We are IBEC.
The Integrated Bioscience and Built Environment Consortium

We seek to accelerate the contributions of science and technology for healthily built environments.

IBEC, a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization, helps bridge the gap between proven scientific processes and real-world applications for healthy gathering. We strive to change how infectious diseases are addressed and contained worldwide.

IBEC has created programs that educate how to successfully mitigate transmission while educating the masses on safe protocols that really make a difference in stifling the unnecessary increase of infectious disease cases and other contagious pathogens.

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It's time to make a difference in the way we handle infectious diseases.

At IBEC, we coordinate knowledge and information sharing, including standards, policies, and procedures applied to impact transmission modes in built spaces.

We put our data into use by transitioning research into practice to recover from biological incidents and safely return to routine activities.

We promote confidence, data-driven solutions, and innovative technologies to implement control and management practices to reduce viral transmission

COMMIT TO THE CAUSE
2020
April 1, 2020

Even before COVID-19 was officially named…

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A team of scientists, industrial hygiene engineers, disaster response, and healthcare specialists talked about this coronavirus becoming a global pandemic. When the world was reeling from the March 2020 shutdown that many said would be a few weeks, this team began meeting weekly to map out what they saw would be needed for the next few years of dealing with the predictable challenges of a global pandemic caused by a novel virus.

April 15, 2020

On April 15th, the team agreed to a leadership structure

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To form a non-profit and formally agreed to the following titles.

On April 15th, the team agread to a leadership structure

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Jayne B. Morrow, PhD

President and Board founding member

Jayne has a broad portfolio of technical program and policy development expertise relevant to the United States and international science community priorities. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a dynamic ability to work across stakeholder groups to foster engagement, create strategic visions, and build consensus on a range of technical program and public policy areas, including national security, environmental health, public health and safety, and law enforcement.

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Kenneth F. Martinez (CAPT USPHS Ret)

CSO and Board founding member

Ken is an Environmental Engineer and Industrial Hygienist with experience in leading and conducting large-scale research; managing programs in occupational safety and health and emergency response; and creating and teaching professional development courses. He has more than 33 years of CDC expertise in hazardous agent exposure characterization and mitigation control practices in the manufacturing and healthcare industry. Since retiring from CDC, he served 8 years in the CBRN space as a consultant focusing on a national biodetection program. Mr. Martinez is a recognized subject matter expert in biological agents, including infectious disease and bioterrorism agents.

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Edward J. Cowan (CDR USN Ret)

COO, Board founding member and Secretary

Ted has more than 30 years of experience in disaster preparedness and emergency management, strategic and operational planning, training, exercise coordination, and operational support. He brings a unique combination of analytical, lessons learned, and vulnerability experience assessment proficiency. He has a command of requirements development related to disaster response and the formulation of comprehensive mitigation strategies.

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Anthony C. Cowan

Chairman of the Implementation Committee, Board founding member, and Treasurer

Tony is a technology and healthcare integration entrepreneur. He has 30 years of experience developing medical public health facilities and delivering high-end medical equipment technologies to market. His development experience includes clinics, doctor’s offices, ambulatory surgery centers, and specialty hospitals. This project management ensured the on-time, on-budget opening of hundreds of facilities passing state licensure requirements, Medicare certification, and Joint Commission accreditation. 

2020
April 18, 2020

The first strategic iteration of ideas was a simple cleaning compliance and certification program that would fall under a not-for-profit entity that used scientific efficacy as its foundation.

This non-profit was temporarily called the International Association of Scientific Critical Cleaning.  This organization’s name changed almost immediately as it was pointed out that in today’s world, the word clean has too many meanings, and the standards available to create a certification program using scientific efficacy studies did not yet exist. The very idea of being a science-based organization was revealing the science was not ready. 

April 25, 2020

With another week of individual and group calls, the second iteration of this venture was agreed to…

The new name was the International Association of Environmental Biomonitoring & Clearance Criteria.  A fundamental discovery of early conversations saw that a lexicon to define words was necessary as the global pandemic was crossing lines between scientific specialties and government agencies, many of which have distinct definitions for the same words. It was also clear that to make a space safe was going to require a truly holistic approach to hygiene, not just a review of chemicals and cleaning practices. A top-down rewrite of how humanity lives together was going to be required.  This included an evaluation of air circulation, water, and sewerage discharge, as well as architectural issues assessing HVAC ventilation and how people move into and out of the space.  Jayne Morrow reached out to the SLOAN Institute. She began weekly conversations with the director Paula Olszewski to capture the scope of specialties required to address hygiene in..Read More

May 1, 2020

The month of May 2020…

Jayne and Ken started and maintained regular meetings with the steering committee as the world began to see what the founding team had predicted. The shutdowns were going to last significantly longer than a few months. With guidance from the steering committee, the idea of a global summit was born. The purpose of this summit would be to bring together leaders from business, policy, standards development, science, and engineering to understand current knowledge better and identify opportunities to work together to control viral transmission in the built environment. This stimulated another iteration of the organization, and the name changed again.    The International Association of Bioscience Environmental Criteria (IBEC). IBEC saw the opportunity to be the bridge between proven scientific processes & real-world applications for healthy congregation.

May 9, 2020

IBEC’s vision as articulated

IBEC shall seek to accelerate the contributions of science and technology for biological detection, decontamination, and the social and behavioral sciences to promote safe congregation and occupancy in built environments. It shall ensure that safe, reliable biological measurement and decontamination standards, guidance, and education materials are available to promote healthy spaces and healthy gatherings throughout the world. It shall promote innovation and development of state-of-the-art and accessible methods for biological monitoring and decontamination.

June 1, 2020

To kick start the work of IBEC, the Global CLEAN Science and Innovation Summit was announced

The idea was to bring industry leaders such as IBM, 3M, and General Motors, corporate leaders such as Hilton, Marriott, and Coca-Cola, and experimental scientists and engineers from universities and national laboratories to discuss the topics of infectious agents and contamination of the built environment. They would distinguish the current practices and already identified gaps in clean-up operations and human/ social system best practices to mitigate infectious agent exposure. This summit would unfold over multiple days to foster in-depth discussion and grow understanding of the science, economic and social impact of the complex interactions of viral transmission in the built environment. To manage the costs associated with this event, IBEC submitted paperwork to Florida to incorporate a non-profit 501C-3, IBEC, Inc.

August 5, 2020

clean2020summit STAGE 1

Objective: To expose issues and challenges to reopening with confidence. Goals: Assess the pain points and challenges faced by a range of industry sectors as they work to reduce transmission and public health risk from COVID Identify current best practices, policies, and procedures for reducing risk and minimizing exposure Start to rapidly identify opportunities for collaboration across industry, government, and academic stakeholders to address identified needs and capability gaps.

August 13, 2020

clean2020summit STAGE 2

Objective: To discuss the current science and Technology Solutions, Gaps, and Research Needs Goals: Assess the state of the science for COVID transmission reduction in the built environment Share existing standards and guidance activities across the landscape Discuss best practices, data-driven solutions, and innovative technologies to help people feel confident and safe in the places where they choose to congregate Identify opportunities to transition research into practice to recover from biological contamination and safely return to routine activities

August 31, 2020

The positive feedback on the success of the first three stages was overwhelming.

A request to produce the 4th STAGE was made to address labor and the essential workforce issues, including first responders working with little to no guidance.   

October 28, 2020

clean2020summit STAGE 4

Objective: Supporting Science & Innovation for Clean Spaces and Healthy Congregation for the Workforce and Work Space Goals: Identify current standards and guidance being implemented in the workplace Understand current best practices to implement identified standards and help further mitigate risks in the workforce Identify current science-based best practices that would allow the workforce to further reduce risk to the public.

November 4, 2020

And the planning begins…

With a proven ability to produce collaborative, interdisciplinary forums, IBEC was asked to develop and publish a 5th STAGE of the clean 2020 summit for the Department of Homeland Security. This event would focus on issues with PPE. It would also demonstrate that IBEC had garnered the respect of government agencies at the highest level.