Silver Award

Bind serves as program manager of the NJ Department of Health Biomonitoring and Exposure Assessment Program. He is a co-founder of the NJ Biomonitoring Program (NJB) and the Prenatal Lead and Mercury Screening Program. This landmark initiative screens expectant mothers and newborns in high-risk communities for toxic metals while providing critical interventions and support. Through persistent outreach, education, and strategic partnership-building, Bind established a groundbreaking collaboration with Rutgers Health at University Hospital in Newark, making prenatal screening for lead and mercury a standard of care. He strategically leveraged the existing capabilities of multiple partners, including NJ Poison Control and local health departments, to maximize program impact and sustainability. Since its inception in 2019, the program has analyzed over 30,000 samples from ~20,000 pregnant women and newborns. Through screening and targeted education, the program has achieved significant reductions in blood lead and mercury levels at both individual and population levels. Nearly 2,000 patients with elevated levels have received treatment or intervention through education and behavioral modification. Individual case studies demonstrated remarkable outcomes, including reductions exceeding 90% in maternal mercury levels and over 50% reductions in lead levels between siblings born one year apart.

Bind continues expanding the program by partnering with hospitals in NJ cities with diverse populations and environmental risk factors. After five years of persistent relationship-building, Capital Health near Trenton finalized partnership agreements, with program launch scheduled for February 2026. St. Peters University Hospital in New Brunswick began collections in January 2026, screening 1,000 pregnant individuals as a Quality Improvement Project informing policy for establishing standard-of-care protocols. Influence on Policy and International Dialogue The work conducted by Bindand the NJB team has significantly influenced state, national, and international dialogue on prenatal screening and the mercury crisis. The prenatal screening data directly informed the final version of the prenatal screening bill (A4848/S3616) passed by the NJ legislature on December 18, 2025. His presentations have inspired organizations worldwide, including hospital networks in other states and internationally, including Nigeria, to implement similar models.

As a member of the APHL Environmental Health Committee for six years, Bind has led mercury position statements, biomonitoring position implementation, and elemental workgroups. A call to action on mercury that he co-authored was featured by the United Nations Environmental Programme. He currently serves on APHL Global Health Committee, raising awareness of international implications of biomonitoring work, and actively collaborates with other states on awareness and risk-reduction regarding mercury in skin-lightening products.

Over the past five years, Bind has conducted hundreds of presentations at conferences and community meetings, raising awareness about harmful chemical exposures and evidence-based reduction strategies, and trained thousands of medical providers, community and public health workers through various venues. Following his presentations, NJDOH Communications partnered with NJB to launch a statewide mercury awareness campaign in 2026, and multiple NJ agencies formed a collaborative working group to develop comprehensive solutions. Rutgers Health and Hackensack Meridian Health Network committed to program expansion through future grant funding. Most recently, he launched a groundbreaking community-based approach to reduce prenatal exposures by developing a program that brings screening and education directly to communities.

Bind demonstrates exemplary leadership in cultivating the next generation of public health professionals. Over the past three years, he has mentored more than a dozen fellows and associates, providing comprehensive training across all facets of biomonitoring, such as program planning, implementation, sample collection and analysis, data interpretation, community outreach, and policy translation. Multiple fellows have been successfully recruited into permanent NJDOH positions, directly strengthening our laboratory capacity. The exceptional contributions from Eric exemplify the highest standards of innovation, leadership, and dedication in public health laboratory science. He has transformed prenatal biomonitoring from concept to standard-of-care practice, directly protecting thousands of mothers and newborns from toxic exposures. His work has yielded measurable health outcomes, influenced state legislation, informed national policy, and inspired international action. His strategic approach to partnership development, community engagement, and workforce mentorship ensures long-term program sustainability.

A proven leader and visionary in the field of infectious disease diagnostics, his contributions to public health have been immense, and he is an inspiration to generations of public health laboratorians and leaders.​

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanton has applied her leadership skills to drive external partners to excel. She has demonstrated leadership in the field of drug testing and Overdose Data to Action (OD2A). She developed an educational program for the Department of Children and Families on understanding drug testing. Prior to APHL's formation of the OD2A Technical Workgroup, Stanton established a network of resources across Connecticut, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New Jersey and South Carolina by initiating calls and leveraging the APHL Regional Consortia Peer-to-peer Program to visit Rhode Island and observe firsthand their testing process. Within the Department of Health, she leads monthly meetings with the Division of Substance Use and Health Statistics and Informatics. She is investigating the opportunity to develop a change to the reportable disease list to add Emergency Department nonfatal overdose laboratory samples to the legislative rule.

Stanton has traveled to four regional hospitals to present on the importance of the OD2A program and recruit participants. For publications, Stanton created a one-pager and guide to educate providers about the OD2A program and encourage hospital participation. She is currently helping develop a position statement on the value of testing children and pregnant women for mercury and preparing materials to share with laboratories regarding the new EPA rules. 

Stanton participated in the Emerging Leader Program Cohort 17. After graduating from the Emerging Leader Program, she was elected by her peers to be Cohort 17 representative to APHL Emerging Leader Program Alumni Network Action-Centric Team (ELAN-ACT), which works on various APHL-wide projects; and creates or secures content for the quarterly ELAN meeting. Stanton also serves on the APHL Environmental Health Committee.​

Lisa Wallace serves as the responsible official and principal investigator for the West Virginia Office of Laboratory Services Select Agent Program, and she is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt with an extensive background in microbiological and chemical research and method development. Lisa's role consists of performing patient testing and directly supervising the West Virginia LRN-B and LRN-C response. Because of her diverse expertise, Wallace is often called upon to give presentations locally, nationally and internationally.

Since 2010, Wallace has participated in APHL collaborative workgroups and currently serves on the ABSA public health special interest group, which works closely with APHL to highlight the partnership between the two organizations and bring crucial training to biosafety officers worldwide. She has contributed her extensive knowledge to various APHL and CDC projects, including the 2016 revision of the APHL/CDC "Blue Book" Clinical Laboratory Preparedness and Response Guide and revision of the CDC's online Dangerous Goods Packaging and Shipping Training Course.

In her 16 years with the West Virginia OLS, Wallace has served as the bioterrorism response training coordinator, the state training coordinator and the CLIA licensure manager. In accordance with Select Agent Program requirements, Wallace has to deliver training and conduct drills in biosafety, biosecurity, and incident response. During the laboratory’s renovation, Wallace ensured Select Agent Program building requirements by single-handedly validating building issues, contacting vendors, setting repair expectations, writing contracts, monitoring progress and verifying resolutions before certifying invoices for payment. Wallace used her knowledge in program development to implement West Virginia's sentinel laboratory training and certification program. She developed in-person training and distributed biosafety communications, virtual challenges and distance learning opportunities to increase attendance. As a result of her efforts, she was able to train 100% of West Virginia's sentinel laboratory staff and have 100% participation in proficiency testing and preparedness exercises.

Liz Nazarian is an exceptional public health laboratory leader, as exemplified by her work in the Bacterial Diseases Laboratory at the New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center. Nazarian has had a tremendous leadership role in molecular assay development, clinical validation, laboratory developed testing, as well as refining the laboratory's Legionella testing and surveillance work, which has positively impacted the public health community. It is no small feat that Nazarian has overseen the development of more than 50 laboratory developed tests and is an author on 40 peer-reviewed manuscripts describing her work.

Nazarian's most notable leadership role to date though, has been standing up the Northeast Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) Laboratory Network. Her role as team lead for the Northeast Regional AR Lab Network laboratory at the Wadsworth Center has taken seven years of hard work and intensive coordination to implement and build this program. She has implemented more than 25 new tests, including real-time PCR, whole genome sequencing and expanded phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing panels.

With her expertise in bacterial public health testing and antimicrobial resistance, as well as impressive communication skills and innovation, Nazarian has also navigated the challenges of improving the Laboratory Information Management System to ensure the appropriate reporting of laboratory test results both clinically and for surveillance to our epidemiologists.

Nazarian has a long track record of training and mentoring: as many as 20 fellows and students have rotated through her laboratory and gone on to successfully contribute to the clinical and public health laboratory community.

Degina Booker is the administrative services director at the Mississippi Public Health Laboratory. She has been revolutionizing laboratory science, policy and culture throughout her career. In 1980, Booker transitioned into a technologist position in the newly created Sexually Transmitted Disease section, where she later became the first black section director in 1983. She broke through additional barriers by becoming the clinical services director in 2004 and then again when she transitioned into the laboratory's first administrative services director role in 2007, where she served as an assistant laboratory director.

While Booker has always exemplified technical and administrative leadership, her most long-lasting accomplishment is her mentor leadership. After growing up in Mississippi during desegregation and beginning her career in a culture of exclusion, Booker transformed her experiences of inequality to empower others through encouragement, example and authenticity. She has dedicated her career to developing others, enhancing the lives of her co-workers and instilling a culture of purpose at the Mississippi Public Health Laboratory.

Johnson joined the MSPHL in 2008 as the LIMS administrator. During her tenure, she has lead a historic business-changing process to migrate the MSPHL to full-utilization of a LIMS and oversees the management of all aspects of this system. She has authored numerous laboratory protocols for LIMS operations and application and has ushered and mediated improvements in efficiencies throughout the MSPHL and Missouri state government.

Johnson has employed innovative practices to navigate all obstacles encountered. Whether it be utilizing her superior leadership abilities to build usable solutions for internal and external partner applications; keeping in compliance with public health laboratory regulations, ACA, Meaningful Use, HIPPA, LOINC codes and HL7 messaging; or finding ways to overcome limited state IT resources by partnering to help create and utilize the OpenELIS Foundation to fill gaps in necessary IT support—she has become a recognized leader in public health laboratory informatics.

Johnson was a member of the APHL Emerging Leaders Program Cohort 9 and has held different positions on informatics committees. She is currently a member and chairperson of the APHL Informatics Committee and member of the OpenELIS Board of Directors. Her involvement has helped lead efforts for the MSPHL in various communication linkages to PHLIP, LRN Results Messenger and SDWIS.

Johnson has goals both locally and nationally to expand public health laboratory LIMS through OpenELIS so that vital public health electronic laboratory information can be communicated bi-directionally with local, state and federal stakeholders, as well as strategic application planning and augmentation of AIMS. She hopes to expand these ideas on the national level by assisting the OpenELIS Foundation with implementation of OpenELIS in other laboratories, with an ultimate focus on full application of AIMS for America's public health system.

Johnsons' leadership, innovation and contributions continue to evolve and have led to advances in laboratory science, practice, management and policy as they relate to public health laboratory informatics. She has recently announced that she is going to expand these contributions to the international public health laboratory system through a position with the OpenELIS Foundation in 2021. She will move on from the MSPHL and utilize her great foundation of knowledge, leadership and innovation in informatics and OpenELIS to provide project management, system support/development and training for the Foundation and its international community of partners and customers.