Professional Profile
Dr. Heather Schaefer is a supervising scientist in ToxStrategies’ Health Sciences practice. She has over 15 years of extensive public health experience in multiple disciplines, including translational science, risk assessment, performing systematic reviews, deriving toxicological reference values, and conducting scientific analyses. She has worked with diverse groups throughout her career, including government (federal and state), academic, and non-governmental organizations. At ToxStrategies, her work revolves around providing clients in the evidence-based toxicology and food space with epidemiological and toxicological support related to project development, safety assessments, and systematic reviews. Dr. Schaefer’s specialties include delivering practical, meaningful, scientifically rigorous, and cohesive recommendations to clients and stakeholders.
Prior to joining ToxStrategies, Dr. Schaefer served as a toxicologist for the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Human Foods Program, Hazard Characterization and Assessment Branch, where she conducted human health assessments on contaminants (e.g., industrial, metals, pesticides) throughout the food safety continuum. She also provided technical support for all aspects of risk assessment, including hazard characterization, exposure assessment, dose-response analyses, and risk characterization for heavy metals (e.g., cadmium). In addition, prior to the FDA, she was a toxicologist at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) where she co-authored systematic review guidelines for deriving toxicity factors. Her expertise encompasses utilizing evidence-based methods such as systematic reviews for chemical risk assessment to improve research quality, validity, and reliability.
Dr. Schaefer earned her Doctor of Public Health from Texas A&M University in 2015. She has presented at scientific conferences including the Society of Toxicology, and serves as co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Evidence-Based Toxicology Collaborative. She has also been an invited reviewer for various scientific journals, and serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Food Protection.