Wendy E. Hillwalker, Ph.D.

Dr. Hillwalker has over 10 years of experience in environmental toxicology, exposure assessment, site assessment, environmental chemistry, and bioavailability modeling for identification of hazards and exposure pathways from metals and organic compounds in water, soils, tissues, and commercial commodities. She recently contributed to the management of an IUCLID database, development of PNECs and generation of chemical safety reports for the environmental fate and effects sections of fourteen substances for the 2010 REACH registration deadline.

While at Oregon State University, Dr. Hillwalker was an analytical chemist with experience in GLP compliance and laboratory management. She worked in an aquatic toxicology laboratory that specializes in the evaluation of the mechanistic basis for the effects of metals on organisms for inclusion in the biotic ligand model (BLM) and has performed exposure assays with the zebrafish developmental model for the characterization of early life-stage effects of contaminant mixture exposures. Dr. Hillwalker has developed and used novel bioavailability passive sampling tools in site assessment; including the SPMD, LFT, and DGT; for both characterization and effects assessment of environmentally relevant contaminant mixtures. She has investigated potential health risk of metals in cattail to Tribal Nations as an as-gathered sentinel food, has determined bioavailable metals in soils and edible plant portions from non-nutritive metal contamination associated with fertilizer applications and identified watershed-level influences on selenium and other metal distribution and bioaccumulation in a wetland food chain exposed to filtered and non-point source mining water waste. Dr. Hillwalker participated in a round-robin laboratory study for the validation and establishment of physiologically based extraction methods using surrogate biofluids for incorporation as a human health exposure bioavailability correction in risk assessments.

Dr. Hillwalker is actively involved in scientific societies and is the Past-President of the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. She has developed and led special sessions, most recently “Salmon and Pesticides: Policy and Science in the Pacific Northwest” which included a panel of representatives from academia, government, industry, advocacy and tribal communities to discuss various scientific regulatory and impact aspects of this challenging topic. She was a recipient of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Training Grant Award.

Hillwalker WE, Allan SE, Tanguary RC, Anderson KA. Exploiting lipid-free tubing passive samplers and embryonic zebrafish to link site specific contaminant mixtures to biological responses. Chemosphere 2010; 7(1):1–7.

Hillwalker WE, Anderson KA. Comparison of metal speciation tools at a Superfund site. Symposia Papers Presented to the Division of Environmental Chemistry American Chemical Society; Persistent, Bioaccumulative, Toxic Chemicals, San Francisco, CA, September 10–14, 2006.

Hillwalker WE, Jepson PC, Anderson KA. Selenium accumulation patterns in lotic and lentic aquatic systems. Science of the Total Environment 2006; 336:367–379.

Book Chapters

Anderson KA, Hillwalker WE. Ecotoxicology Bioavailability. Chapter in: Encyclopedia of Ecology, Elsevier Publishing Inc. Oxford, 2008.

Reports

Stubblefield WA, Hillwalker WE, VanGenderen E. Acute and chronic toxicity of cobalt to freshwater aquatic organisms. Prepared for the Cobalt Development Institute, 2010 Chemical Safety Report(s), Section 4 Environmental Fate Properties, and Section 7 Environmental Hazard Assessment for 14 metal substances, 2010.

Chemical Safety Report(s), Section 4 Environmental Fate Properties, and Section 7 Environmental Hazard Assessment for 14 metal substances, 2010.

Anderson KA, Hillwalker WE. Quality Assurance Program Plan / Method Specific Protocol / Training Manual In Fulfillment of the UN-FAO LOA 3 Reducing dependence on POPs and other agrochemicals in the Senegal and Niger river-basins through integrated production, pest and pollution management (GEF/PRM Project): Technology Transfer and Quality Assurance Compatibility Training Event hosted by the Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program at Oregon State University, April 10 to June 11, 2008.

Anderson KA, Hillwalker W. Lipid-free passive sampling device technology transfer: on-site quality assurance, laboratory and field training. Report to: UN FOA, Oregon State University and Centre de Recherches en Ecotoxicology pour le Sahel /LOCUSTOX. Project UN GEF FAO Project PR-39032, 91 pgs, June 2008.

Hillwalker WE, Anderson KA. The use of stable isotopes to indicate pathways of trace metal accumulation in benthic food webs. Proceedings, 1st International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology, 2005.

Hillwalker WE. Selenium and trace metal accumulation in the benthic-detrital food webs of lotic and lentic wetlands, Utah. Doctoral Thesis, Oregon State University, 2004.

Hillwalker WE, Jepson PC, Anderson KA. Selenium in the lower Lee Creek and the Oolitic Pond Salt Lake County, UT, June 2001 and 2002. Report 3 for Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation, Arbor Park, Magna, UT, 2003.

Hillwalker WE, Wright A. Central Coast/Upper Willamette area description. Resource Appendix, Central Coast Upper Willamette Basin Team, Benton and Soil Water Conservation District, Tangent, OR, 2002.

Walker W, Jepson PC, Westall J, Wallschlàger D. Distribution of total selenium in selected Kennecott Utah Copper Wetland Sites; Data and Analysis for June and October 2000 Site Visits. Report 2 for Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation, Magna, UT, 2001.

Walker W. Total selenium concentrations in macroinvertebrate composites collected October 2000. Report 2B for Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation, Magna, UT, 2000.

Walker W, Jepson PC, Westall J, Wallschlàger D. Distribution of total selenium in lotic and lentic wetland sites. Report 1 for Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation, Arbor Park, Magna, UT, 2000.

Selected Published Abstracts

Anderson KA, Quarles L, Sarr M, Hillwalker WE, Sower G. Strategies and challenges of capacity building and technology transfer for environmental monitoring in the United States and Western Africa. Presented at the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, North America Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, 2010.

Hillwalker WE, Anderson KA. Bioaccessibility of metals in alloys for health characterization: Evaluation of three surrogate biofluids. The Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, North America Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, 2010.

Anderson KA, Sower G, Sarr M, Quarles L, Hillwalker W. The use and value of environmental monitoring in the assessment and analysis of risks. The 6th International IPM Symposium, Portland, OR, 2009.

Hillwalker WE, Corvi M, Shorey L, Tanguay R, Anderson KA. Environmentally relevant assessment tool: BRIDGING Passive Sampling Devices and the Embryonic Zebrafish Toxicity Model. The Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 17th Annual Regional Chapter Meeting, Corvallis, OR, 2008.

Sower G, Ackerman A, Hillwalker W, Quarles L, Sarr M, Toure C, Anderson K. Overcoming the technical challenges of an international human and ecological health risk project in Western Africa. The Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, North America Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, WI, 2007.

Quarles L, Ackerman A, Sower G, Hillwalker WE, Anderson KA. Field validation and modified methods for lipid-free polyethylene membrane passive sampler. The Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, North America Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, WI, 2007.

Shorey LE, Hillwalker WE, Tanguay R, Anderson KA. Human health assessment approach bridges environmentally relevant contaminant mixtures and early life-stage developmental toxicity. The Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, North America Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, WI, 2007.

Hillwalker WE, Anderson KA. Comparison of metal speciation tools at a Superfund site. The Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, North America Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, WI, 2007.

Hillwalker WE, Anderson KA. Comparison of metal speciation tools at a Superfund site. National Conference American Chemical Society (ACS), San Francisco, CA, 2007.

Hillwalker WE, Anderson KA. Seasonal and source influences on labile metal distribution within the lower Willamette River, Oregon. The Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, North America Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, 2005.

Hillwalker WE, Anderson KA. The use of stable isotopes to indicate pathways of trace metal accumulation in benthic food webs. International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology (ICEST), New Orleans, LA, 2005.

Hillwalker WE, Anderson KA. Regional-, site-, and organism-specific factors influence trace metal accumulation in benthic detrital food webs. World Congress Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Portland, OR, 2004.

Hillwalker WE, Krissanakriangkrai O, Grove RA, Anderson KA. The use of a passive, integrative, in situ sampler to assess the influence of seasonal and episodic events on the distribution of bioavailable manganese (Mn) and trace metals in the lower Willamette River, Portland Harbor superfund site, OR, Superfund Basic Research Program Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, 2004.

Hillwalker WE, Jepson PC, Wallschlager D, Anderson KA. Selenium bioaccumulation in aquatic insects occupying lotic and lentic wetlands. National Conference for the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Austin, TX, 2003.

• Faculty Research Associate, Postdoctoral, Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, 2004-2011
• Graduate Research Fellow: Ph.D. program, Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, 1998-2004
• Graduate Specialist, National Pesticide Information Center, Oregon State University, 1998-2001
• Production Manager, Layng & Company Greenhouses, 1996-1998
• Research Assistant, Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1995
• Research Intern, the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Southern California, 1994
• Research Assistant, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution, 1994

• American Chemistry Society—ACS
• Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry—SETAC
• Pacific Northwest Chapter, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry—PNW-SETAC
  • President, 2009
• Trainees for Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University
  • Post-doctoral Representative, 2009