Richard Anthony Gama, CST, CMLSO, is the Director of Laser Safety for Agiliti Surgical Services. Active Certified Surgical Technologist since 1983 working in general, ophthalmic, ENT, OB-GYN, cardio, vascular, neurology, urology, and orthopedic surgical specialties. He became a dedicated laser operator in 1988 and have been certified on many devices/wavelengths for virtually all specialties and applications. He attained vast work experience as a clinical educator and director of surgical services for various laser vendor services companies over the years. He created operating policy and procedures, laser safety checklists and logs, training curriculums and learning materials, computer-based training programs and certification exams for general laser physics and safety, laser devices/wavelengths, laser surgical and treatment applications, and developed performance/quality improvement and credentialing compliance systems as part of his duties. As a certified medical laser safety officer, Richard has provided certification training for laser users and operators as well as provide laser safety in-service programs for healthcare facilities in fourteen states across the country. He has conducted over eight-hundred laser training or in-service programs during career. Have written and produced training videos for Operating Room Work Practices, Laser Accessory Inspection & Inventory, Cleaning & Sterilization, Equipment Storage & Transportation, Laser Fiber Optic Handling & Use, Laser Safety Eyewear Management & Use and Sterile Product Management. He was instrumental in the creation and development of the Agiliti Laser Safety website portal and produced laser safety program and Medical Laser Safety Officer (MLSO) informational brochures and training videos for MLSOs as well as write and produce an ongoing  series of Clinical Update videos such as The Joint commission’s (TJC) Medical Equipment & Utility Systems Maintenance Standards, TJC Environment of Care Standards Compliance, Agiliti Laser Program Solutions for Health Care Facilities and others.  He is currently acting as the laser demonstration and hands-on instructor for the Laser Institute of America’s Medical Laser Safety Officer and Advanced MLSO training courses since May of 2014. Ha has written and presented two sessions at the 2015 International Laser Safety Conference (ILSC) titled HCF Third Party Laser Use & Compliance and Airway Laser Safety Considerations and one session at the 2019 ILSC titled Health Care Laser Hazards Relative to Risk. Instrumental leader of the medical laser safety community activities that lead to the 2019 Illumination Award from the Board of Laser Safety awarded to Agiliti. Richard is currently a member of the Board of Laser Safety’s Board of Commissioners and has been on the medical laser safety officer certification exam review board. He is currently the 2023 International Laser Safety Conference co-chair for the medical practical applications seminar.

Richard holds memberships in professional organizations such as Association of Surgical Technologists, Laser Institute of America, American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery, International Council on Surgical Plume, and Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. Richard declares no conflicts of interest.

Richard has over thirty-nine years of operating room experience with over thirty-three years of specialized laser training and experience. He was first trained as a laser safety officer in 1991 and has been a Board of Laser Safety Certified Medical Laser Safety Officer since 2005. He is completely dedicated to the concept of "Aeger Primo" - The Patient First and committed to a high-level of professional ethics and practices for the safe and effective use of lasers in Health care.

Veronica Villalon is the Associate Director of Safety and Medical Laser Safety Officer (MLSO) for the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center and Benioff Children’s Hospital. I have been a certified MLSO since 2011.  I completed both my B.S. in Chemistry and B.S. in Biology at UC Irvine (UCI) and studied synthetic organic chemistry for my Ph.D. at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB).  My first research project working with lasers was as an undergraduate at the Beckman Laser Institute (BLI) at UCI studying treatment of endometriosis using photodynamic therapy (PDT).  I have worked with lasers for over a decade and now oversee program compliance with Laser Safety across UCSF Health and have expanded my role as a technical advisor for Benioff Children’s Hospital – Oakland and ZSFGH.  By becoming the MLSO for our institution, I am able to help UCSF meet the accreditation standards necessary to maintain patient care operations and provide the best health care. 

James (Jamie) Santucci is an Engineering Physicist at DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, America’s premier research laboratory for high-energy physics.  He is active in numerous areas including superconducting linear accelerators, high-brightness photoinjectors, storage rings and particle-beam cooling, relativistic quantum electrons, dark-matter detection and atom interferometry for gravitational-wave detection.  Jamie has been developing laser systems and laser labs for particle accelerators since 1996, and his R&D in Accelerator Science and Technology often requires the development of lasers and transport systems with unique performance properties. 

Jamie is a member of the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  He is also an active member in laser-related groups, including the Optical Society of America (OSA), the DOE’s Laser Safety Task Group (EFCOG-LSTG) and the ANSI Z136 subcommittees (SSC-4, SSC-7 and SSC-8).  On summer weekends Jamie is a sailing instructor who teaches kids how to sail. 

R. DeWayne Holcomb started his career in the Navy Nuclear Program, and has been working in the field of Health Physics ever since, including ionizing, non-ionizing, and laser radiation programs.  His resume includes three research Universities, NASA and DOE facilities, and commercial industry.  He maintains his CLSO and CHP certifications, and is currently the RSO / LSO for the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Annette Frederiksen studied mechatronics at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany and received her PhD (Dr.-Ing.) from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. In 2008, she joined Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany, working in the research and development of display and optical sensor technologies. Currently, she is deeply involved in lidar sensor development and in eye safety evaluations of complex laser products. She actively participates as an expert in the German (DKE/GK 841), European (CLC/TC 76) and international (IEC/TC 76) standardization committees for optical radiation safety. In 2017, she became Secretary of CLC/TC 76 and in 2018 Assistant Secretary of IEC/TC 76.

Dr. Sliney received his B.S. in physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, his M.S. in physics and radiological health from Emory University, and his Ph.D. in biophysics and medical physics from the University of London, Institute of Ophthalmology.  He was the Manager of the Laser/Optical Radiation Program at the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine for many years until retiring in 2007. His research interests focus on subjects related to UV effects upon the eye, optical hazards from intense light sources and lasers, laser-tissue interactions, laser hazards and laser applications in medicine and surgery.

He served as member, advisor and chairman of numerous committees and institutions, which are active in the establishment of safety standards for protection against non-ionizing radiation in particular from lasers and other high-intensity optical sources (ANSI, ISO, ACGIH, IEC, WHO, NCRP, and ICNIRP). 

He was a Fulbright Scholar to Yugoslavia in 1977 and received the Wilkening Award and the Schawlow Award from the LIA in 2005 and the Award for Distinguished Scientific Achievements from the Health Physics Society in 2009.  He served as President of the Laser Institute of America in 1992 and as President of the American Society for Photobiology during 2008-2009.