A former executive director of the Presidential/Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management will speak Monday, March 24, at UTM.

Gail Charnley, an internationally recognized expert in environmental human health risk assessment, environmental toxicology and risk management science and policy, will speak on “Protecting the Children: Risk Assessment, Risk Management and Children’s Environmental Health” at 7:30 p.m. in the UC’s Watkins Auditorium.

The lecture, part of the UTM Academic Speakers Series, is free and open to the public.

During her tenure, Charnley was executive director of the Presidential/Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management, mandated by Congress to evaluate the role that risk assessment and risk management play in federal regulatory programs.

Currently an adjunct faculty member at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Charnley holds a doctorate in toxicology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is past president of the International Society for Risk Analysis.

As a consultant, she develops scientific, regulatory and risk communications strategies to help clients respond to legal, regulatory and public perception challenges in the United States and Europe. Charnley’s appearance is co-sponsored by the UTM chapter of Sigma Xi.

She is the 2003 Society for Risk Analysis/Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer and Sigma Xi spring banquet speaker.

The Academic Speakers Program annually brings distinguished scholars, writers and performers to the UTM campus.

The final speaker in this year’s series, scheduled to present at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 10, in the Watkins Auditorium, will be Terry Collins, speaking on “Green Chemistry: Sustaining a High Technology Civilization.”