Vice Provost for Research Dawn Bonnell recently announced the appointment of Maureen O’Leary as executive director of Environmental Health and Radiation Safety, effective July 15. Dr. O’Leary had been director of environmental health and safety at Dartmouth College since 2013, in which position she provided strategic leadership and administrative oversight for all aspects of environmental health and safety. Prior to Dartmouth, she led the biosafety and biosecurity group at MRIGlobal, a non-profit research organization, working in particular on leading a team that provided  biosafety, lab design and training support for the Kazakhstan Central Reference Laboratory and Biological Threat Reduction Program.

Dr. O’Leary served as president of the American Biosafety Association 2016-2017, sits on numerous international safety and regulatory boards, and has taught in her areas of expertise at both Dartmouth and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She began her career at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and as a consultant on biosafety for academic, pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. She earned an MBA and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a BS in biology and biotechnology from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 

“Maureen’s broad experience across academia, industry and government in leading, implementing and managing safety programs makes her an outstanding leader for EHRS as it continues to be an essential partner to Penn’s faculty in their research pursuits,” said Vice Provost Bonnell. “I am delighted that she has joined Penn.”

Matthew Finucane, who served as executive director of environmental health and radiation safety for 37 years, retired in January 2019.