DOE appoints seven new members to advisory board

The U.S. Department of Energy recently appointed seven new members to its Oak Ridge Environmental Management advisory board.

The new members fill vacancies on the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board, a volunteer citizens’ panel that provides advice and recommendations to DOE on its environmental cleanup operations on the Oak Ridge Reservation.

The new members include Alfreda Cook, Chris Hepler, Bruce Hicks, Jennifer Kasten, Jan Lyons, Donald Mei, and Scott Stout, a press release said.

“I’m very impressed with the caliber of the new appointees, and I’m confident they will be valuable additions to the current board with their extensive knowledge and experience,” said Susan Cange, the board’s deputy designated federal officer and acting manager of the DOE Oak Ridge Environmental Management Site Office.

Here is biographical information on the new board members:

Cook is retired from URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, where she worked as a waste performance integration manager until January 2012. During the past 20 years, she has worked with several Oak Ridge companies as a data and systems analyst, computing analyst, and administrative assistant.

Hepler is the mayor of Oliver Springs and is employed by Impact Services Inc., as a radiation safety officer. He also serves on the Oliver Springs City Council, the Oliver Springs Planning Commission, and Roane Alliance, Roane County’s economic development organization.

Hicks is the sole proprietor of MetCorps Inc., which provides environmental consulting services to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Human Services. He retired in 2006 from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where he served as director of the Air Resources Laboratory.

Kasten is a retired nuclear/environmental engineer, most recently working at the Tennessee Valley Authority Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant until 2005. Previously, she worked in the University of Tennessee’s (UT) Nuclear Engineering Department.

Lyons is retired from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where she worked as an adjunct professor in the Engineering Management, Information, and Systems Department. Previously, she was employed by Lockheed Martin Energy Systems as a staff systems engineer, cost research manager, training instructor, and information technology manager.

Mei is a retired engineer who was employed from 1986 to 2007 by Duke Energy in Charlotte, N.C. During that time, he was the supervising engineer and technical manager in the Radiation Dosimetry and Records Department and the senior engineer/nuclear production engineer in the Radiation Protection Section.

Stout is the assistant director of the Office of Emergency Services for Roane County. He has a Hazmat Specialist Certification from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

ORSSAB meets the second Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. at the DOE Information Center at 1 Science.gov Way in Oak Ridge. Meetings of the board and its committees are open to the public, and notices are posted on the board’s website at www.oakridge.doe.gov/em/ssab.

For more information on the new board members, see the press release on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office website.