Who We Are

Erik Kambarian is an occupational health and safety professional for the State of Illinois. In 2019, Erik retired from the fire service where he served as a volunteer firefighter, career firefighter, and fire chief. Erik has also served as a director of safety and security in the private sector. Mr. Kambarian has undergraduate degrees in fire science and political science, graduate degrees in public administration and management, and is a current PhD student. Erik has been visiting Chernobyl since 2013 and teaches radiological preparedness to first responders for the U.S. Department of Energy. He lives in the St. Louis, Missouri area with his wife, four children, and four dogs. Dogs Pravik and Dvaa were born at Chernobyl NPP.

Dr. Jennifer Betz was born and raised in Florida where she earned her undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of South Florida in 1993. She graduated from Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine with her DVM degree in 1997. Dr. Betz owned and operated a private small animal practice in Sandy, Oregon for 20 years. Her professional interests are in orthopedic and soft tissue surgery as well as veterinary forensics.

During her career as a private practitioner she worked concurrently as a Federal Employee for the Department of Health and Human Services, NDMS, on the National Veterinary Response Team (NVRT), where she was instrumental in the relief efforts during Hurricane Sandy’s Aftermath. Dr. Betz also works as a professional responder for the ASPCA National Field Response Team (NFR), Formerly (FIR), working on large scale anti-cruelty cases such as dog fighting, cock fighting, hoarding and puppy mills. Dr. Betz has provided veterinary care to displaced animals during hurricane disasters, Katrina, Sandy, Irma and Maria. In her spare time, she often volunteers her skills providing veterinary medicine and surgery in underdeveloped countries with different organizations such as Veterinary Ventures, CANDI, Animal Balance, SPCAI and AVMF. She is currently the Veterinary Medical Director for Dogs of Chernobyl with the Clean Futures Fund. She is founder and board member president of Visiting Veterinarians International and also sits on the board of Veterinary Ventures. Dr. Betz obtained her Masters degree in Veterinary Forensics from the University of Florida in August of 2019. Dr. Betz is also an instructor for the National Animal Cruelty Investigation School through the University of Missouri, Law Enforcement Training Institute. She is an active member of the Oregon Veterinary Emergency Response Team(OVERT), the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association (OVMA), and the Portland Veterinary Medical Association (PVMA). In her personal life she enjoys hiking, restoring old cars, skeletal articulations and competing in Dock Dogs and Extreme Air Dogs competitions with her Yellow Lab, Sidney and her Golden Retriever, Roxy.

Tom Clawson has over 35 years of experience in Radiation Health Physics and Radiological Training. Tom and his wife, Celeste, own TRG, Inc., an Idaho Falls-based company that provides counter terrorism and radiological training and exercise support services to federal government customers in the U.S. and abroad. TRG has been in business for over 20 years. Tom has trained thousands of emergency responders in radiological and nuclear response and has presented at conferences throughout the U.S. and abroad. Prior to founding TRG, Tom worked in Health Physics/Radiation Safety at various U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. Tom became interested in Chernobyl after working at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant and he has been coming to Chernobyl since 2016. After his first visit to Ukraine, he recognized the unique opportunities inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to educate others about the environmental consequences of widespread radioactive fallout. He formed TRG Tours and began organizing trips to Chernobyl for professionals with radiological/emergency response backgrounds to gain first-hand experience with measuring radiation and contamination levels in an area with widespread environmental contamination. Tom has a passion for Ukraine and the amazing people who live there and is honored to serve on the board of CFF.