The National Air Filtration Association (NAFA) announced Gerry Blackwelder, Dr. Scott Dee and Richard Vincent and Dr. Jennifer Wagner will present at its upcoming Technical Seminar – TECH2015, April 15 – 17, in Dallas, Texas.

Gerry Blackwelder is an Architect, international design consultant and airborne infection control trainer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Tuberculosis Elimination.  Blackwelder is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and did his graduate work at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.  He was instrumental in the design and construction of the only two smallpox laboratories/repositories in the world.  Blackwelder will present on “Airborne Infection Control Strategies – Protecting the World From the Greatest Disease Related Threats.”   

Dr. Dee is the Director of Research, Pipestone Veterinary Clinic in Minnesota.  He earned his M.S., D.V.M and PhD in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN.  He was the Professor of the Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine from 1999 – 2011 and has over 145 peer reviewed publications.  Dr. Dee has been actively involved in the comprehensive swine biosecurity program, working to prevent the spread of porcine reproductive and respiratory disease virus (PRRSV) that has attacked major swine producing farms across the Midwest and East. Dr. Dee will present on “The Application of Air Filtration to Swine Breeding Farms for the Prevention of Airborne Disease.”

Richard Vincent, received a Masters in Technology Management from Stevens Institute of Technology. Since 1991 Mr. Vincent has focused on an environmental health program applying ultraviolet air cleansing technology and tools to control the transmission of tuberculosis in high risk settings. He was the project manager and lighting technology specialist for a multidisciplinary, multicenter epidemiological field trial of ultraviolet air cleansing effectiveness formed by St. Vincent’s Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) to advance the state-of-the art knowledge to UVGI application for airborne disease control in homeless shelters. After 9-11, this work was extended to consider other airborne diseases including influenza viruses, and surrogates for bioterror agents, namely smallpox virus and anthrax spores.   A further extension included the first field test of UVGI in-duct effectiveness in a commercial building in Manhattan, NY.

Mr. Vincent works at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, to reduce the rate of hospital acquired infections (HAIs), by benchmarking the efficacy of various technologies including: mobile, whole-room UVC devices for decontamination of surfaces from pathogens such as MRSA, C. Difficile and Ebola Virus. Additionally, under the RPI-Mount Sinai alliance he is studying novel LED lighting panels with narrow spectrum wavelengths for disinfection.

Since 2008 he has been on faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health’s Continuing Professional Education Course: Building Design and Engineering to Prevent Airborne Infection – An International Approach and has taught in a shortened course in Pretoria, South Africa and Mumbai and New Delhi, India.  He chairs ASHRAE TC 2.9 research subcommittee on UV and its GPC 27 Guidelines for upper room UVGI application.  He is currently chairs TC 6.52 of Commission International de L’Eclairage (CIE) on radiometry of UVGI fixtures.  He will present “Controlling Healthcare Acquired Infections  Using UVC Technology.”

Dr. Jennifer Wagner of Prism Environmental Health and Safety Solutions, Inc. (PrismEHS) established in 2011 to focus her expertise on reducing risk and managing liability for the healthcare, architecture/engineering and construction industries in the area of environmental infection prevention during construction, renovation and remediation of the built environment.

Dr. Wagner holds a bachelor of science in Genetics and a doctorate of philosophy in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis  Wagner’s  current focus is the reducing hospital acquired infections (HAI) through research, education and consulting. Recent efforts in this area focus on novel methods to reduce surgical site infections in operating rooms by applying technology and standards derived from the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries.


Dr. Wagner has presented her research to numerous heathcare facilities and related organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Center for Health Design (CHD).  Dr. Wagner has been influential in guiding hospitals to build state of the art procedure rooms with top performing infection prevention strategies.  Dr. Wagner is published in Cell, Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), ASHRAE and other peer reviewed journals.  She will present “The Latest Testing and Evaluation for the Prevention of Operating Room Infections.

Also presenting at TECH2015 will be Mike Corbat of Filtration Group and Chair of Standing Standards Project Committee for ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 52.2 who will present the major changes to the air filter Standard, Steve Ogle, Director of Education and Technical Affairs of INDA presenting nonwoven media production technologies, Brad Stanley, Development Engineer for AAF International presenting an update of the molecular testing Standard, ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 145.2 , Bill Palmer, CAFS and President of AeroMed, Inc. and Chris Zaker, CAFS, NCT and Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Glasfloss Industries, President of NAFA presenting information on their trip to India to educate engineers and medical personnel on techniques to control Tuberculosis.

NAFA TECH2015 is designed to provide application, information, and education on air filtration along with emerging technologies and trends.  A pre-conference session will be held on Tuesday, April 14 to teach and train individuals in the bag in/bag out protocol for NAFA Certified Technician (NCT) Level II accreditation.  A second track of the conference will provide the tutorial for the NAFA Certified Air Filter Specialist (CAFS) accreditation.