Professional Profile
Dr. Jonathan Urban is a Senior Managing Scientist in ToxStrategies’ Health Sciences practice. He is a board-certified toxicologist with nearly 20 years’ experience studying and evaluating the potential human health effects and risks associated with individual, occupational, and community-wide exposures to soil, water, and air contaminants, including chemical and petrochemical production activities and criteria air pollutants. He specializes in using evidence-based methods in support of hazard and risk assessment and integrating these methods to develop health assessments. He has played an integral role in the firm’s efforts to develop and apply comprehensive systematic review and critical appraisal methods for chemical risk assessment, as well as applying mechanistic frameworks (e.g., Key Characteristics and Adverse Outcome Pathways) for data categorization and evidence stream data integration in support of biological plausibility analyses. Dr. Urban has utilized this expertise to develop critiques and recommendations regarding health-based toxicity criteria for both state and federal regulatory agencies, industry, and private-sector stakeholders. He also has extensive experience conducting both screening-level and complex site-specific risk assessments, and has developed a comprehensive knowledge base on a variety of regulatory guidance documents on human health risk assessment. This experience has facilitated work with regulatory agencies and potentially responsible parties on developing site cleanup standards. Additionally, Dr. Urban has provided risk communication support at public meetings and state administrative hearings. His experience also extends to the drug development and food safety sectors, where he has provided monitoring oversight for studies in support of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s pre-IND application process for pharmaceuticals and has conducted GRAS reviews for food additives, respectively.
Dr. Urban is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology, has published academic and professional studies in the peer-reviewed literature, is an associate editor for Toxicology Reports, and is peer a reviewer for various scientific journals. While earning his Ph.D. in toxicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Urban served as an enlisted communications specialist in the United States Marine Corps Reserves (Communications Company, Greensboro, NC).