See video footage from scientists at a BURNT Forum "West Nile Virus: Poison or Prevention-- Which is the Better Strategy?"
NEW! See video footage from the forum at http://www.nospraynashville.org
Public Forum
hosted by BURNT/No Spray Coalition
and the local chapter of the NAACP
in honor of
BURNT’s 15th Anniversary, December 34, 2003
West Nile Virus: Poison or Prevention
Which is the Better Strategy?
at the Lentz Public Health Center Auditorium
311 23rd Avenue North
Nashville, TN 37203
Moderator: Jane Hussain
Panelists (in alphabetical order)
Ms. Kristy Gottfried, Entomologist for Tennessee Department of Health
Dr. Brent Hager, Director of Environmental Health Services
Metro Public Health Department
Dr. Robert Wingfield, Fisk University Chemistry Department
Dr. Laurence Zwiebel, Vanderbilt University Biological Sciences Department
Kristy L. Gottfried
Kristy Gottfried received her M.S. in Entomology from the Univeristy of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. She worked for the CDC in Fort Collins, CO in the Entomology lab from 1999-2002. She began working for the Tennessee Department of Health in July 2002 as a medical entomologist in the Communicable and Environmental Disease Section.
Dr. Brent Hager
Dr. Brent Hager is the Director of Environmental Health Services at the Metro Public Health Department.
Vanderbilt University – Nashville, TN
PhD in Environmental Engineering and Policy Management
1974 University of Tennessee - Knoxville, TN
(Through UTN at Nashville) BS Engineering (Civil)
1968 Middle Tennessee State University – Murfreesboro, TN
M.Ed. in Education
1964Tennessee Technological University – Cookeville, TN
Degree: BS School of Engineering
Work History
June, 1964 to July, 1969 E.I. du Pont Company – Engineering Supervisor in Research Lab and startup of REEMAY fibers
July 21, 1969 to Present Metropolitan Public Health Department
Worked in Engineering Division involved with septic systems, communication systems, construction projects and technical advisor/liaison for entire department on engineering matters.
March 20, 1995 Promoted to supervisor of Engineering Services Division (six employees).
January 1, 1998 Promoted to Director of Environmental Health Services (80 employees) with eight divisions which include Animal Control Services, Environmental Monitoring and Surveillance(Public facilities and Sanitation), Air Quality Control (Pollution Control and Vehicle Inspection), Food Protection, Pest Management Services, Engineering Services.
Life Membership Award from Tennessee Public Health Association.
Dr. Robert Wingfield
A graduate of Fisk University (1964), he received his Ph.D from the University of Cincinnati in Physical Bioorganic Chemistry, and conducted his Postdoctoral work in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas.
He has over 12 years industrial experience in chemical process and product development (Dow Chemical Company, Ford Motor Company, G.D. Searle Co.),
several Summer Faculty Internships in the United States EPA and industrial laboratories (GTE) and twelve years academic teaching experience (including a six month Visiting Professorship at Wesleyan University). He is presently teaching courses in General, Analytical, Inorganic and Environmental Chemistry. His current interests
include research in the degradation of hazardous waste, faculty development, academic and community youth chemical and environmental education, sustainable community development, and the use of new
environmental management tools to increase public participation in environmental decision-making. He is currently active in the Nashville Section of the American Chemical Society, TN 2000 Environmental
Initiative, and the Healthy Nashville 2000 + Initiative.
Dr. Wingfield previously served as the Project Director for the EPA funded, UNCF administered Program for Environmental Justice, Education and Research,
which ended in 1999.
Laurence J. Zwiebel
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Vanderbilt University
Dr. Zwiebel is a native New Yorker who received his B.S. Degree in Biochemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and graduate degrees in Biology (M.S., The University of Michigan) and Molecular Biology (Ph.D, Brandeis University). He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at
Harvard University and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Heidelberg, Germany) prior to joining the faculty at Vanderbilt in 1998. Dr. Zwiebel currently resides along with his family in the West End/Hillsboro Village neighborhood of Nashville.
Research Description
The major focus of Dr. Zwiebel's research is the isolation and characterization of genes involved in critical behaviors of medically important insects such as disease vector mosquitoes. One area of current study is host (blood-meal source) selection in Culicine and Anopheline
mosquitoes, several species of which are the principal vectors for West Nile Virus in the U.S. and more importantly, human malaria in many other parts of the world where over 3 million deaths occur annually. Because in
these insects olfaction makes up the dominant sensory input for host preference behaviors Dr. Zwiebel’s lab is interested in the molecular components of the olfactory signal transduction cascade. And as these
behaviors make a critical contribution to the vectorial capacity of these mosquitoes, an analysis of the molecular basis for olfactory discrimination in this system may serve to facilitate the design and implementation of novel control strategies for these insects. To this end
the laboratory have recently identified and are currently focused on a molecular characterization of olfactory arrestins and odorant receptor gene families in several insect vector species.
