Timothy J. Shepodd - (Chair)
Dr. Shepodd is the deputy director of the Mission Engineering Sciences organization at Sandia National Laboratories, in Livermore, CA. He manages a line of approximately 50 scientists, engineers, software developers, and operations personnel in three groups, supporting numerous government sponsors. His group develops and deploys tools for national security. Previously, Dr. Shepodd managed chemistry and security-focused teams studying fundamental chemistry and materials science issues that supported high-rigor hardware for national security missions including the nuclear stockpile, chemical weapon demilitarization, solar energy materials, explosives chemistry, and corrosion in extreme environments.
Dr. Shepodd has participated on the National Academies’ standing Committee on Chemical Demilitarization since 2013, as chair since 2018. In this role, he has witnessed the construction, containment philosophy, and operational evolution of the PCAPP and BGCAPP sites. He also served on the Committee on Assessment of Supercritical Water Oxidation System Testing for the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant from 2012-2013.
Dr. Shepodd is a co-inventor and lead chemist for the Explosives Destruction System, the mobile destruction system used to batch-neutralize thousands of explosively configured chemical munitions both inside and outside the continental United States. He developed procedures, recipes, and analytical protocols with host sites to confirm the destruction of many chemical warfare agents. Dr. Shepodd also developed a prototype reactor for the Batch-SCWO (supercritical water oxidation) of explosively configured chemical munitions and designed and qualified air filters for the system’s interface to the outside world.
Dr. Sheppod received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles; and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, from the California Institute of Technology.
Robin Coyne
Ms. Coyne is the principal of Spike Occupational Health and Safety, LLC where she offers industrial hygiene and safety consulting services and training. Prior to Spike, Ms. Coyne was the director - health, safety, and environment for Central Garden & Pet, an innovator, marketer, and producer of quality branded products for consumer and professional use in the lawn and garden and pet supplies markets. She led a team of seven environmental health and safety (EHS) professionals that served as the primary EHS resource for over fifty Central Garden & Pet manufacturing and distribution facilities. Significant engineering projects spearheaded included addressing hazards associated with combustible dust operations and pesticide manufacture, resulting in mitigation of explosion hazards while doubling production capacity and non-detectable employee exposures to the active pesticide ingredient. Ms. Coyne also managed health and safety programs for RR Donnelley, Senior Flexonics and G.D. Searle. Of note while managing the Searle industrial hygiene program, Ms. Coyne led hazard assessments of new products, processes, and capital projects, including: establishment of exposure limits, sampling and analytic methods, and investigation of physical and environmental hazards, resulting in the proactive implementation of controls to mitigate hazards. Ms. Coyne is a certified industrial hygienist and a registered occupational hygienist (Canada). She earned a B.S. in biomedical engineering in 1977 from Northwestern University and an M.B.A. in 1987 from Roosevelt University.
Aaron H. Goldberg
Mr. Goldberg is a Principal of the law firm Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., where he focuses on U.S. and international regulatory requirements for managing hazardous wastes, transporting hazardous materials and dangerous goods, and ensuring that industrial chemicals are not diverted to use in making illicit drugs or chemical weapons. His work includes helping companies determine whether they require hazardous waste facility permits under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, apply for such permits, appeal permit conditions, and comply with the terms of their permits. Mr. Goldberg previously worked as a consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a legal analyst in the White House Office of Management and Budget. He earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry, with high honors, from Yale University, as well as a Master of Science in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School.
Gary S. Groenewold
Dr. Groenewold is a senior scientist in the Energy and Environment Directorate at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), where he has conducted research in surface chemistry, gas-phase chemistry, and analytical measurement since 1991. His research has focused on determining speciation and reactivity of radioactive and toxic metals (U, Np, Pu, Hg), and of toxic organic compounds (including VX, mustard, and sarin). He received a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Nebraska in 1983, where he studied ion molecule condensation and elimination reactions under the direction of Michael Gross. He has authored more than 130 research articles in these areas, and has served on or chaired seven ad hoc committees on chemical demilitariztion and has both served on and chaired the standing Committee on Chemical Demlitarization.
Deborah L. Grubbe
Ms. Grubbe is the owner and president of Operations and Safety Solutions, LLC.
Previously, she was vice-president of Safety Change Management at BP where she was accountable to establish overall safety leadership and cultural improvement for five U.S. refineries. Prior to that, Ms. Grubbe was the vice president of Group Safety at BP in London, U.K., where she assessed, developed, and executed the group safety strategy. Ms. Grubbe graduated with a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering with highest distinction from Purdue University. She received a Winston Churchill Fellowship to attend Cambridge University in England, where she received a Certificate of Post-Graduate Study in Chemical Engineering. She is a registered professional engineer in Delaware. Ms. Grubbe has been a member of several NRC committees related to the demilitarization of chemical weapons, to include the 2002 NRC report, Closure and Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System Report.