Environmental Chemistry Expert Witnesses: 7

Joel Gagnier, PhD, is an experienced clinical Epidemiologist with over 25 years of experience in the assessment of general and specific causation in cases of Exposures to Chemicals and Medical Interventions, and the Risks of Disease or Adverse Events. He is a tenured professor with over 20 million dollars in funding and over 210 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Gagnier has methodologic expertise in human subject epidemiologic research (and more generally epidemiology), clinical research, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, as well as basic science research, statistics and biostatistics  

Litigation Support - Dr. Gagnier is an expert at finding the relevant literature, assessing the quality of the evidence, extracting the data, performing meta-analyses, finding the magnitude of the association, doing a causation assessment (Bradford hill analysis) and coming to final conclusions. He has been an expert on 15 separate cases, been deposed 10 times, and testified 4 times.

Areas of Expertise:

Epidemiology Health Risk Assessment Environmental Medicine Toxicity Heavy Metals Glyphosate-based Herbicides Pesticides and Herbicides

Volatile Organic Compounds (ethylene oxide, benzene, PFOS/PFAS) Vaccines Medical Devices (hip and knee implants) Natural Health Products Nutritional Supplements Nutrition Patient Safety

Professor Christopher J. Tennant, PhD, CIH, has over 40 years of experience in the field of Environmental Health and Industrial Hygiene. He is Board Certified in the Comprehensive Practice of Industrial Hygiene. Dr. Tennant is currently President, CEO, and Principal Consultant at San Joaquin Environmental, in Fresno California, where he consults with Federal, State, County, City, various public agencies, and private industry sectors from public housing to Aerospace. His services are available in all 50 US States and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Tennant also serves as Professor Emeritus for the Department of Public Health at Fresno State University where he's taught Environment Health, Industrial Hygiene, and Occupational Health and Safety for 35 years at both undergraduate and post graduate levels.

Litigation Support - Dr. Tennant has been retained by numerous insurances companies and law firms on various Industrial Hygiene matters throughout the US, including workers compensation, property damage, personal injury, and wrongful death. He has testified as an expert witness in Federal Court, Superior Court, and Workers Compensation Appeals Board over 100 times. He's been deposed many more times. 

Areas of Expertise:

Mold Asbestos Lead-based Paint Bad Faith Environmental Contamination Hazardous Materials Clandestine Drug Lab Remediation Industrial Hygiene

Chemical, Biologic, and Physical Hazard Exposure Landlord / Tenant Disputes over Habitability / Sanitary Standards OSHA, HSE, and EU Compliance Wrongful Death Lead and other Heavy Metal Poisoning Indoor Air Quality and Human Health Hearing Conservation and Noise Ordinance Solvent Exposures

Ted W. Simon, PhD, DABT, is an award winning Environmental Toxicologist and Scientist. His expertise is in toxicology, risk assessment, mathematical modeling, statistics, neuroscience, and environmental / ecological health issues.

Dr. Simon has over 10 years of experience as a toxicologist employed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He served as EPA’s senior toxicologist in the waste management division working on risk and soil cleanup.

Teaching Experience - Since 2001, Dr. Simon has served as an Instructor / Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Science, College of Public Health, at the University of Georgia.

Public Speaker - Well published, including the author of a textbook on toxicology and environmental risk assessment, Dr. Simon has extensive national and international public speaking experience. Since 1996, he has been delivering seminars and lectures to universities and national institutes on many subjects within his area of expertise. In 2016, he delivered a lectures on “Bayesian Methods for Application of Uncertainty Factors,” to the Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, and “Quantitative Prediction of Phenotypic Change from High Throughput Assay Results,” to the EPA's Workshop on In Vitro to In Vivo Extrapolation, Research Triangle Park, NC.

Litigation Support - Dr. Simon has over 15 years of experience offering expert witness services to counsel representing both plaintiff and defendant. He has been retained over 20 times since 2000 for cases involving environmental risk, drug and alcohol cases, DUI, accidental poisoning, and intellectual property. Dr. Simon has particular expertise in dioxin-like chemicals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). His services include consulting, reports, deposition, and trial testimony when necessary.

Areas of Expertise:

Dioxins PCBs Drugs Alcohol Poisoning DUI / DWI Water Contamination Soil Contamination Environmental Risk Assessment

Environmental Toxicology Carcinogenicity Food Contamination Pesticides Fracking Lead Marijuana Polychlorinated Biphenyls Intellectual Property

RedSpire, LLC delivers end-to-end Exposure Science and Occupational Epidemiology services to support data-driven decision making. RedSpire's expert analysis is fast, deep, and cost-effective and their technology amplifies their expertise. RedSpire's scientists turn strategy into actionable outcomes.

Litigation Support - Ideal clients are attorneys or firms involved in toxic tort litigation, particularly those with occupational exposures, who are interested in a technology-forward approach to streamline the expert witness work. RedSpire is interested in clients who want to transform how the industry integrates science into legal cases, through more systemic applications of technology that can bring the science of a case to the forefront in ways that reduce the reliance on expensive and time-consuming expert witness work.

Dr. Kristen Good is an Epidemiologist and Public Health Professional with over 15 years of scientific background and experience in risk assessment, toxicology, exposure assessment, and environmental sciences, across academia/research, private industry, and government sectors. She is passionate about identifying data-driven, scientifically-supported solutions to complex problems - and communicating those solutions to stakeholders and the public. She has a Ph.D. in Environmental Health with an epidemiology concentration from Colorado State University, a Master's degree in Environmental Management, toxicology focus, from Duke University, and a B.S. in Biology from Boston College.

Dr. Good has served as the leading technical authority in occupational health and indoor air quality at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) since 2020. She manages the state’s indoor air quality improvement programs and occupational health surveillance and response initiatives. She regularly advises partners, workplace managers, and the general public on health and safety regulations and best practices, PPE and administrative controls to reduce exposures/safety risks, employer liabilities related to occupational health and safety, and post-incident response related to a variety of occupational health and safety concerns and scenarios.

From 2020-2022, Dr. Good led the Industry Response Team of the state’s COVID-19 pandemic response. She was responsible for advising on workplace outbreak prevention, investigation, and response for hundreds of workplace outbreaks, and employer responsibility across a wide variety of industry sectors. She also worked with the Governor’s Office and other state agencies on COVID-19 guidance and policy development.

Areas of Expertise:

Environmental Epidemiology / Exposure Reconstruction Occupational Health Surveillance, Outbreak Investigation, Emergency Response Wildfire Smoke, Indoor Air Quality, Extreme Heat Preparedness & Response Human Health Risk Assessment (IRIS, Superfund, toxic tort litigation)

Expert testimony and regulatory guidance development COVID-19 workplace safety and communicable disease prevention Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu incident response and worker protection Chemical-specific risk assessments

Dr. Nicholas Good, Co-Founder and Exposure Science Lead, is an Aerosol Scientist with over 20 years of experience in Scientific Instrument Development, Evaluation, and Deployment. He has worked across academia, research, and private industry in atmospheric chemistry, cloud physics, indoor air quality, and environmental health. Dr. Good focuses on bridging emerging technology—both hardware and software—from the research laboratory into solutions for practical real-world problems. He holds a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Manchester University and a B.S in Physics from The University of Manchester.

Dr. Good provides consulting services supporting clients' needs in occupational health and safety, exposure assessment, and environmental health issues—with particular focus on asbestos and benzene exposure reconstructions. In addition to his role with RedSpire, Dr. Good owns Good Science LLC (2019-present), which provides specialized environmental consulting services primarily for legal clients, and co-founded CloudSci LLC (2023) a company commercializing airborne particle measurement technologies for research and related markets.

Since 2017, Dr. Good has served as Research Scientist at Colorado State University (first in the Department of Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences, and now in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering), leading research on air quality and human health with emphasis on indoor air quality, building performance, bioaerosols, and novel health effects of air pollution.

Areas of Expertise:

Exposure Reconstruction and Probabilistic Risk Modeling (asbestos, benzene) Scientific Instrument Development, Evaluation, Deployment Indoor Air Quality and Building Performance Analysis Aerosol Optical and Absorption Properties Characterization Black Carbon and Brown Carbon Measurement and Analysis

Ice Nucleation and Cloud Microphysics Biomass Burning and Combustion Emissions Characterization Bioaerosol Detection and Classification (fluorescence, holographic sensors) Expert Witness Materials and Analytical Support for Legal Teams Data Analysis, Modeling, and R Programming

Dr. Gavin McMeeking, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, is an Aerosol Scientist with over 20 years of experience in Scientific Instrument Development, Evaluation, and Deployment. He has worked across academia, research, and private industry in atmospheric chemistry, cloud physics, indoor air quality, and environmental health. Dr. McMeeking focuses on bridging emerging technology—both hardware and software—from the research laboratory into solutions to practical real-world problems. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University and a B.A. in Earth and Planetary Science from UC Berkeley.

Dr. McMeeking leads the company's strategic direction and client services. He co-founded CloudSci LLC (2023), which commercializes airborne particle measurement technologies for research and related markets. Previously, he held leadership roles at Handix Scientific LLC, first as a Senior/Principal Scientist (2015-1010) and then as VP of Research & Development (2020-2022), and worked as a Scientist/Sales Specialist at Droplet Measurement Technologies (2012-2015). He has advised governmental organizations including the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and NASA on topics ranging from instrument development, atmospheric measurement techniques, black carbon aerosol impacts, wildfire emission characterization, and technology translation.

Areas of Expertise:

Scientific Instrument Development, Evaluation, and Deployment Aerosol Optical and Absorption Properties Measurement Black Carbon and Brown Carbon Characterization Ice Nucleation and Cloud Microphysics Instrumentation Biomass Burning and Wildfire Emissions Characterization

Indoor Air Quality Measurement and Monitoring Systems Airborne and UAV-based Sensor Platforms Sensor Calibration, QA/QC, and Data Integrity Management Technology Transfer and Commercialization Technical Communication for Stakeholders and Regulatory Audiences

View RedSpire, LLC's Consulting Profile.

Mark O. Barnett, PhD, PE, BCEE has over 30 years of national and international Environmental Engineering and Science experience in industry, government, and academia ranging from water supply and sanitation in rural communities to nuclear waste disposal. He is currently a Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Auburn University.

Litigation Support - Dr. Barnett has served as an environmental expert witness-expert consultant on cases in administrative, federal, and state courts ranging from permit applications to toxic tort lawsuits. He has written expert reports, filed affidavits, been deposed, and given testimony. Further, he has extensive litigation experience from his service as an administrative judge with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Writing samples, transcripts, and references are available upon request.

Areas of Expertise:

Water and Wastewater Treatment Site Assessment and Remediation Soil and Groundwater Contamination Human Health Risk Assessments Contaminant Bioavailability Environmental Permits

Environmental Forensics Environmental and Aquatic Chemistry Radioactive and Hazardous Waste Management Nuclear Environmental Engineering Sustainable Design and Development Mining Impacts

Background Experience - Dr. Barnett is a licensed professional engineer and a board-certified member of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. His technical research focuses on the chemical processes controlling water quality and contaminant behavior in natural and engineered systems. He has been a principal or co-principal investigator on seventeen grants totaling over $12 million, and he has published over fifty peer-reviewed journal articles, several book chapters, and a book that collectively have received over three-thousand citations.

Dr. Barnett has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina. He has taught fundamental and applied courses in environmental and aquatic chemistry; water and wastewater treatment; environmental engineering principles and design; and sustainable design and development.

Randal Hill, PhD, Thought leader in chemistry, materials science and intellectual property.  Award winning PhD scientist with 30+ years in applied chemistry.  Visiting Scientist at MIT for 5 years to foster silicone-based nanotechnology projects.  Holder of 69 issued patents.  Author of Silicone Surfactants book and 60 articles.  Served as Patent Science Advisor to grow patent portfolio by 1500%.  Deveoped display for Amazon Kindle.  Readily adapts expertise to new problems.  Served as adunct faculty at Stanford and University of Minnesota.  Organized two international symposia.  Invited speaker at Gordon Conference and four international colloid meetings.  Associate Editor of Journal of Surfactants and Detergents.  Involved member of American Chemical Society, Society of Petroleum Engineers, American Physical Society, and American Oil Chemists Society. Awards  include 3 Dow Corning Technical Achievement Awards, as well as the AOCS Samuel Rosen Award for Surfactant Chemistry.  

Experience includes fire-fighting foams, well fluids, adhesives, silicone defoamers, formulation of household and personal care products, applications of silicone surfactants, silicone-based nanotechnology for soldier protection, development of pigments for electronic displays.

Chemistry / Chemical Engineering Materials Science Intellectual Property / Patents Silicones Surfactants Emulsions Microemulsions Chemical Product Development

Colloid and Surface Science Agricultural Adjuvants Chemicals Detergents Formulation Liquid Crystals Personal Care Products Household Care Products Electrophoretic Displays

Background Experience - Dr. Hill began his career at a major detergent company followed by developing sugar-based surfactants. He went on to spend 20 years with Dow Corning developing personal care applications for silicones, leading the pigment science group at E Ink developing the next generation of color electrophoretic ink displays, and leading the Formulation Development group at Flotek to expand the product line by 300% and grow the patent portfolio by 1400%.

Dr. Hill is now known for his work on silicone surfactants, especially for his work on super wetting. During his time as MIT Visiting Scientist with Dow, he also initiated work on silicone-based superhydrophobic surfaces, which led to a publication that has since been cited nearly 1,500 times.

Dr. Hill is the author of 60 publications, including an authoritative book entitled, Silicone Surfactants. He is a highly awarded inventor with accolades that include 3 Dow Corning Technical Achievement Awards, as well as the 2017 AOCS Samuel Rosen Award for Surfactant Chemistry.

Mark Franklin has over 28 years of experience in Environmental, Health, and Safety Management, Training and Consulting-across many industries, including construction, manufacturing, chemical, pharmaceutical and others. Mr. Franklin has applied industry experience in chemical emergency response, hazardous waste management, safety and environmental program management, OSHA regulatory compliance, and management program auditing (safety, quality, environmental).Mr. Franklin is a highly experienced, dynamic trainer in over 80 individual training topics.

Litigation Support - Mr. Franklin owns the Cove Acre expert witness practice. He leverages his years of experience in Occupational Health and Safety management, consulting, and training for his expert witness clients. He has investigated over 150 incidents, including serious injuries, fatality, chemical spills, and equipment and facility damage. Mr. Franklin's services are available to attorneys representing plaintiff and defendant. Mr. Franklin provides site review, thorough reporting, depositions, and trial testimony as needed.

Areas of Expertise:

Construction Safety General Industry Safety Forklift Operation Fall Protection / Working at Heights Ladder Safety Chemical Safety Chemical Emergency Response Manufacturing Industrial and Construction Tool Use PPE Selection and Use

Aerial Lifts, Boom, and Scissor Lift MEWP Heavy Equipment Injury Safety Training, Failure to Train, Inadequate Training Confined Space Entry Selection and Use of PPE Respiratory Protection Machine Guarding Confined Space Entry Trenching and Excavation Safety Job Safety Analysis / Activity Hazard Analysis

Mr. Franklin is a dynamic and engaging trainer who can take often-complicated Occupational Health and Safety regulations and explain them so everyone in the audience can understand the meaning and intent. For deposition, in front of a Jury, or in front of a full conference room, his professional approach, calm demeanor, and organized presentation style ensure a thorough understanding for all. 

Reviewing regulations and their interpretations, researching industry and regulatory-body accepted best practices, reading peer-reviewed publications, and applying years of experience in general industry and the construction industry are all tools Mr. Franklin utilizes to provide thorough, reliable, and organized expert opinion reports.