Dean Calhoun, CIH

Founder, President and CEO

Dean Calhoun is an American Board of Industrial Hygiene Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH). He has been an environmental health and safety professional for over 38 years.

Prior to starting Affygility Solutions, Dean was the Associate Director of Environmental Health and Safety for Gilead Sciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing pharmaceuticals for infectious, viral, and oncology applications. His experiences including development and implementation of global EHS guidelines, implementation and coordination of an executive management EHS Steering Committee, establishment of occupational exposure limits for pharmaceutical active ingredients, industrial hygiene program management, and EH&S auditing of research, manufacturing and contract manufacturing facilities.

Dean has spoken for a number of professional organizations including the U.S. Environment Protection Agency, the Colorado Safety Association, the Bay Area Environmental Safety Group, the National Association for Environmental Management, the National Safety Council, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the American Industrial Hygiene Association.

Dean has also presented at the HPAPI 2012 and 2013 conferences in Philadelphia, PA, and at the High Potent Drugs 2013 conference in Mumbai, India.

Dean graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Wyoming and has dual master degrees in Environmental Policy and Management, and Technology Management from the University of Denver. He is a member of AIHA, ASSE, and NAEM.

Dean can be followed on Twitter: @affygility.

Curt Beery

Chief Technology Officer

Curt has worked in the Information Technology field for more than 31 years, with experience in the pharmaceutical and financial services industries. As chief architect of our Affytrac EHS management system, our OEL Fastrac delivery systems, and other tactical and strategic projects, Curt directs Affygility's technology efforts.

Curt graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana, home of Mr. Dave's. He likes guitars, bicycles, the Chicago Bulls, and Sloan.

Peter Burke

National Sales Manager

Mr. Burke is a National Sales Manager with Affygility Solutions. He has been in the life sciences industry for over 27 years, with significant experience in the pharmaceutical industry and the handling of high-potency compounds.

Prior to joining Affygility Solutions, Peter was a sales representative with Flow Sciences where he provided sales and support of containment devices. Prior to Flow Sciences, Peter spent 4 years in laboratory management at DuPont.

Peter graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with emphasis on Chemistry from The University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Ashley Calhoun

Marketing Specialist/Event Planner

Ashley Calhoun is our Marketing Specialist/Event Planner.

Prior to Affygility Solutions, Ashley received a dual degree in Sociology and Political Science from Colorado State University in 2012. After graduation Ashley spent two years working with the Wheat Ridge Municipal court as a Court Clerk before she decided to go back to school for her Masters. Ashley has Masters degree in Organizational and professional communications with a concentration in Public Relations and Marketing.

Ashley has attend various conferences with Affygility Solutions including working the booth at the AIHce. Ashley also helps with social media content, blog posts, event planning and contract work with a couple laboratories in Colorado. With a background in communications, marketing and social media, Ashley is happy to work with people from all around the world and export creative content on various social media platforms.

Matt Groessl

Senior EHS Specialist

Matt has worked in the field of environmental, health and safety for over 20 years. He has significant experience in occupational safety and environmental compliance, laboratory safety, industrial hygiene, safety data sheet authoring, EHS training, vivarium safety, and AAALAC accreditations.

Prior to joining Affygility Solutions, Matt has held various EHS and related facility management positions with Avista Pharma, OSI Pharmaceuticals, and Gilead Sciences where he provided day-to-day EHS support.

Matt graduated with a B.Sc. degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay.

Matt is trained and certified in: First-Aid/CPR/AED, 24 Hour HAZWOPER, Advanced Potent Compounds, Radiation Safety Officer, FEMA – Incident Command, former IACUC Member, DOT Hazardous Materials, DOT/IATA Shipping.

Cristina Épure, BSc

Associate Toxicologist

Prior to joining Affygility, Cristina worked for over 9 years in the pharmaceutical industry/medical devices including 3 years in occupational toxicology, industrial hygiene, hazard evaluation and risk assessment. Over the years, she collaborated to the implementation of comprehensive occupational safety program for a major generic pharmaceutical company located in Montreal, Quebec and participated into a broad range of projects and investigations to support worker and patient safety.

Cristina has a B.Sc. in Microbiology & Immunology from University of Montreal.

On her free time, she is always ready to meet you for a great tennis game.

Olivia Hill

Quality Assurance and Copy Editor Specialist

Olivia Hill is the Quality Assurance and Copy Editor Specialist at Affygility Solutions. She works with the toxicology team to ensure the highest level of grammatical clarity and conformity to document guidelines.

Olivia has written in a variety of formats, and has over 25 years of experience copyediting the documents of many different technical, legal, and medical specialties. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Jill Loureiro

Head of Marketing and Growth

Jill has 20 years of experience in various marketing leadership roles. Her areas of expertise include growth marketing, brand management, event marketing, communication strategy, and change management. Prior to joining the organization, Jill served as Vice President Marketing and Communications at H. D. Smith, an AmerisourceBergen company.

Jill graduated from Illinois State University with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and received her Master of Business Administration from University of Illinois at Springfield.

Vijayalekshmi Nair, PhD, DABT

Occupational and Product Quality Toxicologist

Vijayalekshmi (VJ) Nair is a Diplomate American Board of Toxicology (DABT) with a broad background in Toxicology and Molecular Biology. She has experience in evaluating the toxicity of ingredients in tobacco products. Her Post-Doctoral work at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) involved studying the cytotoxicity of flavor-chemicals in electronic cigarettes, using 3D lung models, in an Air-Liquid-Interphase (ALI) exposure system.

Prior to her Post-Doctoral work, VJ graduated with a Ph.D. in Toxicology from Texas A&M University with her research focusing on the effects of such drugs as metformin and aspirin on cancer cells.

Outside of work she is passionate in cooking and baking, and enjoys gardening.

Aurelien Gayet

Associate Quality Assurance and Copy Editor Specialist

Aurelien graduated from the University of North Texas with a B.A. in English. At Affygility Solutions, he ensures that documents are properly formatted and free of any grammar or spelling errors, and that technical language is as clearly worded as possible.

In his free time, Aurelien loves to read and write science fiction.

Heidi Thomas

Accounting Specialist

Serving as the Accounting Specialist for Affygility, Heidi pulls her experience from both medical and financial backgrounds. She earned her degree from Metro State University in health education and taught, helped manage grants, coordinate conferences and build a successful district wide curriculum. Teaching opened other opportunities and landed her in administrative roles, helping guide day to day operations, while working with clients and being part of different industries. She has successfully coordinated large programs and designed, aligned and improved systems to meet the needs of multiple organizations

Outside of work, she enjoys being active in Colorado, skiing, biking and hiking as well as traveling and spending time with her dogs.

Natália Bernardi Videira, PhD

Associate Toxicologist

Natália holds a bachelor degree in Biotechnology from the Federal University of São Carlos and a PhD in Biosciences and Technology of Bioactive Molecules from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), in Brazil. She developed part of her PhD project at the Center for Integrative Genomics at Université de Lausanne, Switzerland. She also has a specialization in Clinical Research. She is a member of the Brazilian Toxicology Society (SBTox).

Her previous experiences include non-clinical in vitro efficacy and cytotoxicity tests for early drug development studies, development and application of alternative methods, and safety assessment of ingredients for personal care products.

In most of her free time, Natalia promotes Biotechnology in Brazil through a non-profit group called Profissão Biotec, producing content for scientific dissemination and career guidance in Biotechnology.

Joanne Low

Business Development Associate

Joanne graduated from National University of Singapore with a B.Sc in Life Sciences. Prior to joining Affygility Solutions as a Business Development Associate, she worked as a research officer in both Academia and Industry. Her previous experiences include molecular assay development on qPCR instruments, analytical verification and validation studies for new molecular assays, as well as other lab sustaining activities such as instrument calibration and procurement.

In her free time, Joanne enjoys rock climbing, hiking and traveling.

Amanda Donatti, PhD

Associated Toxicologist

Prior to Affygility Solution, Amanda worked with scientific genetic and neuroscience research for 9 years. During this period, she identified genetic variants and molecular biomarkers associated with disease mechanisms, that affect their prediction, prognosis, and potential targets for precision medicine. Also, she has 5 years of experience in clinical research.

Amanda has a B.Sc. in Biotechnology from the University of São Carlos and a master’s and Ph.D. degree in medical genetics from the University of Campinas.

In her free time, she likes traveling and spending time with her family and friends.

André Ribeiro, PhD

Associated Toxicologist

André worked as a toxicologist where he had experience as a consultant in the structuring of analytical toxicology laboratories, development and validation of analytical methodologies for drug analysis in biological samples to monitoring use and exposure, implementation of ISO 17025 and INMETRO quality systems in Brazil. André acted as a scientific advisor in forensic toxicology and also as technical manager and toxicology analyst.

André holds a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Paulista University, has an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Toxicology e Analytical Toxicology from São Paulo University (USP). He is a counselor of the Brazilian Toxicology Society (SBTox)

In his free time, he likes to cook, read and practice kickboxing