About the Speakers

Tom Brouns, Director, RemPlex

Tom Brouns manages Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Environmental Management Sector. He has more than 30 years of experience developing and managing research, development, and demonstration projects and programs involving government, industry, research, and university partners. Mr. Brouns is a chemical engineer with extensive technical and management experience in the disposition and remediation of chemical and nuclear waste, including processing, disposal, and subsurface cleanup.

Nik Qafoku, Deputy Director of Outreach, RemPlex

Nik Qafoku is a PNNL Laboratory Fellow in the Environmental Subsurface Science Group and Deputy Director of RemPlex. He joined the PNNL in June 2000 initially as a postdoctoral researcher. Since then, he has been promoted three times to the categories of research scientist, senior research scientist level III and IV and chief scientist level V.

Karen P. Smith, Deputy Director of Operations, RemPlex

Karen P. Smith joined PNNL as a technical advisor in 2020. Prior to joining PNNL, she worked at Argonne National Laboratory for 30 years as an environmental scientist. Her career has focused on developing appropriate and effective energy-related policy and regulation. Specific areas of expertise include renewable energy development, naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) management, energy development on federal lands, environmental regulatory compliance, and environmental impact analyses.

Tony Peurrung, Deputy Director for Science and Technology, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Tony Peurrung, PhD, is responsible for stewarding PNNL's science and technology capabilities to address critical challenges in science, energy, the environment, and national security. He previously served for more than a decade as associate laboratory director of the National Security Directorate, overseeing the portfolio of national security programs and research at PNNL. He has contributed to a variety of fields within fundamental and applied physics including fluid mechanics, plasma physics, medical physics, separations science, environmental remediation, nuclear physics, and radiation detection methods and applications.

Heather Dale, Assistant Manager for River and Plateau, U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office

Heather Dale joined DOE in August 2023 as the Assistant Manager for River and Plateau. She has more than 20 years of acquisition and logistics experience, leading and managing diverse professionals and complex program requirements across multiple government agencies, including the DOE, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DoD). She also has experience in private industry.

Prior to joining DOE, Heather served as the director of the VA’s Commodities and Services Acquisition Service. In that position she managed department-wide acquisition programs for the Veterans Health Administration. She was also responsible for management and oversight of a complex portfolio of national requirements and cooperative agreements, valued at $18 billion, which supported 1,255 health care facilities with more than 9 million enrolled veterans. Before that, Heather served as a Veterans Health Administration division chief, where she managed more than 750 annual contract requirements, valued at $450 million, which supported nine VA health care systems with 1.5 million enrolled veterans across five states. She also served as a chief within the DoD’s Defense Contract Management Agency, where she managed two $25 billion Acquisition Categories and one major defense acquisition program within the U.S. Air Force. In addition, she supported environmental remediation within DOE and the private sector through efforts to develop program requirements for the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant Project.

Heather is an Air Force veteran. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Colorado State University, a Bachelor of Science in business management from University of Phoenix, and an associate degree in logistics management from Community College of the Air Force.

Speakers setting the context for the Hanford Site case study:

Hanford Site Virtual Tour presented by:

Naomi Jaschke, Director, Soil and Groundwater Division, U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office

Naomi Jaschke is a Division Director for the DOE Hanford Soil and Groundwater Division. Naomi started at DOE in 2007 as a Project Manager for various remediation projects at the Richland Operations Office and now manages the Hanford sitewide groundwater remediation program.

Prior to her current position, Naomi worked at the DOE Office of River Protection as a Project Controls Officer and Risk Manager in the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Program. She also served as the Chief Technology Officer for the Office of River Protection.

Naomi is a Project Management Professional and a Level 1 PMCDP. She has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Washington State University and a Bachelor’s of Science from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

Scott Stover, Public Affairs Specialist, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office

Scott Stover is a public affairs specialist for the DOE Hanford Office of Communications. Scott has been with the DOE since June 2020. He manages the Hanford sitewide tour program, writes for the monthly Hanford
Site FOCUS Newsletter, and is involved with organizing Hanford all employee meetings.

Prior to joining DOE, Scott was a U.S. Department of Defense civilian employee for 15 years. He previously served as director of television and radio programming with the American Forces Network (AFN) Broadcast Center at
March Air Reserve Base in California. He negotiated for, acquired and broadcast U.S. Hollywood Studio and TV Network programming for eight television channels, twelve radio channels and ten audio streaming services to 192 countries, while supporting 28 manned AFN affiliates in 15 countries and over 200 U.S. military ships at sea. He also served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs as Plans, policy and operations officer for the American Forces Radio and Television Service in Alexandria, Virginia, and as the chief of the Defense Media Activity Joint Assignment Desk at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Before civilian federal service, Scott served 23 years as a U.S. Air Force broadcast public affairs specialist until his retirement as a senior master sergeant, public affairs superintendent, in August 2005. He served 21consecutive years overseas as a military broadcast journalist, news anchor, reporter, producer, director, camera operator, editor, military supervisor, and as a station manager / detachment chief for AFN TV and radio stations in Italy, Japan and West Germany.

He is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism and Advance Electronic Journalism courses from the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Maryland, and the U.S. Department of Defense graduate course in communications at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma.

Coleen Drinkard, Communications Specialist, Hanford Mission Integration Solutions

Coleen Drinkard is a Communications Specialist for Hanford Mission Integration Solutions at the Department
of Energy’s Hanford Site in Richland, Washington. She has worked in the Communications and External Affairs organization since 2019. In her support of the Hanford Office of Communications, she provides logistics and
coordination for high level visits to the Hanford Site. Coleen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications,
Public Relations emphasis, from the University of Washington. 

About the Speakers

Charles Newell, Vice President, GSI Environmental Inc.

Dr. Charles Newell is a Vice President of GSI Environmental Inc.  He is a member of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, a NGWA Certified Ground Water Professional, and an Adjunct Professor at Rice University. He has written 13 technical articles on PFAS fate & transport and management of PFAS sites and is or has served as a Principal Investigator or co-P on 15 PFAS research projects for the U.S. Dept. of Defense. He was awarded the Strategic Research and Development Program (SERDP) 2014 Project of the Year as a Co-PI, the ITRC Environmental Excellence Award in 2016, and the 2020 Foundation Achievement Award presented by the Association for Environmental Health and Science.

Hannah Hidle, Physical Scientist, U.S. Department of Energy

Hannah Hidle is a Physical Scientist with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, Office of Subsurface Closure (DOE EM-4.12). She specializes in characterization and remediation policy of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), with a focus on PFAS. Hannah received her Master of Science in Environmental Metrology & Policy from Georgetown University.

Susan Burden, Scientific Support Advisor and ORD PFAS Executive Lead, US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development

Dr. Susan Burden is currently the PFAS Executive Lead for EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) where she coordinates ORD research efforts on PFAS. She is also a member of the EPA Council on PFAS. In addition to her PFAS responsibilities, Dr. Burden is the Scientific Support Advisor in ORD’s Office of Science Advisor, Policy and Engagement (OSAPE) where she provides leadership for OSAPE on research planning and scientific support issues. Prior to this position, Dr. Burden served in a variety of roles within the agency, including Chief of the Regulatory Support Branch within ORD and Special Assistant to EPA’s Administrator and Deputy Administrator. Dr. Burden started her career at EPA in 2010 as a Presidential Management Fellow, after receiving a B.S. in chemistry from Carroll University and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

About the Speaker

Tom Brouns, Director, RemPlex

Tom Brouns manages Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Environmental Management Sector. He has more than 30 years of experience developing and managing research, development, and demonstration projects and programs involving government, industry, research, and university partners. Mr. Brouns is a chemical engineer with extensive technical and management experience in the disposition and remediation of chemical and nuclear waste, including processing, disposal, and subsurface cleanup.

About the Speaker

Horst Monken-Fernandes, Environmental Remediation Specialist, International Atomic Energy Agency

Dr. Horst Monken-Fernandes is an Environmental Remediation Specialist working for the Decommissioning and Environmental Remediation Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency. In this position, Dr. Monken-Fernandes oversees technical projects addressing environmental remediation issues related to nuclear fuel cycle activities, nuclear accidents, decommissioning of nuclear facilities, and management of sites contaminated by naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM). He is the Scientific Secretary of ENVIRONET, the Network of Environmental Remediation and NORM Management. Collectively, these activities support information exchange and capacity building among IAEA Member States to promote successful remediation projects worldwide. Before joining the IAEA, Dr. Monken-Fernandes was a researcher at the Institute of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry (IRD) of the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN). He is a Chemical Engineer by training and holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Geochemistry.