Environmental Toxicology Expert Witnesses: 8

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

I bring diverse, combined education, licensing, and credentialing in geology, biology, and hazardous materials management. Indoor air quality as related to asbestos, mold, lead, building hazards, vapor intrusion, OSHA worker and occupant complaints.

I manage a firm of environmental and industrial hygiene professionals while serving as an expert in my diverse field; I have over 70 retained cases complete. I can cost effectively support engagements that may require extensive data gathering across an expanded time frame. I apply my capabilities and credentials across commercial, industrial, and oil & gas settings, with a technical focus on highly regulated industry and real estate.

I have been steadily retained for expert witness services since 1995.

I specialize in structural fire forensic investigation and testing, routinely leverage post-flood emergency response expertise in buildings, specific to microbial disinfection, mold mitigation, and source mold under forensic methods of investigation that may exist under alleged building construction defects. I possess expertise in building systems and mitigating hazards from structures in advance of demolition for asbestos, lead, and other regulated materials.  I prepare, implement (and/or critically review) asbestos specifications, mold remediation protocols, OSHA-driven lead specifications, and remediation soil management plans.

I have evaluated diverse workplaces following loss reports due to alleged safety and public health concerns and offered mitigation strategies for worker safety under OSHA complaints, especially regarding respiratory protection. I have served as an expert for multiple worker injury and wrongful death allegations within the context of environmental exposure.  

View Ms. Franks' Consulting Profile.

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

Consultants. Experts. Innovators.™

Operating from more than 110+ offices around the globe, we provide services to corporations, insurance companies, law firms, and government agencies.

Rimkus experts specialize in forensic consulting and construction dispute resolution in the hospitality, retail, and restaurant; industrial; marine; oil and gas; power and renewable energy; transportation; and pharmaceuticals industries.

Rimkus experts solve complex challenges wherever in the world they occur. We are dedicated to serving our clients so they can achieve timely resolution of accidents, claims, and legal disputes.

Our highly diversified, global team of engineers, scientists, architects, and technical specialists systematically evaluates all available evidence, applies scientific principles, specialized knowledge and, when appropriate, utilizes the latest analytical technologies to arrive at scientifically sound opinions and solutions for our clients.

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Architecture Biomedical Engineering Building Consulting Building Surveying Civil and Structural Engineering Construction Claims and Disputes Digital Forensics Environmental Health Science Fire and Explosion Science Geotechnical Engineering Human Factors

Industrial and Renewable Energy Legal Nurse Consulting Marine Forensics Materials Science Engineering Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Forensic Meteorology Premises Liability and Security Property Loss Consulting Toxicology and Food Safety Transportation Visual Media and Technology Services

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Rimkus operates from 110+ offices worldwide, with headquarters in the following cities.

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Research & Planning Consultants, LP (RPC) has been assisting clients with expert services for over 45 years, including consulting and expert witness testimony for personal injury, healthcare litigation, commercial litigation and Certificate of Need matters. RPC also offers a wide selection of health data. They have served clients across the U.S, from Alaska to Florida and from New England to California. 

A Complete Team of Damages Experts for Personal Injury Litigation

Research & Planning Consultants, LP provides the following services: 

• PERSONAL INJURY - RPC provides comprehensive damages analysis in personal injury litigation. Their expert team has life care planners, vocational evaluators, board-certified physicians, economists and neuropsychologists. 

Areas of Expertise include: Life Care Plans, Loss of Earning Capacity or Support, Present Value of Damages, Medical Bill Analysis, Chargemaster Analysis, Neuropsychological Testing & Traumatic Brain Injury, Vocational Evaluations, IMEs, Section 18.001, Prestanding ED Chargemaster Analysis

• COMMERCIAL LITIGATION- RPC has provided expert analysis on commercial litigation concerning many industries: chemicals, refining, forestry, waste management, pipelines, water resources, oil and gas EDP, fisheries, agriculture, electrical generating plants, transmission lines, telecommunications, and real estate development. Our special expertise in the healthcare industry has proven valuable to business litigators unfamiliar with this complex industry.

Areas of Expertise: Breach of Contract / Commercial Economic Damages, Construction Disputes, Litigation over Non-Competitive Agreements, Environmental Torts and Toxic Torts, Commercial Disparagement, Wrongful Termination

• HEALTHCARE LITIGATION - RPC offers economic, statistical, data and clinical analysis in a wide range of healthcare litigation. They have experience with payment disputes, qui tam litigation, physician-hospital disputes, practice valuations and construction litigation. 

Areas of Expertise: Qui Tam Healthcare Litigation, Medical Staff Disputes, Professional Liability, Payment Disputes, Health Facility Construction Disputes, Freestanding ED Chargemester Analysis

• CERTIFICATE OF NEED - RPC provides Certificate of Need (CON) planning services nationwide. We have over 35 years of experience developing regulatory strategy, preparing applications and testifying in public and administrative hearings.

Areas of Expertise: Satellite Hospitals, New Hospitals, Relocation and Transfer of Beds, Observation Beds, Geriatric Psychiatric Units, Children’s Hospitals, Comprehensive Inpatient Rehabilitation Units, Neonatal Intensive Care Units, Open Heart Surgery Services, Long Term Acute Care Units, Projects that exceed CON Capital Threshold Limits, Projects for Specifically Listed Services, Programs Requiring CON, Hospices, Senior Living Facilities

Ronald T. Luke, JD, PhD, is a principal consultant and President of RPC, LP. Ron joined RPC in 1976 and became its president and principal owner in 1979. He has consulted on projects for health care providers, managed care plans and public agencies in more than 25 states. He also serves as an expert witness in trials, administrative proceedings and legislative hearings.

Active in the Health Policy Arena, Dr. Luke has been accepted as an expert in Economics, Socioeconomic Impact Analysis, and Policy Analysis by state and federal courts, and state administrative agencies. The types of cases in which he has provided expert testimony include personal injury, contractual disputes, health care payment disputes, construction defects, utility construction permitting, and certificate of need. He has testified on health care matters including market structure, billing fraud and abuse, reasonableness of charges, medical staff credentialing, workers’ compensation fee guidelines, utilization review, physician contracts, and managed care contracts.

Kacy L. Turner, MS, CRC, CVE, CLCP, is a Certified Life Care Planner and Vocational Consultant with RPC. She has over 20 years of experience in Rehabilitation. Ms. Turner has experience writing life care plans for both plaintiff and defense clients. She has experience as a rehabilitation consultant in three states and has been qualified as a testifying expert in state and federal court.  

Ms. Turner has worked on cases in several states as well as the country of Trinidad. To determine the pre-injury and post-injury employability in personal injury cases, she provides vocational testing, transferable skills analysis, job requirements analysis, rehabilitation plans, and definition of reasonable accommodations under the American with Disabilities Act. She is a member of the International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals, the Texas Association of Rehabilitation Professionals and Providers of Services, and Vocational Evaluation and Career Assessment Professionals.

Brian Piper, PhD,  is an Economist with RPC specializing in Quantitative Analysis and Modelling. He works on a variety of cases including personal injury and certificate of need. He is experienced in data extraction, management, simulation, and analysis using STATA, SQL, ARC GIS and a variety of other programs. Dr. Piper has taught graduate classes in statistics and econometrics in both MBA and Ph.D. programs.

Dr. Piper is an experienced expert, providing testimony, reports, and affidavits on the issues of economic damages in personal injury litigation, healthcare litigation, False Claims Act litigation, and other commercial litigation. He has testified on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants. 

Dr. Piper specializes in the economics of healthcare. He has been retained by healthcare providers and insurers in payment disputes. He has analyzed the reasonableness of charges and expected payment for past and future medical services for providers, insurers, plaintiffs, and defendants. Besides work in litigation, Dr. Piper has provided analysis of Certificate of Need applications and the economic impacts of proposed legislation.

Dr. Dennis Stainken has over 30 years of Industrial and Government experience managing Pollution Control and Hazardous Waste Projects. His experience includes assignments in engineering, analytical and toxicology sciences for regulatory compliance, product registration, risk assessment, technology development.

Dr. Stainken is a national expert in Environmental Toxicology & Ecological Research on the transport, fate and effect of pollutants, and in quality assurance in government and industry.

Areas of Expertise:

Health Effects Toxicology Chemical Exposure Health Issues/Physiology/Chemistry Water & Waste Water Ecological Services Contamination & Remediation Analytical Chemistry

Natural Resource Damage Assessments Property Assessments Hazardous Waste Water Quality Risk Assessment Wetlands Industrial Services Gasoline & Oil Issues

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.

The four PhD and registered PEs at Miller Engineering are celebrating 40 years of Professorships at three universities along with providing services to Government, Insurance, and Industry—through research, publications, presentations, and expert testimony. We have a dedicated office with a full time staff of engineers, researchers, and technical writers. The span of our collective academic and experiential expertise covers well the Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Agricultural, Industrial, Human Factors, Ergonomic and Safety fields of engineering. The areas listed below are from actual projects completed in our 40 years of history. 

Vehicles Car/Truck Accident Reconstruction Crash Data Retrieval (CDR) Visibility & Reaction Time Analysis Tires, Trailers, Brakes & Accelerators Truck/Off Road Vehicle Egress/Ingress Traffic Signing and Construction Zones Electronic Vehicles Mechanical & Electrical Safety Product Safety & Analysis Machinery - Metal, Wood, Plastic Molding Machine Guarding & Safety, Robots, Automation Hazard and Risk Analysis Employee Safety Procedures – OSHA Electrical Distribution & Transmission Hazards

Warnings & Instructions Warning Labels & User Manual Design Hazard Analysis & Product Label Designs Medical Device & Drug Warnings & Instructions Inadequate Warnings Analysis Standard Compliance (ANSI Z535) Product Recall Information & Strategies Consumers/Household Safety Appliances & Tools Child Furniture, Choking, Playgrounds Swimming Pools & Exercise Equipment Recreation - ATV, Boats, Bicycles, Boards Ladder, Stair, Step and Railing Accidents Slip, Trip, & Fall Accidents CPSC Recall Information & Strategies

Chemicals Safety & Labeling NEW OSHA HAZCOM (2012) & GHS Review MSDS, SDS and Product Label Compliance Toxic Torts - Diacetyl, Asbestos, Benzene, Lead, Carbon Monoxide Vaping & E-Cigarette Health Effects Chemical Exposures & Workplace Safety Chemical Inhalation, Ingestion, Dermal Contact Contamination - Water & Environmental Manufacturing & Process Line Accidents Slips, Trips, Falls, & Entanglements Fires & Explosions Cause & Origin Investigations Gas, Vapor, & Electrical Spontaneous Combustion Vaping & E-cigarette Battery Failures Fire Control & Explosion Issues

Agriculture Tractor & Equipment Accidents Chemical Applications & Exposures Crop Storage & Harvesting Accidents Pesticides Construction Vehicle Visibility Accidents Slip, Trip, & Fall Accidents Power Tool Repetitive & Immediate Injuries Scaffolding - Cranes - Hoisting - Fork Lifts Insurance Subrogation & Forensics Accident Investigations Electrical & Fire Causation Chemical Leakage Damage Defective Equipment Injuries Premise and Process Damages

James M. Miller, PE, PhD – Founder  Dr. Miller is an Emeritus Engineering Professor at the University of Michigan. He has directly served in Washington originating several Federal OSHA safety regulations, and interacts regularly with CPSC regarding safety and product recalls. Dr. Miller often works on projects relating to compliance with occupational safety standards, provides upper management guidance on product design, recall and liability issues, and serves as an expert witness.

Mark R. Lehto, PhD – Co-Founder Dr. Lehto is a Professor of Engineering at Purdue University. He completed his Ph.D. in engineering at the University of Michigan, where he specialized in Human Factors Engineering, in particular Warnings and Labeling. Dr. Lehto specializes in knowledge engineering, warnings and instructions, structuring expert systems, accident modeling, accident statistical analysis, consumer product safety, boating safety, in-field national surveys of product usage, and product information effectiveness.

Adam M. Olshove, PE, MSE – Engineering Manager Mr. Olshove has over 10 years of experience providing consulting services to industry and the legal profession. He holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on control systems and battery modeling (2019), and a BS in Mechanical Engineering (2012), both from the University of Michigan. He has performed dozens of on-site investigations nationwide in relation to consumer product design and industrial accidents, including failure analysis and testing.

James M.L. Miller, MS, PhD, EIT – Engineering Associate Dr. Miller is an Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering at Trine University in Angola, Indiana. Dr. Miller graduated with a Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering and electrical engineering from Stanford University in 2021, advised by Dr. Thomas W. Kenny. At JMME he has applied his expertise to biomedical heat transfer problems and energy management in hydroelectric systems, solar arrays and portable battery usage.

Jeffrey D. Rupp, MSE – Engineering Associate Mr. Rupp has a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and a MS in systems engineering and engineering management from Wayne State University. Among his company affiliates is 26 years with Ford Motor Company and Volvo Car Corporation, where he was involved in crash development and crash sensing calibrations.