading industrial and domestic wastewater treatment and evaluation projects, he actively advocates for clients on compliance issues. Through numerous journal publications and presentations at seminars and conferences across the US, he has helped shape discussions around PFAS-related issues including fate and transport, health implications, and treatment technologies.