History

Peg Coleman began serving as a medical microbiologist and microbial risk assessor in the US federal government in 1992, and continued that work as founder in 2010 of the woman-owned small business Coleman Scientific Consulting (CSC). Peg’s assessments all address the extensive gaps in scientific knowledge of microbial risks and benefits in health and disease. She is recognized as a trusted adviser, invited expert, educator, and peer-reviewer for methodology to assess microbial risks, including attendant uncertainties due to limited data that is often ambiguous, fragmented, and indirect. Her unique knowledge and collaborative style supports development of coherent models that reflect not just statistical correlations, but more importantly the complexities of biological systems and underlying causal mechanisms.

Recognition of microbes as our partners in health (see Rodney Dietert’s The Human Superorganism: How the Microbiome is Revolutionizing the Pursuit of a Healthy Life) and incorrect assumptions about health (see Marty Makary’s Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health) merits civil discourse about dogma and beliefs that still dominate modern risk perceptions about microbes as ‘germs’. From assisting with setting safe exposure guidelines for biothreat agents to managing ecosystems that make up farm-to-fork systems, CSC work continues to provide evidence-based support that raises challenges to use of outdated conservative assumptions that overestimate perceived risks, underestimate uncertainty, and poorly reflect microbial interactions in complex biological systems like the gastrointestinal tract. Recent manuscripts in the prestigious journals Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health, PLoS One, and Risk Analysis challenge outdated simplifying assumptions about of simple, convenient, but unfortunately, biologically implausible hypotheses and models. Oversimplified models typically exaggerate risk and underestimate uncertainty, misleading both policy makers and consumers.

CSC work on issues related to the microbiota of milks began in 2014 with a presentation entitled Exploring Disagreements Regarding Health Risks of Raw and Pasteurized Human and Bovine Milk at the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) annual meeting. Since then, Peg continues to invested time and energy into evidence for benefits and risks of raw and pasteurized milks, including human and bovine milks. A multi-year project on the Microbiota of Milks continues with collaborators including SRA Past-President Warner North, Cornell University Emeritus Professor Rod Dietert, independent mathematical statistician Nick Azzolina, and database expert Michele Stephenson. Links to our publications are provided below.

• Trends in Burdens of Disease by Transmission Source (USA, 2005-2020) and Hazard Identification for Foods: Focus on Milkborne Disease (Stephenson et al., 2024)

• Lessons identified from applications of the Risk Analysis QualityTest Release 1.0 (Waller et al., 2024)

• Suppression of Pathogens in Properly Refrigerated Raw Milk (Coleman et al., 2023)

• Nourishing the Human Holobiont to Reduce the Risk of Non-Communicable Diseases: A Cow’s Milk Evidence Map Example (Dietert et al., 2022)

• Examining Evidence of Benefits and Risks for Pasteurizing Donor Breastmilk (Coleman et al., 2021)

• Peg prepared and presented a 2021 SRA webinar entitled Resilience and the Human Superorganism: Give Us this Day our Daily Microbes

• Peg contributed to the 2019 poster entitled Producing Hygienic Raw Milk: Standards, Testing, and Farmer Education at the 16th International Symposium on Milk Genomics conference, Copenhagen, Denmark

• Peg and Nick prepared a presentation for the 2019 SRA annual meeting entitled Data and Analysis Debunk Speculations about Raw Milk Risks.

• Peg and Rod presented at a 2018 Upstate NY SRA event at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine entitled Microbiome Benefits and Risks in Neonatology and Later Life.

• Peg and Warner presented a 2017 SRA webinar (Preparing to Deliberate Evidence on Benefits and Risks Posed by the Microbiota of Milks) and a 2018 SRA symposium (Communicating Evidence for Benefits and Risks of Raw Milks).

• Peg presented recent lectures at three Universities:

  o Microbiome and Immunology: Interactions for Risk Assessors from 21st Century Science at SUNY ESF in Syracuse (2018 to 2024, ENS 470, Environmental Risk Assessment)

  o Considering Risk Management for Complex Systems at Ohio State University (2 lectures in PUBHEHS 7375 Quantitative Microbial Risk Analysis Modeling)

  o Incorporating Food and Gut Microbiota into 21st Century Risk Analysis at University of Liverpool, Institute for Risk and Uncertainty, UK

Click on presentation titles above to view manuscripts, download slides sets, and view videos.

Selected Publications

• 2024. Stephenson, M.M., Coleman, M.E., Azzolina, N.A. Trends in Burdens of Disease by Transmission Source (USA, 2005–2020) and Hazard Identification for Foods: Focus on Milkborne Disease

• 2024. Waller, R., Coleman, M.E., Denard, S., Soane, E. Lessons identified from applications of the Risk Analysis Quality Test Release 1.0.

• 2023. Coleman, M.E., Oscar, T.P., Negley, T.L., Stephenson, M.M. Suppression of Pathogens in Properly Refrigerated Raw Milk. PLOS ONE 18(12): e0289249.

• 2023. Coleman, M.E. and D.W. North. Revisioning Small Family Dairy Farms that Apply One Health Approaches. Concepts of Dairy Science 5(4):553-557. Free Open Access. DOI: 10.32474/CDVS.2023.05.000216.

• 2022. North, D.W., Coleman, M.E., Hull, R. Need for International Workshops to Deliberate Evidence of Benefits and Risks of Raw Milks. Invited opinion article for Corpus Journal Veterinary & Dairy Science 3(1)1031.

• 2022. Dietert, R.R., Coleman, M.E., North, D.W., Stephenson, M.M. Nourishing the Human Holobiont to Reduce the Risk of Non-Communicable Diseases: A Cow’s Milk Evidence Map Example. Applied Microbiology. 2(1):25-52.

• 2021. Coleman, M.E., Dietert, R., North, D.W. Enhancing Human Superorganism Ecosystem Resilience by Holistically ‘Managing our Microbes’. Invited manuscript in Special Issue (Human Microbiota Influence on Human Health Status) for Applied Microbiology 1(3):471-497.

• 2021. Coleman, M.E., North, D.W., Dietert, R., Stephenson, M. Examining Evidence of Benefits and Risks for Pasteurizing Donor Breastmilk. Invited manuscript in Special Issue (Human Microbiota Influence on Human Health Status) for Applied Microbiology 1(3):408-425.

• 2018. Coleman, M.E., C.A. Elkins, B.W. Gutting, E.F. Mongodin, G. Solano-Aguilar, I Walls. Microbiota and Dose-Response: Evolving Paradigm of Health Triangle. Risk Analysis 38(10):2013-2028.

• 2018. McClellan, G.E., M.E. Coleman, D. Crary, A. Thurman, B. Thran. Human Dose-Response Data for Francisella tularensis and a Dose- and Time-Dependent Mathematical Model of Early-Phase Fever Associated with Tularemia after Inhalation Exposure. Risk Analysis 38(8):1685-1700.

• 2017. Coleman, M.E., H.M. Marks, R.C. Hertzberg, M.M. Stephenson. Mechanistic Modeling of Salmonellosis: Update and Future Directions. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal 23(8):1830-56.

• 2017. Marks, H.M., M.E. Coleman. Scientific Data and Theories for Salmonellosis Dose-Response Assessment. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal 23(8):1857-76.

• 2017. Coleman, M.E., H.M. Marks, T. Bartrand, D.W. Donahue, S. Hines, S. Taft. Modeling Rabbit Responses to Single and Multiple Aerosol Exposures of Bacillus anthracis Spores. Risk Analysis 37(5):943-957

• 2010. Coleman, M.E. Reviews of Food Safety Risk Analysis and Food-Borne Microbes: Shaping the Host Ecosystem. Invited book reviews, Risk Analysis 30(5):866-871

• 2008. Coleman, M.E., B. Thran, S.S. Morse, M. Hugh-Jones, S. Massulik. Inhalation Anthrax: Dose Response and Risk Analysis. Biosecurity Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science 6(2): 147-160

• 2007. Coleman, M.E., B. K. Hope, H.G. Claycamp, and J.T. Cohen. Microbial Risk Assessment Scenarios, Causality, and Uncertainty. Microbe 2(1):13-17

• 2005. Marks, H.M., and M.E. Coleman. Presenting Scientific Theories within Risk Assessment, Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journa 11(2):271-287

• 2005. Marks, H.M., and M.E. Coleman. Accounting for inherent variability of growth in Microbial Risk Assessment, International J Food Microbiology 100(1-3):275-87

• 2003. Coleman, M.E., M. Tamplin, J. Phillips, B. Marmer. Influence of agitation, inoculum density, pH, and strain on growth parameters of Escherichia coli O157:H7 on risk assessment, International J Food Microbiology 83(2):147-160

• 2003. Coleman, M.E. S. Sandberg, S. Anderson. Impact of Microbial Ecology of Meat and Poultry Products on Predictions from Exposure Assessment Scenarios for Refrigerated Storage, Risk Analysis 23(1):215-28

• 2000. Coleman, M.E. and H.M. Marks. Mechanistic Modeling of Salmonellosis, Quantitative Microbiology 2:227-247