Meet the 2022 Asbestos Awareness and Prevention Conference Honorees and Keynote Speaker - ADAO

Posted on August 23, 2022

ADAO 17th Annual International Asbestos Awareness and Prevention Conference
“Where Knowledge and Action Unite”
September 16-17, 2022
Virtually

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is proud to present the weekly series “Meet the Speakers and Honorees,” which will highlight esteemed participants of our highly anticipated 17th Annual International Asbestos Awareness & Prevention Conference! The ADAO conference, which will take place virtually on September 16-17, 2022, combines expert opinions, victims’ stories, and new technological advancements from nearly 10 countries across the globe into one united voice raising awareness about asbestos. ADAO is the only U.S. nonprofit that organizes annual conferences dedicated solely to preventing asbestos exposure and eliminating asbestos-caused diseases.

This year our Awards and Recognition Ceremony will be streamed on Saturday, September 17, at 4:30 pm ET following our annual academic conference.

This week, we would like to highlight our esteemed Honorees and Keynote Speaker.

Each award is given to an esteemed individual or organization for their dedication and commitment to the ban asbestos fight!

The Dr. Irving Selikoff Lifetime Achievement Award for their tireless dedication to increasing awareness and prevention efforts to eliminate asbestos-caused diseases.

Honoree: Melissa McDiarmid, MD, MPH, DABT (Presenter: Dr. Arthur Frank)
Honoree: Andrea Wolf, MD, MPH (Presenter: Dr. Raja Flores)

The Andrew Schneider Memorial Lecture

Keynote Speaker: David Boraks (Presenter: Dr. Richard Lemen)

The Alan Reinstein Award for their commitment to education, advocacy, and providing support to countless patients and families.

Honorees: Laura Baker and Inácio Teixera (Presenters Linda & Emily Reinstein)

Tribute of Hope Award for steadfast her commitment to awareness, prevention, and policy to eliminate asbestos-related diseases.

Honoree: Vicky Franzinetti (Presenter: Dr. Barry Castleman)

Tribute of Unity Award for his steadfast commitment to awareness, prevention, and policy to eliminate asbestos-related diseases.

Honoree: Rory O’Neill, CMIOSH, FRSPH, Hazards Editor (Presenter: Dr. Celeste Monforton)

The Tribute of Inspiration Award for their unwavering commitment to ending the scourge of asbestos in the United States.

Honorees: ADAO v. EPA Co-Plaintiffs (Presenter: Linda Reinstein)
- Robert Sussman, JD, ADAO Counsel
- American Public Health Association
- Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization
- Center for Environmental Health
- Environmental Health Strategy Center
- Environmental Information Center-A Program of Toxic-Free Future
- Environmental Working Group
- Safer Chemicals Healthy Families
- Vermont Public Interest Research Group
- Barry Castleman, ScD
- Raja Flores, MD
- Arthur Frank, MD, PhD
- Philip Landrigan, MD, MSc
- Richard Lemen, Phd, MSPH
- Celeste Monforton, Drph, MPH

Sponsors

Platinum Sponsor: Simmons Hanly Conroy, LLC

Gold Sponsor: The Gori Law Firm

Silver Sponsors: Bailey Glasser. LLP and Early, Lucarelli, Sweeney & Meisenkothen

Again, ADAO expresses gratitude for each of these valued members of our community and look forward to highlighting them during this year’s conference. Keep an eye on the 2022 AAPC Landing Page and our Official 2022 Conference Website for updates and registration details.

Congratulations to the 2022 honorees!

Linda
Social Networks

Laura Baker is a concerned citizen, grieving family member, and avid activist. After the Libby Montana Asbestos Health Emergency was declared in 2009 and three of her immediate family members fell ill, Baker spurred into action. For over a decade, Laura Baker has been a loyal supporter of Libby Montana Center for Asbestos Related Disease Clinic, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization,, and Just Moms STL Organization. Her tireless work includes corresponding with leaders such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Congressman Lacy Clay; attending EPA and White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council meetings; and participating in fundraisers such as Miles for Meso, Meals for A Million, and more. Laura Baker’s dedication to advocacy and activism are strides towards ending generations of harm from asbestos.

David Boraks covers climate change, energy and the environment for WFAE, the NPR affiliate in Charlotte. At WFAE since 2016, he also has covered housing and homelessness, government, transportation, and business. He also occasionally hosts WFAE’s news and talk shows. His project “Asbestos Town” was named Best Radio Documentary by the Society of Professional Journalists in 2022. David formerly published the online news network DavidsonNews.net and CorneliusNews.net near Charlotte. He has been an editor and reporter at The Charlotte Observer, American Banker, The China News in Taipei, The Cambridge (Mass.) Chronicle, and The Hartford Courant, among others. He was the Batten Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Davidson College in 2013 and has a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and master’s degree from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.

Vicky Franzinetti, is an interpreter, born in Cardiff (UK) in 1953, with one son, and one granddaughter. At the time of the first Turin Eternit case in 2010 I was called by the court to interpret (I am a registered interpreter) for foreign expert witnesses. I knew many people around the case, through personal history, the women’s movement and my work at the Union Research Unit. After one hearing I felt that victims deserved more and decided to try and do what I could with what skills I have. I translated the reports people like Silvana Mossano, Massimiliano Francia wrote for the media. I organized the simultaneous translation for the verdicts in 2012 and 2013. I translated Eric Jonckheere’s book “Asbestos: My War with the Devil’s Dust” (2021) and Sara Panelli’s & Rosalba Altopiedi’s book on the Eternit case into English. It has been a pleasure and an honor to work with all of you and to get to know you better, as well as helping to put you in touch with each other. I hope we can soon celebrate some successes

Melissa A. McDiarmid, MD, MPH, DABT, is Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health and Director of the University of Maryland, School of Medicine’s Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. She received her undergraduate and MD degrees from the University of Maryland and her MPH from The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health where she also completed fellowship training in Occupational Medicine. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Occupational Medicine and Toxicology. In addition to her academic postings, she was Chief Medical Officer of the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), a position she held for five years. Dr. McDiarmid’s research interests include occupational and environmental determinants of cancer, second malignancy development in chemotherapy treated patients and the cancer risk of oncology workers. She maintains professional society affiliations as a member of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the American Public Health Association and is a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, currently serving as its President.

Rory O’Neill, CMIOSH, FRSPH, Hazards Editor, is the occupational health and workplace safety adviser to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), represents unions at global health and safety negotiations, leading on hazardous substances, and coordinates an informal global union health and safety network. He played a pivotal role in the successful negotiations that led this year to the recognition of occupational health and safety as an International Labour Organisation (ILO) fundamental right at work. He is a visiting professor at Queen Mary University of London and for far too many decades has been editor of the not-for-profit workers’ health and safety publication Hazards magazine. Rory has been a trade union health and safety activist even longer, and exposed to the unforgivable harm caused by asbestos longer still – as a child, he saw relatives die of asbestos diseases and he started work in an asbestos lagging and roofing firm the day he left school. His twitter feed describes him as “a would-be slayer of capitalist dragons.” He’s still working on it.

Inácio Teixeira is son of a former worker from SAMA (currently Eternit) and was born at the Workers Village of Bom Jesus da Serra, Southwest of Bahia state, the first asbestos mining explored in Brazil (1939-1967). His death brother, Esmeraldo Teixeira (Nego), founded AVICAFE, local asbestos victims, who was a victim of asbestos exposure since when he was a little boy. When SAMA closed the site and transferred its dirty and dangerous production, Inácio worked at the new asbestos mine for almost 30 months. After this he moved to São Paulo, where he became a photographer, specialized in photojournalism and continued to fight against asbestos and to seek social and environmental reparation for the population exposed. Currently he is the President of AVICAFE.

Andrea Wolf, MD, MPH, is Director of the NY Mesothelioma Program and Associate Professor of Thoracic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She graduated Cum Laude from Princeton and earned highest honors at Harvard Medical School. She served as Chief Resident in Surgery at the MGH and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she completed a Thoracic Oncology Research Fellowship while earning her MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health. She has expertise in surgery for pleural mesothelioma and VATS lobectomy, and research interests in mesothelioma, health care disparities, and lung cancer. She and her team at the NY Mesothelioma Program received the 2020 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Care Team Award. She has presented at numerous national and international meetings, is co-editor of the third edition of Sugarbaker’s Adult Chest Surgery and has published extensively on pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer. She has one son and loves to run.