Radiation Safety Academy 800-871-7930

Home | About Us | Faculty/Staff | More Info Search:

 

Serving Those Who Want the Best in Understanding
and Assurance of Radiation Safety

Also Look For...

About the Radiation Safety Academy

The Radiation Safety Academy was established as a consulting practice by Ray Johnson in 1984. The practice was formerly named Communication Sciences Institute (CSI) which Ray founded after retirement as a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Public Health Service. Our services are directed to persons who want the best understanding and assurance of radiation safety.

The Academy now has a full-time staff of nine, including four senior health physicists (all are Certified Health Physicists with graduate degrees) and one degreed health physicists. The Academy’s CHPs are not only well recognized national experts in radiation safety, they are also radiation safety training professionals with extensive teaching experience. Our staff has decades of experience working in and managing radiation safety programs.

Professional Staff

The following information presents a brief overview of consulting staff qualifications and experience. Complete resumes for senior staff can be accessed by clicking on the staff name below or from our Faculty/Staff page.

Ray Johnson, MS, PE, FHPS, CHPRay Johnson, MS, PE, FHPS, CHP

Mr. Ray Johnson is the Academy’s President and Director of Training. He has presented over 350 seminars, workshops, and short courses in radiation safety, radiation risk assessments, radiation health risk communication, emergency response, radon measurements, quality assurance, communication skills, and personality types. Mr. Johnson is a retired U.S. Public Health Service Officer with 40 years of experience in radiation safety. He was the Project Supervisor for Regulatory Compliance Support contract with the National Institutes of Health for 12 years. During that time he was responsible for the task completion and quality assurance for all radiation safety audit activities completed under that contract.

Mr. Johnson has authored over 300 books and publications on radiation protection and risk communication. He was the President of the Health Physics Society (1999-2000) and is a member of the American Nuclear Society, the American Industrial Hygiene Association, the Conference of Radiation Program Control Directors, the Society for Risk Analysis, and serves on the National Academy of Sciences.

Mr. Johnson is also a very experienced radiation safety instructor. He has presented several hundred workshops and short courses on radiation protection, radiation risks, risk communication, radiation measurements, quality assurance, and communication skills.

Mr. Johnson was featured in article published in the Washington Post, Very Hot Commodities, by Steven Levingston, December 29, 2003.

Alan Fellman, PhD, CHP, RSOAlan Fellman, PhD, CHP, RSO

Dr. Fellman has 17 years of experience providing radiation safety services for a variety of government and commercial clients. Projects include compliance auditing along with preparing license applications and amendments. He leads Academy decommissioning efforts and has managed final status surveys at several licensed facilities. Dr. Fellman has also provided licensing and program implementation services for several veterinary facilities providing iodine therapy to cats.

In addition, Dr. Fellman serves as the RSO on sealed source gauge distribution license for an international manufacturer of industrial gauges. He also is a member of a highly qualified team of health physicist evaluating radiation dose to Federal nuclear weapons program workers.

With a previous employer (1990 – 1999), Dr. Fellman served on four major Federal CERCLA and/or FUSRAP RI/FS projects and remedial design investigations. He was responsible for all technical radiation related issues on these projects and also played a key role in communicating technical issues regarding radiation to members of the public. He also provided worker oversight, training, site-specific health and safety plan development and implementation, and associated radiation monitoring activities. He has revised the USEPA’s drinking water health effects criteria documents on alpha radiation, beta/gamma radiation, and radium, performed a radiological site assessment at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, and evaluated potential release of radioactive contaminants to groundwater at a RCRA permitted landfill in Ohio.

Dr. Fellman has also provided litigation support services to clients in the oil production industry related to the presence of radium-contaminated pipe scale at oil and natural gas production sites.

Sean Austin, MS, CHP, RSOSean Austin, MS, CHP, RSO

Mr. Austin has over 17 years experience working at facilities licensed by the NRC or an Agreement State licensed for the use of radioactive materials. He specializes in instructing radioactive material users on shipping radioactive materials and waste management and disposal. His work experience includes preparing license applications, amendments, and renewals for a variety of radioactive material users, particularly biomedical research and commercial distribution. Mr. Austin serves as the lead consultant for several clients and has prepared DOT exemption applications for a major airline transporting hazardous materials.

Mr. Austin is the RSO for the Academy and is responsible for the radiation safety regulatory compliance for the Academy’s licensed activities including radioanalytical analysis of swipe and leak test samples as well as calibration of portable radiation detection instruments.

Previously, he served as the Chief, Radioactive Materials Control Section, Radiation Safety Branch, National Institutes of Health, from 1994-2001. He ran the NIH program to manage the acquisition, inventory, and disposal of radioactive materials for approximately 3000 research laboratories which included supervising five government and 20-22 contract employees. He directed the radioactive waste portion of a comprehensive laboratory waste contract which exceeded $4 million annually and the radioactive materials acquisition program which was approximately $5 million per year.

Kelly Austin, MS, CHP

Kelly Austin is the Academy’s newest Senior Health Physicist providing health physics consulting and training to hospitals, universities, and nuclear industry. She develops and presents new training courses in medical health physics and operational radiation safety.

Previously as a Training Program Specialist at NIH she managed a diverse radiation safety training program that provided education to over 4,000 individuals per year, presenting over 130 specialized courses. She designed training materials and courses such as web-based training packages, PowerPoint presentations, self-study modules, annual refresher training courses, and basic introductory courses. She also coordinated emergency response drills for firefighters, police, and HP staff to reinforce contamination monitoring/decontamination techniques. She directed an advanced, intensive, 3 day radiation safety training course for senior research staff.

Ms. Austin also served as a Health Physicist with NIH for more than 12 years. Responsibilities included assisting the RSO in drafting license amendments, security issues, drafting and implementing a new program for “Release of Patients Containing Radioactive Material.” She authored “Radiation Safety Emergency Response Notebook” and “Radiation Safety Reference Notebook for Clinical Center Patient Care.” She has experience managing the radiation safety aspects of nuclear medicine, PET, inpatient/outpatient therapies, radiation oncology, and clinical research labs. She also served as Chief, Clinical Center Unit (5/1994 – 6/1995) and was responsible for direct supervision of 4 Clinical Center Health Physicists (HP) and as the Assistant Chief for the Radiation Safety Operations Section of the RSB (5/1994 -2/1996), assisting in the supervision of 12 HP’s.

Mike Jedlicka, BS

Mike Jedlicka is a Health Physicist providing consulting services that include on-site management of MARSSIM decommissioning projects. He also manages the Academy’s Analytical Laboratory ensuring that sample analysis is conducted according to procedures. For nearly two years he provided radiation safety regulatory compliance support services to NIH including conducting routine surveillance of active radiation labs for contamination and dose rate, conducting emergency response activities, providing radiation instrument repair and calibration, performing sample preparation and laboratory analysis in radiation counting lab, decontamination and decommissioning of laboratories and patient care areas, and supervising of hot-lab procedures utilizing high quantities of potentially volatile radioactive material.

Mr. Jedlicka is also the principal instructor for the Academy’s courses on liquid scintillation counting and operational radiation safety including surveying, emergency response, and use of personal protection equipment.

Melisa Ramos, MSMelisa Ramos, MS

Ms. Ramos is the Academy’s Technical Specialist who is the architect of the Academy’s RadTrainOnline.com computer based training system. Prior to joining the Academy in October 2002, she earned a Master’s degree from Rice University in Houston, Texas in Computational and Applied Mathematics, 1999. Through this rigorous program, she was able to develop the necessary and sufficient skills of web application design.

Since the debut of the innovative and industry-leading RadTrainOnline.com in July 2003, she has designed and implemented custom web-based training portals for a large federal agency and several high-tech companies. RTO now provides over 20 different courses available to the public along with custom on-line training content provided to client companies across the US. She provides primary technical support for the Academy’s computer-based training offerings with thousands of trainees nationwide.

Her experience goes beyond just web page design and includes incorporation of a variety of tools and knowledge to result in successful web application development including computer programming, database administration, use of graphic design tools and web design.

Greg Johnson, MBA

Mr. Johnson joined the Academy in 1995 to provide business administration services including payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and marketing. He has extensive skill and experience using a variety of computer tools and software. He continues to oversee all the business administration functions with one full-time and one part-time assistant.

Mr. Johnson also serves as the corporate Quality Manager. In particular he ensures that Academy services meet (or exceed) client expectations. Mr. Johnson, along with all Academy staff, seeks to bring long-term value to our client relationships.

Some of Our Recent Clients

Our goal is to assist clients in using radioactive materials and radiation sources safely, with assurance that radiation doses to workers and members of the public are as low as reasonably achievable, and also protective of the environment. During recent years we have provided valuable consulting and training services to the following government agencies, non-profit organizations, commercial businesses, education institutions, and hospitals.

Government Agencies

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• long-term contract for professional radiation safety services (see below for details)

Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• development and hosting of radiation safety on-line training website

Department of Energy (DOE)
• 5-day class on "Practical Tools for Response to Nuclear Terrorism", Albuquerque NM
• Certified Health Physicist training for Westinghouse, at the Savannah River Plant

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• one-day workshop on management of terrorism events
• five-day course for Radiation Safety Officers
• one-day refresher course for DOT HAZMAT certification

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• long-term contract for professional radiation safety services (see below for details)
• final status surveys for decommissioning of 3 biomedical research laboratory buildings

Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS)
• one-day class on liquid scintillation counting

US Customs and Border Protection
• 5-day courses in radiation safety protection

Non-profit Organizations

Canadian Radiation Protection Association (CRPA)
• 3-day class on training for radiation safety trainers

National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
• member of Institute of Medicine Committee on Battlefield Radiation Exposures
• consultant to Committee on Alternatives for Controlling the Release of Solid Materials from Nuclear Regulatory Commission Licensed Facilities

Commercial Businesses

Alcan Rolled Products
• annual audits, license amendments, safety plan revisions

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
• Acting RSO, licensing, training, surveying, leak test analysis

Celera Genomics
• HP services, licensing, auditing, training

Domino Sugar
• radioactive gauge annual audits and annual refresher training

Eli Lilly
• audits of research facility

Kraft Foods
• industrial x-ray safety program and worker training

Moravek Biochemical, Inc.
• expert witness, auditing, radiation worker training

Philip Morris
• research facility license application, training, on-going consultation

Siemens Maintenance Services
• annual leak test analysis of 4,000 sealed sources

Siemens Medical Solutions
• licensing and RSO training, State regulatory compliance evaluation

Veterinary Emergency Center
• licensing and sample analysis for feline thyroid iodination treatment

Wyeth Research
• annual audits, DOT worker training

Educational Institutions

Catholic University
• decommissioning funding plan, surveys

George Mason University
• University radiation safety consultant and radiation safety board member

James Madison University
• final status surveys of biomedical research laboratories and a waste storage facility

Princeton University
• radiation safety program audit

State University of New York
• hazardous materials response training

University of Arkansas
• auditing and training for radiation workers

University of California, Santa Cruz
• final status surveys of biomedical research laboratories

University of Pennsylvania
• radiation worker and hazardous materials response training

University of Texas
• radiation worker and hazardous materials response training

Hospitals

INOVA Mount Vernon Hospital
• training for medical response to terrorism

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

• radiation safety program review

 

National Institutes of Health

From January 1, 1993 until October 15, 2006, the Academy provided radiation safety services to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under a Regulatory Support Contract. The scope of work included providing professional health physics staffing services, conducting comprehensive radiation safety inspections of over 3,000 NIH laboratories, performing annual calibrations, inspections, and repairs of over 2,500 radiation instruments, conducting environmental monitoring; providing support to the NIH radioanalysis laboratory, managing the NIH hot lab facility; managing the I-131 therapy rooms; providing emergency response and decontamination support; surveys of research and medical X-ray units; and frequent checking for security of radioactive materials. In 2003, our contract was modified to include performing MARSSIM type final status surveys in support of decommissioning and renovation of facilities. In addition, the Academy also performed administrative services, e.g., maintaining the NIH radiation safety data base supporting comprehensive inspections, survey meter calibrations, environmental/effluent sample analyses, protocols, authorizations, Authorized User audits, enforcement actions, and security checks.

Over 13 years the Academy performed more than 80,000 radiation safety inspections, conducted over 24,000 meter calibrations, deployed, collected and prepared for analysis over 20,000 environmental/effluent samples, prepared over 15,000 samples for analysis in the NIH laboratory, and conducted over 2,500 hours of radioactive materials security checks. Each month the Academy project supervisor prepared a Quality Assurance Report which summarized the quality control reviews of all contract activities. Overall these reports established a track record of outstanding performance. This does not mean that the Academy performed without errors. Rather, errors or deficiencies that were identified through the Quality Assurance Program were reconciled and corrections were made as appropriate, including retraining of staff to assure continuing high quality performance.


Training | License/Management  Support | On-site/Technical Support
Lab Analysis | Instrumentation | Publishing | Resources
About Us | Faculty/Staff | Contact Us
Privacy Policy | Sitemap | Home

© 1997 - 2008
All rights reserved
02/21/08
Radiation Safety Academy
A Division of Dade Moeller & Associates
481 N. Frederick Ave, Ste. 302, Gaithersburg, MD 20877
Phone: 301-990-6006 Fax: 301-990-9878
http://www.RadiationSafetyAcademy.com