| New Jersey Environmental Health Association |
Tentative Conference Schedule
*Schedule is subject to change without notice!*This is a tentative schedule only! More Presenters, Topics and credit hours will be added and topics can change without notice!
Application for CHES/MCHES, Pesticide Credits Pending
Participants who successfully complete this educational program will be awarded NJ Public Health Continuing Education Contact Hours (CEs).New Jersey Environmental Health Association has been approved by the New Jersey Department of Health as a provider of New Jersey Public Health Continuing Education Contact Hours (CEs).
UPDATED: 2/7/2026
Sunday March 1, 2026
Keynote:
12:30 - 2:00
Gary Oppenheimer,
AmpleHarvest.org, Inc.
Waste Less. Nourish More: Reducing food (and water) waste builds healthier communities
Because AmpleHarvest.org worked closely with former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative to improve fresh food access at thousands of food pantries nationwide, he had the opportunity to meet the President and First Lady and she subsequently highlighted AmpleHarvest.org in a speech in early 2012.
Backed by the USDA, Google Inc. Bonnie Plants, the National Gardening Association, the National Council of Churches and many faith and service organizations, AmpleHarvest.org is now helping 8,990 food pantries be accessible to local gardeners and other donors.
He also enjoys boating, hiking, farming (chickens for eggs and vegetables) and attacking challenges of all sorts. Gary is a firm believer in the notion that to do the impossible, you must first believe it isn’t.
In addition to helping AmpleHarvest.org continue its expansion to food pantries and gardeners nationwide, Gary also does public speaking about hunger and AmpleHarvest.org , individuals making a difference in their community as well as a variety of environmental topics (contact info@AmpleHarvest.org for more speaker information).
“More Than me” (by Kelly Eldredge, published 2010), a book on “people reaching out to help others and in turn experiencing beautiful and unexpected changes of their own” has an entire chapter on Gary and his creation of AmpleHarvest.org.
Supporting the increasing interest younger people are placing on reducing food waste and related health issues, Gary has accepted a position on the Board of Visitors for the Campus Kitchen Project as well as acting as an advisor to the Food Recovery Network.
https://ampleharvest.org/founder/
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2:10 - 3:40 | Darrell Newell, Comprehensive Food Safety
Food Safety Jeopardy
1.5 PH CEU | Benjamin Primost, Pickwick Well Drilling, Inc Water treatment - Common New Jersey Contaminants and their Solutions 1.5 PH CEU | TBD |
3:50 - 5:20 | Byron Chaves, Rutgers University Listeria in Retail Settings: Where to Look, What It Means, and How to Respond 1.5 PH CEU | Megan Avallone, Westfield Health Department, Courtney Sartain, Randolph Health Department Kathleen Ross, NJDOH 1.5 PH CEU | Harvey Klein, Garden State Laboratories Hot Topics in Water Testing 1.5 PH CEU |
6:00 - 8:00 Ice Breaker Reception
Monday March 2, 2026
8:30 - 10:30
Keynote:
Vince Radke, MPH, RS, CP-FS, CPH, DLAAS
American Academy of Sanitarians, Inc.
Will You Be a Good Environmental Health Ancestor
Vince has worked in Public Health and Environmental Health for 55 years. Since 2001 and until his retirement in October, 2018 Vince had worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in food safety (doing outbreak investigation and research), vector control and emergency preparedness and response.
Before CDC, Vince spent 22 years working in environmental health in the states of CT, WV, VA and MN. He was Director of Environmental Health for the City of Stamford, CT in the early 1980’s. Presently, Vince is on the board of directors of the International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI), the International Outbreak Museum (IOM) and American Academy of Sanitarians, Inc. (AAS). He did pro bono work for local and national companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a member of the Food Recovery Committee to the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO). He is a member and interim committee chair of the NEHA History Task Force.
Vince was part of the Smallpox Eradication Program, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer (Surveillance and Assessment Officer) in Ethiopia (1970-74) and then later as a technical advisor with the World Health Organization in Bangladesh (1976) and Kenya (1977-79). He received The Order of the Bifurcated Needle from the World Health Organization in 1980 for his work during the Smallpox Eradication Program. Vince serviced twice as Chair of the American Academy of Sanitarians, Inc. (2014-2015) and (2021-2023). He has been president of three NEHA affiliates. Vince served as President of the National Environmental Health Association (2018-2019). He received the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service during Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005 and the Distinguished Service and Professional Achievement Award from the Environmental Section of the American Public Health Association in 2006. Vince was honored with the 2011 Environmental Protection Agency Bronze Medal Award. In 2013 he received the Walter F. Snyder Award for achievement in advancing Environmental Health from NSF International. Also in 2013 he received the NEHA Past Presidents Award for outstanding service to Environmental Health and the profession. In 2015, he received the Excellence in Leadership Award from the National Center for Environmental Health at CDC. In 2019 the book, Eradicating Smallpox in Ethiopia was published. In the book Vince wrote chapter 16 entitled, Buna, Tej and Smallpox Eradication in Kaffa Province. In 2021, Vince received the Walter S. Mangold Award from NEHA.
10:40 - 12:10 | Bob Custard, Environmental Health Leadership Partners, LLC 1.5 PH CEU | Jim Healy Orenco Water 1.5 PH CEU | TBD |
12:20 - 1:30 Presidents Luncheon
1:40 - 3:10 | Darrell Newell, Comprehensive Food Safety Am I Missing Something? 1.5 PH CEU | Michele Samarya-Timm, NEHA Building Solutions in the Midst of Challenge1.5 PH CEU | TBD |
3:15-4:15 Coffee Break
Tricky Tray
4:25 - 5:55 | Elyse Pivnick, Isles, Inc 1.5 PH CEU | Virginia Wheatley, NJDOH Shellfish: Never a Dull Moment 1.5 PH CEU | TBD |
Tuesday March 3, 2026Keynote
12:50 - 2:20
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Robert Bilott
Prominent Environmental Attorney,
Author of the Critically Acclaimed Book, Exposure, the Inspiration Behind the Film Dark Waters, Starring Mark Ruffalo, and Lecturer at Yale School of Public Health
Robert Bilott is the tenacious environmental lawyer who became “DuPont’s worst nightmare,” according to The New York Times. The story in his book, Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle Against Dupont, inspired the major motion picture, Dark Waters (November 2019), featuring Academy-Award nominee Mark Ruffalo as Rob Bilott.
Bilott was a corporate defense attorney for eight years until he took on an environmental suit that upended his entire career—and exposed a brazen, decades-long history of chemical pollution. He shares the story of his epic 25-year legal battle against DuPont that consumed his life and exposed the worst case of corporate coverup and environmental contamination in modern history.
Bilott recounts the day a farmer came to his firm, convinced the creek on his property had been poisoned by runoff from a nearby DuPont landfill. Audiences will hear the remarkable legal journey that ultimately revealed massive chemical contamination of unprecedented scale and scope, now impacting virtually every living thing on this planet.
Bilott’s story is an unforgettable legal drama about malice and manipulation, perseverance against the failings of environmental regulation, and one lawyer’s quest to expose the truth about a previously unknown and still unregulated chemical—presenting one of the greatest human health crises of the 21st century.
To date, Bilott—a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP—has helped secure billions of dollars in benefits for his clients exposed to contaminated drinking water. Among his many honors, Bilott was selected as one of the best lawyers in America for several years running and in 2017 received the Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”
Bilott has been appointed a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health: https://ysph.yale.edu/profile/robert_bilott/.
8:30 - 10:00 | John Cox, Streamline Pool Professionals, LLC 1.5 PH CEU | Robert Powitz HACCP vs HARP-C: Realistic Approach to Retail Food Safety 1.5 PH CEU | Hank Hirsch, Industry Professional and Consultant- Board Certified Entomologist 1.5 PH CEU |
10:10 - 11:40 | Anthony Mangeri, Rowan University - Center for Disaster Science, Risk and Community Resilience 1.5 PH CEU | TBD | TBD |
11:45 to 12:45 Networking Luncheon
2:30 - 4:00 | Danielle Clemons, Di Li, NJDOH Public Recreational Bathing and Youth Camp Program Updates 1.5 PH CEU |