Title: Lead Toxicologist
Employer: ICF International
Prior Positions: Senior Scientist, ToxStrategies Inc.; Medical Technologist in Cytogenetics, University of Illinois Medical Center (Chicago)

Dr. Grace Chappell received her B.S. in Integrative Biology with High Distinction in 2006. She conducted research in the Hughes lab focusing on inbreeding avoidance in wild guppies, using molecular genotyping techniques.

After her undergraduate studies, she worked as a medical technologist in cytogenetics in the Department of Pathology at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. In her role there, she conducted tissue culture and karyotyping for clinical diagnostic purposes related to chromosomal abnormalities in patients with a variety of indications.

Grace later returned to academia to pursue graduate work in Public Health, receiving her M.S. in Public Health and a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her dissertation research focused on epigenetic mechanisms and transcriptomic changes involved in chemical-induced carcinogenesis, using mouse models of disease.

Dr. Chappell has been working in consulting since she completed her graduate work. In her role as a toxicologist, she leads and contributes to projects investigating the safety or hazard of chemicals in the environment, foods, or pharmaceuticals. Her expertise lies in the assessment of the underlying molecular mechanisms of various toxicological outcomes, with a specialty in carcinogenesis associated with exposure to chemicals commonly found in the environment and/or occupational settings. In her current role, she consults for the federal government, although she has worked with industry clients in the past. Dr. Chappell is skilled in computational methods and tools for analyzing large “-omics” data sets and developing strategies for data visualization. She has contributed mechanistic expertise to several mode-of-action and weight-of-evidence assessments for a variety of compounds. Dr. Chappell has contributed to several systematic reviews, the majority of which focused on the evaluation of mechanistic data as they relate to cancer. She currently works remotely from her home office in Asheville, North Carolina.

Contact Christina Swanson at alumnimentor@sib.illinois.edu if you would like to connect with Dr. Grace Chappell.