Sustaining & Corporate MEMBERS

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In recognition of her long-time commitment of excellent service to PNW SETAC, the Board of Directors has unanimously voted to make April a sustaining member. April recently retired as the Associate Director of the Institute of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry at Western Washington University (WWU). She received her B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife from Michigan State University and M.S. in Aquatic Toxicology/Aquatic Ecology from WWU. Research interests include aquatic and stream ecology with emphasis in ecotoxicological effects on community- and ecosystem-level interactions, as well as chemical partitioning to water and sediments, effects on nutrient cycling, and microbial degradative processes. Research activities have involved conducting site-specific nutrient, metals, and organic pesticide analyses, as well as performing aquatic, sediment, and wastewater effluent toxicological bioassays.  

April has served as the PNW-SETAC Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President, President, Past President, Board of Directors At-Large (Academia) representative, Website Manager, and Newsletter Editor over her 29-year membership in the Chapter. She is especially proud of having co-chaired the first Pellston-like workshop by a regional chapter of SETAC on PCBs in Puget Sound and Georgia Basin Ecosystems in 2002. She has also served on the Local Organizing Committee for the SETAC 2004, 2010, 2014, and 2021 annual conferences held in Portland, OR. Currently, she serves as the Chapter’s recordkeeper and its Registered Agent. 

She has been awarded the SETAC Outstanding Regional Chapter Member Award (2011), the SETAC Presidential Citation for Exemplary Service (2019), and Sustaining Membership status in PNW-SETAC (2020).  Currently, April spends her free time golfing, doing various projects around her house and yard, and taking care of her cats. She is looking forward to traveling and exploring more of the world again once it’s safe to do so.

We would like to extend a special thank-you to our first individual Sustaining Member, Julann Spromberg.  Julann is a Research Toxicologist currently working in the Ecotoxicology Program of the Environmental Conservation Division at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (aka NOAA Fisheries) in Seattle.  Her interests are in integrating toxicology with ecological factors to find feasible ways of protecting biodiversity from chemical and anthropogenic impacts.

Julann has been attending PNW-SETAC meetings since she was a student at Western Washington University (Western) in the mid-1990s.  She earned her B.S. in Environmental Science from Huxley College of the Environment at Western in 1995 where she worked on the effects of toxic impacts on metapopulation dynamics with Dr. Wayne Landis as her advisor.

In 2002 she earned her PhD in Toxicology from the University of Kentucky where she worked with Dr. Wes Birge on modeling how life-history strategies influence the population-level effects of sublethal contaminant impacts.  Based on her research Julann was honored to be invited to attend the SETAC Pellston Workshop entitled “Population-Level Ecological Risk Assessment” in Roskilde, Denmark in August 2003.

In 2006 she was elected as the Vice President of PNW-SETAC and served as its President in 2007 and Past President in 2008.  Julann remains active in the Pacific Northwest Chapter of SETAC and became our first Sustaining Member this year.  It’s the dedication and service of individuals like Julann that have helped to make PNW-SETAC the highly successful regional chapter it is today. (Photo - Julann modeling the coveted PNW-SETAC fleece)

In recognition of her contributions and support of the Chapter since its inception, the PNW-SETAC Board of Directors unanimously approved awarding Dr. Frieda Taub the Chapter’s first Emeritus Sustaining Member status.  She was awarded a certificate at the 2015 Chapter meeting and henceforth will have all membership dues waived, free attendance to the annual conference, and free dinner at our traditional Friday night social event.

As one of the very few women with a Ph.D. in the environmental sciences and environmental toxicology in its early years, Frieda's presence, support, and research have served as a role model to many of us women in the field today.  Many of us are familiar with Frieda’s research not only from the scientific literature, but also from her presentations at our Chapter meetings.  Frieda has also contributed to the Chapter, serving as its Vice President in 1994, its President in 1995, and Past President in 1996, as well as a judge for our Best Student Presentation Award.  If Frieda isn’t presenting at our meetings, she still attends and can be counted on to ask other presenters probing questions.

Dr. Taub is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Washington’s Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences.  She received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University and has spent much of her career studying aquatic ecosystem properties and developing methods using microcosms to study the effects of pesticides, metals, and antibiotics on aquatic systems.  If any of you are familiar with ASTM method E1366-11, Standard Practice for Standardized Aquatic Microcosms, you should know that it is a result of Dr. Taub’s research efforts. Congratulations Frieda!