Donna J. Vorhees

Donna Vorhees leads HEI Energy’s work in providing impartial science about potential community exposures and health effects associated with energy production, with an initial focus on oil and gas development. In this role, she oversees educational and outreach efforts and works with the Energy Research and Review Committees and HEI Energy staff to develop research proposals, oversee funded research and associated engagement, and review investigator reports. Vorhees has 25 years of consulting experience, leading dozens of human health risk assessments involving multi-pathway chemical exposures in indoor and outdoor environments and communicating risks to affected populations in the United States on behalf of local, state, and federal government and private industry and in Africa on behalf of the United Nations Environment Program. She has served on peer review panels for various organizations, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and Health Canada, and on advisory committees, such as National Research Council committees and the EPA Board of Scientific Counselors Subcommittee on Chemical Safety for Sustainability. Vorhees currently serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and Trustee of the Switzer Foundation with a mission of funding student environmental leaders who are determined to measurably improve the quality of our environment. She received her Sc.M. and Sc.D. in Environmental Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.