Pandemic Response Council Members
IHC council members are vetted for their credentials, understanding, and desire to connect cleaning to public health outcomes. They are listed alphabetically.
Council Members Do Not Support or Endorse Third-Party Products or Services
Biographies
Sally Bloomfield
Sally Bloomfield—BPharm, PhD, HonFRSPH—is Chairperson of the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH). IFH works to raise awareness of the importance of hygiene in home and everyday life settings; developing and promoting hygiene practice based on scientific principles—which includes promoting understanding of issues such as the Hygiene Hypothesis and Antimicrobial Resistance. In 2013 she was awarded the Rudolf Schulke Foundation Medal for outstanding contributions to hygiene.
Sally was an Honorary Professor at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2003-2019) and, Senior Lecturer at Kings College London (1972-1997). She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health. She has published over 120 papers on infection prevention, hygiene and antimicrobial agents.
Charles P. Gerba
Charles P. Gerba PhD—Professor of Environmental Microbiology, University of Arizona.
Charles P. Gerba, PhD is an internationally recognized environmental microbiologist and Professor of Environmental Microbiology in the Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, and Soil, Water and Environmental Science, at the University of Arizona. His credentials include a BA in Microbiology, Arizona State University, 1969, and a PhD in Microbiology, University of Miami, Florida, 1973. He is also a member of the American Academy of Microbiology.
Dr. Gerba has authored more than over 700 articles—16 on coronaviruses as of January, 2022—and on behalf of the Departments of Environmental Science (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), Biosystems Engineering (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), and Community and Environmental Health (College of Public Health) at the University of Arizona.
His efforts are largely focused on quantifying the benefits of interventions such as disinfection and cleaning for reducing risk of infection.
His articles include several text books in environmental microbiology and pollution science. He actively conducts research on the development of new disinfectants and drinking water treatment processes, new methods for the detection of pathogens, and microbial risk assessment. He was a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Committee on the development of the “Guide Standard and Protocol for Testing Microbiological Water Purifiers,” which forms the basis for testing the performance of water treatment devices used for outdoor recreation. He is a member of the U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board Committees on Drinking
Water and Research Strategies.
The public knows Dr. Gerba best for his crusading on behalf of household hygiene. He has made frequent media appearances, including Good Morning America, Today, and Dateline, and has been quoted numerous times in international and national reports, magazines and newspapers.
Robert W. Powitz
Robert W. Powitz is Principal Forensic Sanitarian,
R. W. Powitz & Associates, P.C.,
Old Saybrook, CT.
He received his undergraduate education from the State University of New York and the University of Georgia. He holds an M.P.H. and Ph.D. degree in environmental health, epidemiology, and environmental microbiology
from the University of Minnesota.
Formally trained as an Institutional Sanitarian, Bob is currently a Forensic Sanitarian in private practice. He served as state Sanitarian and municipal Health Officer in New Jersey and Connecticut. He holds licenses as a Sanitarian in several states and has been nationally registered for 54 years. He was the Director of Environmental Health and Safety and Associate Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and served as Biological Safety Officer for the United States Department of Agriculture at the
Plum Island Animal Disease Center.
For over thirty-five years he wrote regularly appearing columns and articles on food safety, current environmental health issues, field instrumentation and institutional environmental health practice. He does frequent speaking tours for governmental agencies, industry, and professional organizations.
Bob is the recipient of the three highest honors conferred to a sanitarian: The National Environmental Health Association’s Walter S. Mangold Award; NSF International’s Walter F. Snyder Award; and the American Academy of Sanitarians’ Davis Calvin Wagner Award. He is a Diplomate Laureate in the American Academy of Sanitarians and a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Engineering and Technology.
Benjamin Tanner
Benjamin Tanner is the President and CEO of Microchem Laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Arizona where he studied environmental infectious disease transmission under Dr. Charles Gerba. He is the author of the book, Legal Aspects of Infectious Diseases and has served as an expert microbiologist in dozens of infection-related lawsuits. He founded Antimicrobial Test Laboratories in 2006 and Cosmetic Test Labs in 2012, which were later combined with Microchem Laboratory. He served as CEO of Clinical Research Laboratories (including subsidiaries CRL Suncare and Vivo Clinical Testing) from 2016 until its recent acquisition by Eurofins. Dr. Tanner’s current professional focus is the growth and development of Microchem Laboratory.
Philip Tierno, Jr.
Dr. Philip M. Tierno, Jr. is a well-known microbiologist with more than 40 years of experience in the field of Clinical and Medical Microbiology. He was the Director of Clinical Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology at Tisch Hospital, New York University Langone Medical Center, and is currently Professor of Microbiology and Pathology at the New York University School of Medicine and also at the NYU College of Dentistry. He is a member of numerous respected scientific societies and did his graduate studies at the New York University, where he was awarded a M.S. degree in 1974 and his Ph.D. in 1977 under the mentorship in Microbiology of Dr Guenther Stotzky.
Dr. Tierno has acted as a consultant to the office of Attorney General of the New York State, the Department of Health of the City of New York, the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, and the College of American Pathologists. Dr. Tierno was a member of the NYC’s Task force on Bioterrorism & currently is a member of the NYC Medical Reserve Corps. Dr. Tierno has been recognized extensively for his numerous contributions to the medical / scientific community. In 1986, he was bestowed the honor of Knighthood by The Sovereign Military and Hospitaler Order of Saint John Jerusalem, Knight of Malta for his work on Toxic Shock Syndrome. Since 1977 to the present, he has been recognized as a biographee in consecutive editions to date of “Who’s Who in America; Who’s Who in the World; and Who’s Who in Science and Medicine” for his work in the field of Microbiology. In 2005 he was awarded the Il Leone de San Marco Award for lifetime achievement in Science & Medicine.
Dr. Tierno is Co-founder and President of the “Foundation for Scientific Research in the Public Interest” (a non-profit organization) whose primary objective is to fund scientific research for the public welfare and for which the usual and traditional sources of support are unavailable or encumbered, and he served as Chairman of the Environmental Commission of Norwood, New Jersey for 15 years. Dr. Tierno is the U.S. representative to the Global Hygiene Council headquartered in London. His broad expertise in the area of the environmental and medical microbiology and microbial ecology has resulted in numerous appearances on TV news, documentary, and investigative reports. He has appeared on both local, network and cable television shows such as 20/20, Oprah, Montel, Primetime, Dateline, Nightline, Today, Good Morning America, Tyra Banks, Dr. Oz, Nate Burkas, CNN, Katie, Chris Cuomo CNN, etc, etc.