Biography of EPA's Scientific Integrity Official

EPA Scientific Integrity Official, Francesca T. Grifo, Ph. D.

Dr. Francesca Grifo is the EPA’s Scientific Integrity Official. She has been int that role since 2013. In addition to her EPA responsibilities, Dr. Grifo co-chaired the Scientific Integrity Fast-Track Action Committee of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and the Scientific Integrity Framework Interagency Working Group of the NSTC and currently is a co-chair of the Subcommittee on Scientific Integrity of the NSTC.

Prior to her appointment at EPA, Dr. Grifo was Senior Scientist, Science Policy Fellow, and Director of the Scientific Integrity Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Previously she served as the Director of the Science Teachers Environmental Education Program and Graduate Policy Workshop at Columbia University, and as the Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. Her government experience includes work as a Program Manager of the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) for the National Institutes of Health as well as service as an American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science and Diplomacy Fellow (AAAS) for USAID’s Office of Research. In addition she was a Senior Program Officer for eastern Europe at the Biodiversity Support Program, a USAID funded consortium of the World Resources Institute, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Nature Conservancy.

Dr. Grifo has held adjunct and other professorial appointments at American University, Georgetown University, Columbia University, and Bard College. She has taught at both the graduate and undergraduate levels including courses such as: Introductory Environmental Science; Introductory Biology; Conservation Biology; Biodiversity and Human Health; and Case Studies in Conservation Biology in the Hudson Valley. She has organized symposia and given talks at various scientific society meetings and has been widely quoted in the press in outlets such as The Washington Post and The New York Times, NPR programs and many others.

Dr. Grifo is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was awarded the Distinguished Service in Science Policy Award from the Washington Academy of Sciences. Dr. Grifo received her A.B. in Biology from Smith College and her Ph.D. in Botany from Cornell University. She has been an election judge in Montgomery County, MD since 2004 and is an avid naturalist, native plants gardener and birder.