Obituary of Ruth Hamilton Allen

Ruth Hamilton Allen August 25, 1944—October 16, 2012 Dr. Ruth H. Allen was born in Trenton, New Jersey. When she was two years old, she moved to Tarentum, Pennsylvania, and subsequently received her high school diploma from HarBrack High School in 1962. She attended Douglass College in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where she met and later married George R. Allen in March 1965. Ruth received her A.B. from Douglass in 1966 and then taught high school biology in Hamden, Connecticut, while her husband was in graduate studies at Yale University. When George was called to active duty with the Army in 1967, they relocated to Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, where their son George was born in July 1968. After the completion of his two-year military service, the Allens returned to New Haven, Connecticut, and Ruth enrolled in graduate studies at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, receiving her Master of Forest Science degree in 1972. Continuing her graduate studies there, Ruth received her M.S. degree in 1973, her Master of Philosophy degree in 1974, and her Ph.D. in 1977. In 1975 Ruth joined the Institute of Ecology in Washington, D.C., and then worked for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments on environmental studies. She became a faculty member at Hood College in 1977. In June 1979 Ruth gave birth to twin daughters, Rebecca and Rachel. After their birth, Ruth became an Assistant Professor at American University with research interests in environmental sciences and management. It was here that Ruth developed an intense interest in the relationship between disease and the environment. She completed postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University in cancer epidemiology, biostatistics, and prevention research from 1983 to 1986, earning a Master's in Public Health in 1984. Ruth began her government service in 1986, starting as an expert consultant in the Office of Research and Development of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She held various positions, including Special Assistant, Program Manager, Section Head, and Program Director. Ruth was the Program Director for the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project, which sought to correlate exposure to environmental contaminants, such as pesticides, with the higher-than-average incidence of breast cancer on Long Island. She published extensively on breast cancer and environmental risk, women's health, geographic patterns of cancer, risk assessment, and pesticide biomonitoring. On her last EPA assignment from 2008 to 2010, Ruth was Visiting Scientist in Environmental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She retired from the EPA in 2010. Ruth was a two-term President of both the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Society of Alumni and the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Executive Alumni Board. She served six years on the Johns Hopkins President's University-wide Alumni Council and three years as an At-Large member of the Association of Yale Alumni Board. Ruth was an author, frequent public speaker on health and environmental topics, and a certified Integral Life Coach, which she had attained in 1999, as an alumna of the New Ventures West Coaching Program. As President of the AEH Institute, a woman-owned, life-coaching and global health and environment consulting business founded in 1999, she specialized in international distance education; small business development; strategic planning; and executive, business, and personal-life coaching. Ruth was in the process of writing a book on Global Health and the Environment: An Integral Approach when she died. Ruth was also an active member of the Baha'i community in many capacities for over 25 years, including serving as a member of the local Baha'i Governing Council, as a member of the NOVA Baha'i Center Steering Committee, and as a professor for the Baha'i Institute of Higher Education (BIHE). To balance such a busy life, Ruth enjoyed fitness and yoga, gardening and nature walks, and singing with the Metropolitan D.C. Baha'i Chorale and the Art of Living NOVA Ashram Bhajan Singers. Ruth is survived by her husband of 47 years, Dr. George R. Allen of Reston, Virginia; her son George and daughter Rachel, also of Reston; her daughter Rebecca Coleman of Manassas, Virginia; her mother, Marion Baker Hamilton, of Reston; and her brothers, Charles and Timothy Hamilton of Reston; and Duncan Hamilton of Monroeville, Pennsylvania.