Science Team

Brian S. Hooker, Ph.D., PE

Chief Scientific Officer

Brian S. Hooker, Ph.D., PE, is the chief scientific officer of Children’s Health Defense, an organization committed to the best health for children in the U.S. and worldwide. He is also Frances P. Owen Distinguished Professor of Biology at Simpson University in Redding California where he specializes in microbiology and biotechnology. In 1985, Dr. Hooker earned his bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering, from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California. He earned his master’s of science degree in 1988 and his doctorate in 1990, both in biochemical engineering, from Washington State University, in Pullman, Washington.

Hooker has many accomplishments to his credit including: co-inventor for five patents, recipient of the Battelle Entrepreneurial Award in 2001 and a Federal Laboratory Consortium Recognition Award in 1999, for his work on “Reactive Transport in 3-Dimensions.” The breadth of Hooker’s more than 65 science and engineering papers have been published in internationally recognized, peer reviewed journals.

Hooker has been active in vaccine safety since 2001 and has a 23-year-old son with autism.
In 2013 and 2014, Hooker worked with the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) whistleblower, Dr. William Thompson, to expose fraud and corruption within vaccine safety research in the CDC which led to the release of over 10,000 pages of documents.

Heather Ray

Administrator

Heather Ray is the science and research administrator for Children’s Health Defense (CHD). Heather received her certificate of therapeutic massage from the University of Alaska, Anchorage in 2000. She earned her bachelor of arts degree, with a major in sociology, from the University of Florida in 2020.

At Children’s Health Defense, Heather works alongside Brian Hooker Ph.D. and contributes to the science department through administrative assistance, research and writing. She is honored to collaborate with remarkable colleagues at CHD and partnering entities on a variety of scientific research and writing projects that focus on vaccine safety, childhood health and medical freedom.

Prior to her employment at CHD Heather was a licensed massage therapist for over 15 years with a focus in therapeutic massage, pain management and palliative care for patients suffering from debilitating medical conditions. She has a passion for being a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves and has been a strong voice for children in her community, advocating for freedom against medical mandates within the public school system.

Heather has advocated in public forum for her son, who has Down syndrome, and his rights in accordance with the American with Disability Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Fair Housing Act.

Heather is a devoted mother of five amazing children and the wife a wonderful husband. She has volunteered in the Special Olympics in South Florida, and in a variety of special needs classroom settings and is a Sunday school teacher at her church in Alaska.

Lt. Col. Steven P. Petrosino, Ph.D., MACAM, MARHP

CHD Science & Research Fellow

Lt. Col. Steven P. Petrosino, Ph.D., MACAM, MARHP spent 29 years on active and reserve duty (1975 to 2004) as an attack Cobra helicopter pilot and senior pilot instructor in the U.S. Marine Corps, finishing his service as assistant director of aviation operations for Marine Forces Atlantic and retiring as a Lt. Colonel in 2004. During his time as a Marine reservist, (1987 to 2004) He was employed full time by a variety of pharmaceutical companies (Marion Laboratories, Aventis, Centocor, Johnson & Johnson, Human Genome Sciences, Incyte and Bristol Myers Squibb). He spent 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry as a scientist.

Petrosino was most recently employed full-time as a senior scientist and medical science liaison in the field of immunology with Bristol Myers Squibb, a bio-pharmaceutical company specializing in rheumatology, oncology and immunology biologic and small molecule pharmaceuticals in Princeton New Jersey. He spent about 60-80% of his time traveling to medical meetings and scientific presentations in a 5-state area in the Midwest. He received his baccalaureate degree in both science and english from Penn State University (1970-1975), pursued his master’s degree in American Studies at Penn State in 1977-1978 and graduated with a doctorate degree in nutrition from Lasalle University (1990-1995).

In 1996-1998 Petrosino was involved in external, post-doctoral research at the Ohio State University in the Department of Cancer Prevention and Natural Products Research. In 2002, he was enrolled in a post-doctoral external course (immunobiology) at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 2006, graduated from an advanced immunology course sponsored by the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies. He is currently pursuing a second doctorate (public health) at Walden University (2012-present) and is currently maintaining a 4.0 GPA.

Petrosino is an active scientific member of FOCIS (Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies). He was an adjunct professor of nutrition at LaSalle University; a member of the National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Committee on Cardiovascular Disease; a member of the American Heart Association Scientific Council on Epidemiology and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease; a charter member of the American Heart Association Council on Nutrition, Metabolism and Physical Activity; a professional member of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association; an Allied Health Care Practitioner member of the American Preventive Medical Association; a scientific member of the American College for Advancement in Medicine; and a professional member of the American Heart Association Interdisciplinary Working Group on Functional Genomics and Translational Biology.

Petrosino is the medical director and head of the Medical Advisory Board for LifePharm Global in Irvine California; a scientific member of the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals; a scientific member of the American Society of Hematology; a scientific member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology; a member of the executive board of directors of the American Heart Association, Ohio Council; and a member of the executive board of directors of the Arthritis Foundation, Franklin County, Ohio.

In the past, he was employed as a senior medical science liaison with Human Genome Sciences, the company responsible for decrypting the human genome (2010-2012), and was employed as a principal clinical scientist with Centocor OrthoBiotech, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (2000-2010) and as a consultant and specialist in degenerative diseases (cardiovascular, rheumatologic and oncological diseases) with Aventis Pharmaceuticals (1987-2000). he and his wife are both holders of the black belt in Tae Kwon Do Karate. Petrosino holds a Guinness World Record in human achievement (www.beerrecord.com 1977).

Sue Peters, Ph.D.

CHD Science & Research Fellow

Sue Peters, Ph.D., is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist with a strong research interest in exposomic impacts on developmental brain health. Sue completed her doctoral degree in behavioral neuroscience at Rutgers University in 2017. She received her undergraduate degree in computer science, from the Grove School of Engineering at City College of New York in 2008. Her research focus has been primarily in the characterization of infant brain rhythms during sleep.

Peters is specifically interested in the development of neurophysiologic, autonomic and circadian sleep patterns during infancy, and how they are related to brain development and later cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Specific microstructural components of infant sleep are thought to represent active brain development and information processing and gaining a better understanding of these features may contribute to more powerful diagnostic tools, or biomarkers of and interventions for developmental disorders in the future.

Prior to completing her formal education, she had successful career in mobile technology and business and has also applied her experience exploring how mobile sensing technologies could allow for more ethological and continuous measures of individual variability across development, particularly as it applies to measures of sleep.

As a science fellow at Children’s Health Defense, she has been contributing as a researcher, writer and lecturer as well as learning about a broad range of topics around toxic environmental exposures, their effects on health in various populations, along with the legal and activism efforts to support medical choice, and protection, for all people.

Margot DesBois

CHD Science & Research Fellow

Margot DesBois grew up and currently lives in northeastern Massachusetts. She graduated from Middlebury College, Vermont, in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and completion of pre-medical coursework. Margot is particularly interested in cellular biochemistry and the nutritional and environmental factors that influence health. She believes in the body’s infinite capacity to heal itself with the correct support.

Since 2010, Margot has used individualized nutritional therapies under professional direction to treat and manage her own chronic infectious disease and autoimmune complications. She wishes to pursue a medical education in order to practice orthomolecular and environmental medicine. She has co-founded and co-runs a private academic tutoring and educational enrichment service with her three brothers (desboistutoring.org).

During this present time of intense government and institutional attacks on liberty, she is seeking ways to defend our Constitutional rights and health freedoms. Margot joined the Children’s Health Defense (CHD) science team as a member of the inaugural class of CHD fellows in January, 2022. She is honored to help advance CHD’s work exposing the underlying causes of the epidemic of childhood chronic illness, principally by contributing to scientific research and writing projects. She hopes to continue her exploration of healing practices, educate others and advocate for the individual’s right to choose his own methods of healing.

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D.

CHD Science & Research Fellow

Scientific integrity has lately been an oxymoron, but it ought to be a redundant phrase. There is no science without integrity, which is why Karl has joined Children’s Health Defense (CHD). Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D. holds a master’s degree in computer science and a doctorate degree in biomedical and health informatics. He has designed and worked with terabyte sized databases (both biological and electronic medical record systems), and has published two book chapters and 11 peer-reviewed journal articles related to data mining and analysis for scientific investigation. Succinctly, he practices data science by writing artificial intelligent programs that interrogate databases. His fellowship will focus on a few of the many opportunities to advance CHD’s mission through data science.