RICHARD M. LESTER

Bruce WolfMr. Lester is the founder, President and principal consultant for Garden State Environmental, Inc. He has over 25 years of experience in the environmental, occupational (industrial hygiene) and public health fields.

Before becoming a full-time independent consultant, he held several positions in industrial hygiene and environmental program management with research and regulatory agencies at the state, county and local level. These positions provided him with extensive experience in policy and regulatory affairs, specifically related to OSHA and the NJDEP-County Environmental Health Act. He has been directly involved in literally thousands of OSHA and environmental issues, projects, policies and enforcement matters in Municipal and Superior Court pertaining to air and water pollution, noise control, solid waste and recycling, hazardous materials and emergency response, pesticides, site remediation and toxic catastrophe prevention. He also helped design and construct a “state-of-the-art” computer/GIS system and environmental laboratory.

Academically, Mr. Lester holds a BS in Biology/Chemistry and received a National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Environmental Health Traineeship to attend Drexel University, where he earned his MS degree in Environmental Science. He furthered his education by taking additional graduate course work towards a Ph.D. in Environmental Health Science at New York University.

Over the years, Mr. Lester has written technical articles and has been asked to speak at numerous universities, medical schools and professional conferences. He was an advisor to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection on toxic catastrophe prevention, underground storage tank and county environmental health act regulations. Mr. Lester currently serves on the NJ State Industrial Safety Committee, NJ Department of Health and Senior Service’s Occupational Disease Surveillance Advisory Committee and is active in the American Industrial Hygiene Association and the American Lung Association of New Jersey.

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