EHS Welcomes New Staff

April 4, 2023

Yale Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) welcomes Melissa James, Dave Krochko, and Stephen Alfano to the team. The trio joins EHS with years of experience in their respective fields.

Melissa James, MPS, RBP, has been hired as EHS’s new BSL-3 facility manager. In this newly created position, James will support Yale’s BSL-3 program and other specialized containment programs and initiatives, which include, but are not limited to onsite management of Yale BSL-3, ABSL-3, and other containment facilities. She will be responsible for developing and providing containment training courses, including visitor training, leading tours for new BSL-3, ABSL-3, and other researcher working biohazards. James will also conduct and document applicable lab, biosecurity, and other biohazard inspections, provide oversight of related emergency and training drills involving scheduling, leading, and documentation related to the exercises.

James is joining EHS from Pennsylvania where she spent the past seven years as facility manager of the Eva J. Pell Laboratory for Advanced Biological Research and as the responsible official for Penn State University’s Select Agent Program. The Pell Lab is a registered Tier 1 Select Agent ABSL-3 enhanced laboratory at Penn State University.

She earned her undergraduate degree in biology with a minor in Spanish from Allegheny College in 2006 and her Master’s Degree in 2019 from Penn State University in homeland security with a focus on public health preparedness for disasters and bioterrorism.

Dave Krochko, P.E., has been hired as EHS’s new air compliance engineer. Krochko is a professional engineer and comes to us with almost 20 years in the environmental compliance field, most notably he is an expert in the Clean Air Act.  Dave comes from a long career with Woodard & Curran and most recently was an EHS manager at Sema4. 

He earned his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the University of Connecticut.

Stephen Alfano has joined EHS as a safety advisor technician. He comes from Mystic Air Quality Consultants Inc., where he worked as an industrial hygienist and air quality professional. In this role, Alfano performed asbestos bulk and air sampling, odor investigations, personal and ambient air sampling, chemical fume hood inspections, and respiratory fit tests – among other duties. His professional licensing includes State of Connecticut Asbestos Consultant Inspector and Project Monitor and OSHA 40-Hour HAZWOPER.

Alfano earned his undergraduate degree in allied health sciences with a concentration in occupational and environmental health and safety from the University of Connecticut in 2020.