Dr. Connor is a Research Biologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Cincinnati, OH. He was the Project Officer for a study that is examining the potential effects of hazardous drugs on healthcare workers and is also conducting an evaluation of personal protective clothing used in the healthcare industry.

Dr. Connor received his BS and MS in microbiology/chemistry from the University of Rhode Island and his doctorate in environmental toxicology from the University of Texas Medical Branch. He retired from the University of Texas, School of Public Health in Houston, Texas after 20 years as a faculty member in Environmental Sciences and Occupational Health. He was a co-chair of the NIOSH Working Group on Hazardous Drugs. As a member of this working group, he was involved with the writing of a NIOSH Alert on Hazardous Drugs. He was also a member of the Workgroup on Chemotherapy Gloves for the American Society for Testing and Materials as well as the committee to revise the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists safe handling guidelines. Dr. Connor was co-chair of the committee that wrote an international standard for handling antineoplastic agents for the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners.

Dr. Connor is a member of the Environmental Mutagen Society, ASHP, ASTM and ISOPP. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice. He is the recipient of the 2008 ASHP Board of Directors Award. Dr. Connors publications have dealt with occupational exposure to hazardous drugs.

Melissa A. McDiarmid, M.D., M.P.H., DABT

Dr. McDiarmid received her B.A. degree in 1975 from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, in Biological Sciences; her M.D. from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1979; and her M.P.H. from The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health 1986 where she also completed fellowship training in Occupational Medicine. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Occupational Medicine and Toxicology.

Dr. McDiarmid was Director of the Office of Occupational Medicine for the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) in Washington, D.C., a position she held from 1991 until 1996. From 1987 until moving to OSHA, she was Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health where she directed the Occupational Medicine residency.

A principal career focus for Dr. McDiarmd has been describing the effects from and preventing exposure of healthcare workers to hazardous drugs. While at OSHA she wrote much of its Safe Handing Guidelines for Antineoplastic Drugs and was a member of the NIOSH Alert workgroup on Safe Handling.

Currently, Dr. McDiarmid is Professor of Medicine and Director of the University of Maryland School of Medicines Occupational Health Program where she teaches, sees patients, and directs a surveillance program for Gulf War Veterans exposed to depleted uranium.