The Allegheny College impact can be felt just about anywhere. The work of one alum in particular can be traced to the cookware in your kitchen and the canned food in your pantry.
Britt Luccy McAtee is working to make what you eat safer. The 1998 graduate is the Senior Manager of Global Toxicology and Food Contact Compliance at PPG Industries, ensuring that products and their packaging meet safety regulations. But she’s also looking to innovate safer and more sustainable alternatives.
One Class Shapes a Future
Just one class can change a student’s life. As an environmental science and sustainability major, McAtee’s life-changing class was toxicology, where she became engrossed in the trickle-down effect of scientific decisions.
The interdisciplinary nature of the program helped me understand how scientific decisions affect both people and the environment,” McAtee said. “The toxicology course that I took as part of my major led me directly to my career path as a toxicologist, a field that I have now been in for more than 20 years.
Allegheny’s academic reputation was a major factor in McAtee’s decision to attend the institution. In addition to personal, one-to-one relationships with faculty, McAtee was also interested in learning through hands-on opportunities and research.
Without that toxicology course, McAtee believes her career would have been on a completely different trajectory, as Allegheny’s academic atmosphere pushed her to explore newfound interests.
An Academic Minor Builds a Major World
While McAtee’s major supplemented her technical knowledge in the toxicology world, her Spanish minor prepared her to be a leader.
“While I don’t use Spanish daily in my work, studying another language strengthened my communication skills and increased my appreciation for different cultures and perspectives,” McAtee said. “In a global role, that cultural awareness has been incredibly beneficial when working with colleagues and partners around the world.”
What may seem like an unexpected combination of major and minor is the definition of an Allegheny education — an experience that soars beyond disciplines.
During McAtee’s senior year, her Spanish minor sent her abroad to Costa Rica, which instilled a certain confidence for personal and professional challenges.
“This experience really shaped me in so many ways,” she said. “I learned the difference between what it takes to survive, thrive, and be comfortable; experienced the joys and frustrations of field studies; became more fluent in Spanish; and discovered how much growth is possible outside my comfort zone.”
McAtee’s research under PPG Industries explores safer and more sustainable risk assessment frameworks.
From Taking Risks to Assessing Them
After graduation, McAtee embarked on graduate studies. She earned her Ph.D. in toxicological studies from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and went on to work for ChemRisk in Pittsburgh, an environmental and health risk consulting firm.
In 2011, her career began to shift from Northwest Pennsylvania to a more global stage. She joined PPG Industries and, 15 years later, she’s a leader for the Global Toxicology and Food Contact Compliance team.
The team manages company programs that evaluate and assess chemicals and potential hazards in its products. But McAtee and her team have taken things a step further, developing tools that better assess potential health and environmental risks.
“By working closely with scientists, product developers, regulatory experts, and sustainability teams around the world, we help ensure that innovation and responsible product stewardship go hand in hand,” McAtee said.
Looking back on her time at Allegheny, McAtee is grateful for the push to step outside her comfort zone.
“Be curious and remain open to opportunities you may not have considered,” she said. “Some of the most rewarding opportunities in my career came from saying ‘yes’ to experiences that helped me learn and grow.”
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