Alexandra Cousteau

Founder and President, Blue Legacy International

National Geographic Emerging Explorer Alexandra Cousteau is part of one of the world's most famous environmental dynasties. She is grand-daughter of legend Jacques-Yves Cousteau who first started teaching her to dive at the age of seven. She left on her first expedition with her father Philippe and mother Jan to Easter Island, Chile when she was just 4 months old.

Today, she takes that rich legacy of environmental advocacy, exploration and storytelling and moves it forward with Blue Legacy, a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit that she founded in 2008 to leverage new and emerging technologies to connect mainstream audiences with their local watersheds and their water planet.

As the visionary behind Blue Legacy's projects, she advocates the critical importance of managing our water resources sustainably in order to preserve a healthy planet. Her global initiatives seek to inspire and empower individuals to protect not only the ocean and its inhabitants, but also the human communities that rely on the purity of freshwater resources.

As the third-generation of Cousteaus to explore with the National Geographic Society, Alexandra believes that some of the most important exploring we can undertake in the 21st century will take place in our imaginations as we innovate and re-imagine solutions to the pressing environmental issues that confront and define our species today.

Alexandra Cousteau: A trusted voice for water and environmental issues

Earlier this year, Alexandra served as the Global Water Advisor and spokesperson for the global Live Earth 2010 Run for Water—a project that teams her public advocacy on environmental issues with actress Jessica Biel, musician Pete Wentz and many more in a worldwide event on water.

In early 2009, Alexandra joined the Discovery Channel line-up, co-hosting “Blue August” with her brother Philippe, Jr. and serving as a Chief Correspondent on Water Issues for Discovery’s “Planet Green”.

In 2008, she was honored as a National Geographic “Emerging Explorer”—an elite group of eleven visionary young trailblazers from around the world who push the boundaries of discovery, adventure, and global problem solving. She has been honored as an “Earth Trustee” by the UN and regularly delivers testimony on critical policy issues before the U.S. Congress. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Global Water Challenge, Mother Nature Network, and EarthEcho; and the steering committee of The Shark Alliance.

Alexandraʼs work regularly earns global recognition and her 2009 Expedition: Blue Planet project was named a finalist in two categories at the prestigious Jackson Hole Environmental Film Festival. She is regularly featured in publications ranging from Cosmopolitan and Elle to National Geographic and Scientific American. Alexandra and her brother Philippe Cousteau Jr, received the South Carolina Aquarium “Environmental Stewardship Award” in 2009 and Alexandra was most recently honored with the “Peace Building and Environmental Stewardship Award” from the Friends of the Arava Institute in December 2009 for her commitment to using her voice to advocate for the importance of protecting the environment and show that water is a vehicle to for peace.

As conversations on environmental issues move into the “mainstream,” global audiences look beyond sensationalism and celebrity for credible voices on the issues or our time. As a Cousteau, Alexandra builds upon the more than 60 years of global name recognition to engage consumers who expect to hear credible environmental information from the third generation of this pioneering family of explorers. For millions around the globe, “Cousteau” is synonymous with discovery and protection of our natural world. When Cousteau earned the first of his three Oscars for Le Monde du Silence in 1957, he paved the way for leveraging film and media to teach environmental stewardship.

In the television series The Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau, Alexandraʼs father Philippe and Captain Cousteau produced the most popular documentary series in broadcast history, setting a record at the time for Emmys and eventually showing in more than 100 nations, from the Soviet Union to Brazil and Japan. In addition to being widely credited for turning National Geographic into a global brand, the family still holds the publications record for cover stories.

Born into the family business, Alexandra joined her parents in Easter Island on her first expedition at just four months old. By the age of three, she had toured Africa, exploring Egypt, Tunisia, Uganda and Kenya in the arms of her father. And like her father, she is one of the few who learned to dive with SCUBA from Captain Cousteau himself at the tender age of seven.

It is against this backdrop that Alexandra weaves the romance of adventure and discovery into a modern call for action. Fluent in English, French and Spanish, Alexandra is rapidly building a significant global audience of her own. By coupling traditional media tours and film with social media platforms, Alexandra has helped NGO, governmental, and corporate-led water programs engage record audiences for action. She lends leadership on both corporate and non-profit boards around the world includin

Global Water Challenge and her own Blue Legacy International. She will release her first book, This Blue Planet, in 2011 through the Penguin Group.

Alicia Voorhies - Guest Blogger

Alicia Voorhies is a recently retired RN, wife, mother of three and founder of The Soft Landing. With her own family, she searches for BPA, PVC, phthalate and melamine-free options in feeding gear for the whole family, bringing them together in the first store of its kind.  Alicia also publishes The Soft Landing Blog, featuring product reviews, toxic plastic research and quick reference shopping guides. Her research has been cited by ABC News, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Kansas City Star and health-conscious websites such as The Green Guide, Enviroblog and Safe Mama.

Allison Evans

Co-founder of Three Branches Healthy Living

Allison Evans is one of the founders/owners of Three Branches Healthy Living. An e-commerce company that empowers others to achieve their best health through clean living, Three Branches offers the highest quality non-toxic home and body products.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Allison’s personal health struggles forged the Three Branches path. While studying Public Relations at the University of Texas in Austin, she developed debilitating pain and numbness that left dozens of the best doctors in the nation dumbfounded. Having spent two years exhausting every other route, Allison turned toward natural healing. She learned about the effects of dietary and environmental toxins and how their removal was key to the body’s natural ability to heal. Allison’s pain ended and her passion began. Her roommate and best friend, Kelly Blackstone, was inspired by Allison’s lifestyle changes and the two girls fed off each other’s newfound passion for healthy living.

Upon graduation, Allison and Kelly went on to study the importance of a balanced diet and food-based supplements as well as Building Biology, which looks at the effects of indoor air quality and electromagnetic stress on the body. Alongside Allison’s aunt, Marilee Nelson, the two women founded Three Branches in the summer of 2010, followed closely by the launch of their own non-toxic cleaning line, Branch Basics.

Through giving workshops with Kelly, Allison is raising awareness among young women and moms about the chemicals we put in, on and around our bodies and the benefits of choosing safer alternatives. She believes wholeheartedly that this will result in providing a healthier environment for future generations.

Now 26 years old, Allison is newly married to her high school sweetheart and resides in Houston where she offices with her father and grandfather.

Alysia Reiner

Actress & Producer

As an actress, Alysia won a Screen Actors Guild Award (Outstanding Performance for an Ensemble Cast) playing Christine, Jack's fiancee and then bride, in the Oscar-winning film "Sideways." Most recently, "The Vicious Kind", produced by Neil LaBute, premiered at Sundance, was nominated for two independent Spirit Awards.

Among her many stage roles, she starred in the New York Premiere of "Pentecost" by Tony-winning playwright David Edgar, and starred in the provocative two character play "An Oak Tree" with Tim Crouch, which won a Special Obie Award. Alysia has appeared on stages around the country and the world. This Fall she will be starring in the US premiere of A CHARITY CASE Off-Broadway.

Alysia's many TV roles include “Blue Bloods,” "The Sopranos," "Law & Order" (all 3 shows), "30 Rock," "White Collar," "Love Monkey," "The Drew Carey Show," "The Practice," "The Jury," "Family Law," "Jack & Jill," and series lead in the pilot "An Englishman in New York."

Speed Grieving, the short film that Alysia created, produced and stars in, had its World Premiere at The Hamptons International Film Festival, and has since been invited to over a dozen more film festivals and has won multiple awards.

As a new mother, she is regularly featured on Celebrity Baby Scoop, Stroller Traffic, People.com, Family Focus Blog, Today I ate a Rainbow, Your Green Baby, and others. She is a celebrity green momma spokesperson for Best for Babes, an organization that works to change how we view and support breast feeding, and gives moms the solutions they need to make it work.

Alysia is a champion of all things eco-friendly, and she and her husband recently used their own home as a way to share information about building green. Their brownstone renovation in Harlem was featured on television's "World's Greenest Homes" and "Renovation Nation"; in various magazines like Dwell, Gotham, and The Nest.

She was recently recognized as an INTELLIGENT OPTIMIST in Ode Magazine and profiled by New York Women in Film and Television as a woman to watch.

Alysia is on the board of The Broad Collective, and is involved with many charities including The Cancer Support Community, Habitat for Humanity, Our Time Theatre Company, 52nd Street Project, Actors for Autism, Joyful Heart Foundation, Comp2Kids, GEMS, and Circle of Health International.

Amy Brenneman

Actress, Activist and Mother of Charlotte and Bodhi

"I became involved with Healthy Child Healthy World because of my dad’s work (he's part of something called Environment and Human Health out of Yale University) and because, of course, I became a mom myself. We started cleaning with Method products, we stopped chemical pest and weed control, we started eating more organic. The first day our pest guy came and used organic methods was so moving to me. I expected to have to clear out of my office for the requisite four hours, but he, maskless, said, no. That wasn’t necessary since no harsh chemicals were being used. A light bulb went on. “Oh my god,” I said. “This is so much better for you guys, too!” He beamed. Of course: Imagine being around that stuff all day?"

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

To read more from Amy and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

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Amy Brenneman

Amy Brenneman is one of the most talented and respected actresses of her time. Additionally, she spends her time working with two organizations dear to her, Healthy Child Healthy World and The Feminist Majority. Amy is a champion messenger for Healthy Child and has gone on numerous television and radio shows to help educate the public about children’s health.

Amy Jurkowitz

Co-Founder & CEO, Milkshake

Amy Jurkowitz is a founder and CEO of Milkshake, a daily email dedicated to finding the good in everything – featuring companies, causes, people, places and products which give back and make a difference.

An entrepreneur at heart with a keen eye for design, Amy has created, developed and built many brands throughout her career. She has worked in large traditional packaged good companies: Unilever, Sara Lee, Nabisco and RJR Reynolds as well as small service oriented companies. Her entrepreneurial pursuits have included co-founding a line of fashion-inspired active wear for women: MATERIAL; and via her marketing and communication agency, JURKOWITZ & Co, she has worked on licensing and product category development for Field & Stream; real estate and hotel brand development for Starwood Capital Group and more. Milkshake, launched in 2011 is a combination of all her past experiences and the satisfaction of creating a business with a social mission at its core is most gratifying.

Amy graduated with a BA from Colgate University and an MBA from Northwestern's J.L. Kellogg School of Management. In her spare time she runs around with her five teenagers ages 13 to 17 (who are the best source of inspiration and ideas for Milkshake); sits on the board of trustees of Greenwich Country Day School; advises Ashoka, a foundation with a focus on social entrepreneurship; judges undergraduate entrepreneurship contests; and runs road races whenever she can.

Connect with Amy and Milkshake:

• Milkshake Site
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

Ana Flores

Television Producer, Co-Founder of SpanglishBaby

Ana L. Flores has over 15 years of experience as a content creator and television producer, with a specialty in the U.S. Hispanic industry. After becoming a mom, she co-founded SpanglishBaby, the go-to online community for parents raising bilingual and bicultural kids, which was chosen as a Must Read Mom's Blog by Parenting Magazine and featured on CNN en Español, PBS Parents and Vme TV among others. In December of 2010, Ana appeared on the cover of Hispanic Business Magazine as “The New Face of Social Media.” Most recently, she launched Latina Bloggers Connect, where she creates strategic digital campaigns connecting brands with bloggers. Ana is currently writing the forthcoming SpanglishBaby book which will be published by Bilingual Readers in the fall of 2012. She is also a passionate contributor and advocate of the Moms Clean Air Force.

Ana Flores & Roxana Soto

Producers & Journalists

Roxana Soto and Ana Flores each have over 15 years experience producing print, television and online content, with a focus on the U.S. Latino industry. Friends since college, they founded SpanglishBaby, the online community for parents raising bilingual and bicultural kids, in 2009. The overwhelming success of their blog recently landed them a book contract, which they are in the midst of writing and will be published in the fall of 2012. While they’re passionate about the Latino culture, they also care deeply about issues affecting this community and that’s why they’re advocates for the Moms Clean Air Force.

Andrew Postman

Angela Lindvall

Known for her versatility, Angela Lindvall is one of the few models to have worked with nearly every major fashion house including Prada, Chanel, Valentino, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, DKNY, Calvin Klein, Jil Sander, Chloe, Stella McCartney, and Versace. Her chameleon-like qualities have made her one of the most sought-after models in the world.

In 2002, Angela made the natural transition from the runway to the silver screen, starring in Roman Coppola’s cult classic CQ alongside Gérard Depardieu, Jason Schwartzman, Billy Zane, and Jeremy Davies. After she had her second son, Sebastian, she put her career on pause while becoming a strong advocate for raising children “naturally,” with an emphasis on family values.

Angela is an active environmentalist and health advocate. In 2001, she founded The Collage Foundation Inc., 501c3, a non-profit that stimulates environmental awareness and supports various not-for-profit projects. In 2007, Angela and Adrian Grenier co-hosted Alter Ecco, one of Discovery Channel’s first Planet Green shows. That same year she also hosted one of the first major Green fashion shows during New York City’s Fashion Week at the Natural History Museum called “Be ECO Chic.” In 2009 she became one of the founding board members of the NRDC’s “Clean by Design,” a major initiative to sustainably revolutionize the textile industry in China—the second most polluting industry in the region.

Angela resides in Los Angeles with her two boys on a small farm, which she is currently developing for sustainable agriculture.

Anh Van Nguyen

Communications and Programs Coordinator

Anh has worked extensively in the world of nonprofit in Los Angeles and Miami and strongly believes in empowering people to improve their quality of life. She has also volunteered as an educator and fundraiser at NGOs in Ecuador and Ghana. Anh is trilingual in Spanish, Vietnamese and English, and holds a degree in Economics/International Studies from UCLA.  When not working, Anh enjoys dancing, cooking, and painting.

Anna Getty

Green Living and Holistic Lifestyle Expert

Anna Getty is a certified Kundalini Yoga and Prenatal Yoga teacher, a specialist in organic cooking and cuisine, the founder of Pregnancy Awareness Month, and a consultant for her positive lifestyle brand, PureStyle Living. She has a series of best-selling yoga DVDs and is releasing two organic cookbooks in 2009. Anna sits on the board of Healthy Child Healthy World and the Environmental Media Awards, and works closely with The Organic Center.

"The question I like to ask myself is, How green can I get? I pose it without getting completely insane about it, also trying to keep it lighthearted and easy. It’s about taking baby steps; doing what you can when you can.
I’m always doing research. It makes buying things complicated—I’m on the lookout for what’s fair trade, organic, sustainable or nontoxic. But it also makes me ask myself how badly I need something. I have to admit that sometimes all the searching and worrying turns me into a neurotic mess—I’ve found myself getting down on my husband for not recycling—but then I have to remember that he too is learning and taking small steps as well.
Right now I’m doing great on the garbage front—our trash guy only collects it every two weeks. We just started a compost system. I try to avoid gigantic packaging, and I buy more used and vintage pieces. My current project is trying to recycle of all the plastic I’ve collected over the years: baby bottles, toys sippy cups, etc. It’s a cool challenge to look in the garbage and ask, How do I make this even less?"

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

To read more from Anna and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

View all Voices For Change

 

Anne Robertson

Environmental Philanthropist

- motivated by the loss of many relatives who died of cancer-related diseases, and in particular, her uncle, Lt. Governor of VA, is a dedicated advocate of environmentally conscious organizations. She is on the board of several other nonprofits that use the arts to enhance and transform lives. Among these include Arts for Healing and the American Performing Arts Collaborative, a Harlem-based theatrical nonprofit. She is very interested in connecting other like-minded organizations that can work together to solve the enormous problems facing children right now and in generations to come. She is inspired by her four wonderful children and by the Reynolds family of Virginia who implemented the first recycling program in the aluminum industry. annerobertson@austin.rr.com.

Anni Daulter

Anna is an eco-mama, cook, advocate of sustainable living and author. Anni was the founder of a fresh organic baby food company, Bohemian Baby and recently launched her new magazine and online mom community: Bamboo~Conscious Family Living Magazine. Anni sees the aesthetic beauty in creating a more natural backdrop to life and wants to help families tune into more connection with each other, while supporting greening up mother earth. Anni’s books include Organically Raised: Conscious Cooking for Babies & Toddlers, Ice Pop Joy & The Organic Family Cookbook. Please visit Anni at her website.

Arlene Blum

Biophysical Chemist, Author, Mountaineer

Arlene Blum PhD, biophysical chemist, author, and mountaineer is a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley’s Department of Chemistry, and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute. The Institute brings peer-reviewed science into policy to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in consumer products and protect our health and environment.

Blum’s research and policy work has contributed to the prevention of the use of unneeded and toxic flame retardants in children's sleepwear, furniture, bed coverings and electronics. She has taught at Stanford University, Wellesley College, and U. C. Berkeley,

Blum led the first American—and all-women’s—ascent of Annapurna I, considered one of the world’s most dangerous and difficult mountains, Blum also led the first women’s team up Mt. McKinley; was the first American woman to attempt Mt. Everest; made the first traverse of the Great Himalaya Range of Bhutan, Nepal and India; and hiked the length of the European Alps with her baby daughter Annalise on her back.

Blum’s awards include 2011 selection by the UK Guardian as one of the world’s 100 most inspirational women, a Purpose Prize to those over are 60 who are solving society’s greatest problems, National Women’s History Project selection as one of 100 “Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet” and a Gold Medal from the Society of Women Geographers, an honor previously given to only eight other women including Amelia Earhart, Margaret Mead, and Mary Leakey.

Her first book, Annapurna: A Woman’s Place was included in Fortune magazine's 2005 list of “The 75 Smartest Business Books We Know” and chosen by National Geographic Adventure Magazine as one of the 100 top adventure books of all time. Her award-winning memoir, Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life tells the story of how Blum realized improbable dreams among the worlds’ highest mountains, in the chemistry laboratory, and in public policy.

Arlene Blum is the founder of the annual Berkeley Himalayan Fair and the Burma Village Assistance Project. She serves on the boards of Environmental Building News, ISET, an organization dedicated to solving climate, water and disaster problems in South Asia; the Society for the Preservation of Afghan Archeology; as well as the Advisory Boards for Project READ which builds libraries in Asia, and the Plastic Pollution Coalition.
More information at www.greensciencepolicy.org, www.arleneblum.com

Ashley Hernandez

Communications and Strategic Partnerships Coordinator

Ashley is currently a Master of Public Administration student at USC Price School of Public Policy with a focus on nonprofit management. She has been working in the nonprofit field for the past four years, specifically with organizations supporting early childhood and youth development. She loves working with youth of all ages, having been a preschool teacher and a mentor/counselor to middle and high school students. Ashley is dedicated to supporting communities, families and children through the nonprofit sector, at home or internationally.

She also holds B.A. degree in International Development from UCLA. When she is not studying, Ashley can be found running and is so excited to become an aunt this year.

Beth Nielsen Chapman

Singer and Songwriter

Recording artist and songwriter, pens songs for other artists and her own albums, including the groundbreaking Sand & Water, written and recorded following the death of her husband from cancer in 1994. This record is often used as a tool for healing through grief. A survivor of breast cancer, Beth often interlaces her music with information on wellness and moving through grief to joy, providing inspiration through song.

Betty Ann Gaynor

Public Relations/Media Advisor

Betty Ann Gaynor has served as a national public relations/media professional for more than two decades, primarily in health and children-related campaigns.

An ardent health advocate, she was a founding Board Member of Healthy Child, Healthy World in 1994 and currently serves on its Honorary Board.

In addition to her skills in media-related public relations, Gaynor is a published free-lance writer and veteran junior high school teacher.

She is a graduate of The University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and The University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.

Bianca Nepales

Marketing Intern

As a Marketing Intern for Healthy Child Healthy World, Bianca promotes outreach to local communities and national connectivity via the world wide web. She works on spreading the news on the organization's latest book and educating parents about recent environmental health findings through blogs. Bianca loves good food, newspapers, and is currently pursuing a degree in Psychology at UC Berkeley.

Brenda Eskenazi, Ph.D.

Professor of Maternal & Child Health & Epidemiology, Director, Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research School of Public Health

Dr. Brenda Eskenazi is a professor of maternal and child health and epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley. She is also the Director of the Center of Excellence in Children's Environmental Health Research at Berkeley. Dr. Eskenazi is on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Epidemiology and the Journal of Children's Health and is a fellow of the American College of Epidemiology.

Dr. Eskenazi has contributed widely to the field of children's environmental health, including the Surgeon General's report on smoking and women's health, the World Health Organization's Tobacco-Free Initiative report on environmental tobacco smoke, and the United States-Vietnam Committee on the Human Health and Environmental Exposures of Agent Orange and Dioxin in Vietnam. She also served for nearly a decade on the State of California's Scientific Advisory Board for the Toxics Initiative (Proposition 65), which aimed to identify chemicals that were reproductive or developmental toxicants.

Dr. Eskenazi’s current research interests are in the following areas:

• * Effects of environmental exposures to reproductive, perinatal, and children's health
• * Reproductive and development effects of passive and active exposure to cigarette smoke, benzene, dioxin, and other persistent endocrine disruptors, and pesticides, as well as other agents on fetal and child health and reproductive health of men and women
• * Reproductive and pediatric epidemiology.

Dr. Eskenazi currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Children's Health Environmental Coalition and the Study Design Working Group of the National Children's Study.

Brooke Shields

Actress, Model, Mother of Rowan and Grier

"As I learn more and think further down the road, I find myself doing more. I realize that just because I can't go all the way and in every area, I still can make a sizable difference. In my mind, I may still lament that I haven't gone even farther, and sometimes at night I can't sleep thinking about all the things I haven't changed in my life and in the lives of my children. In my actions, though, I try always to be forward-moving, to focus on the change I am making. I'm thrilled that my children began with organic food and therefore won't have to make that switch to it, as I did. It feels good to know that once I adapt in certain areas (say, eating and cleaning), I'm better armed to attack areas that previously seemed out of reach."

 

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World. 

To read more from Brooke and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

 

Carly Harrill

Strategic Partnerships Director

Carly Harrill, Strategic Partnerships Director at Healthy Child Healthy World, is a writer, blogger, and speaker on healthy eating, holistic living and environmental impact. As a liaison between major corporations, brands and consumers, Carly strives to educate families on the health risks associated with the products they buy and the foods they consume, while increasing awareness of ethical companies that provide safer, non-toxic alternatives. Carly has served on advisory committees for the Bill Clinton Millennium Network Foundation, Women of the Green Generation and Sustainable Works.

Carolyn Murphy

Model, Activist, Mother to Dylan

"As I got older, and especially after I had my daughter Dylan in 2000, I realized I couldn't manage every single thing. It was hard enough to maintain my own household and, most important, to be a good mother. Part of the challenge of living a healthy life is knowing what to be wary of, but it's also knowing when and how to be realistic. After that foray in my 20s, I’ve opted not to get on a soapbox. In my home, though, I do what I can—choosing only certain toys for my daughter, purifying my water, using nontoxic cleaning products and finishing my floors naturally. I’ve carried my own reusable grocery bags for years. To me, being a realist doesn't mean giving in but starting small, writing out a list, and naming your top priority (mine was eating healthy). From there, you branch out."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

To read more from Carolyn and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

Carrie Cook Platt

Television / Literary Producer

Carrie Cook Platt is a communications and marketing consultant in Providence, Rhode Island. A senior producer at ABC News for 12 years, she is the recipient of 5 National Emmys, a Peabody Award and a George Polk Award. She was also the VP of Branded Content at Hill Holliday.

Catherine McCord

Chef and Founder of Weelicious

Christopher Gavigan

Founder of Honest.com & Former CEO of Healthy Child

Christopher Gavigan is a well-known environmental health leader, author, speaker, and entrepreneur who builds impactful brands through meaningful communications platforms, innovative consumer products, and social engagement strategies.

Christoper recently has founded and launched The Honest Company, an excited suite of healthy, non-toxic, beautifully designed products for babies and families, with founding partners Jessica Alba and Brian Lee. As the former CEO / Executive Director of Healthy Child Healthy World, Christopher shaped Healthy Child to be one of the most credible and trusted organizations in the environmental and children’s health field. Engaging hundreds of millions of consumers to help them choose healthy, nontoxic lifestyles, Gavigan grew the annual budget three times in five years, and built strategic partnerships with Google, WebMD, Target, Seventh Generation, Microsoft, Babycenter, Universal Studios, Stonyfield Farms, Whole Foods, and many other market leaders.

Christopher is also the best selling author of "Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home" (Penguin/Dutton 2008), with over 40 leading contributions from notable doctors, activists, and celebrities including Dr. Philip Landrigan, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, First Lady Michelle Obama, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sheryl Crow, Dr. Alan Greene, and Dr. Harvey Karp.

Currently, Christopher sits on the Board of Directors of Mount Sinai Hospital’s Children Environmental Health Center and is a Chief Advisor to the Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Institute. He is also on the Advisory Boards of SAIL Capital Partners and UCLA’s Environmental Health Sciences Department. Christopher was awarded the WebMD’s “Health Hero Award for 2010” and Elle Magazine’s “Green Award” in 2007.

Raised in New York and Connecticut, Christopher graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a double major in Environmental Science and Business, and extensive Masters Degree training in Psychology from UCLA. Christopher lives in Santa Monica with wife and actress, Jessica Capshaw, and their two children Luke and Eve (and one on the way).

CJ Kettler

Media Industry Leader

C.J. Kettler is a media industry leader with broad operating and investment experience. Since July 2008, C.J. has resumed her role as a Partner at Propeller Partners, LLC and has been engaged as a consultant for large media companies and private equity investors in the digital sector. In November 2007, Kettler assumed the newly created role of President, NA for Travelzoo (NASDAQ:TZOO), a publicly held internet media company with approximately $80 million in revenues. At Travelzoo, she oversaw the North American business unit which accounts for ninety percent of the company’s revenues and reaches 11 million unduplicated newsletter subscribers.

In 2005, she created and launched LIME, the first and leading multiplatform “green living” brand, having secured funding from Steve Case’s Revolution, LLC. Under her leadership, the LIME brand was introduced simultaneously across multiple platforms including broadband television, radio, mobile, online, podcasting and home entertainment. LIME is considered the trusted resource for consumers seeking a healthy and green lifestyle, and for advertisers looking to reach this desirable audience segment.

Beginning in 2001, Ms. Kettler served as Managing Director and Operating Executive at Solera Capital, a private equity firm with $250 million under management. She was Co-President of Latina Magazine, one of Solera’s portfolio companies, and was instrumental in evaluating investment opportunities in the media industry. In 2003, Ms. Kettler co-founded Propeller Partners LLC, a boutique strategic advisory firm serving a wide range of media and entertainment companies.

Prior to Propeller, Ms. Kettler was a founding member of the Oxygen Media management team, serving as President of Sales and Marketing where she managed all cross platform integrated marketing relationships, as well as sponsorship sales, cable affiliate sales and research. From 1987 – 1999, Ms. Kettler was a Founding Partner at Sunbow Entertainment, a top ranked independent program supplier, where, as President and CEO, she negotiated the sale of the company to Sony Music Entertainment.

Ms. Kettler has amassed more than 20 years of operating experience in a wide range of leadership roles straddling digital and traditional media as well as domestic and international content development and production. Earlier senior operating roles include four years at Vestron, where she created and developed the Children’s Video Library. She also held executive positions at MTV Networks, McCann-Erickson Inc., and CBS, Inc.

Kettler holds a B.A. degree in Sociology from Smith College, and is a member of CTAM, WICT, and other industry organizations. She lives with her husband William Hitzig and their three daughters in NYC.

Connie Britton

Emmy nominated, Connie Britton is an actress who continually receives accolades for her work in television and film. After stand-out roles on series such as “Spin City,” “24” and “The West Wing,” she currently stars on one of the best reviewed shows on television, NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” created by Peter Berg, for which she received an Emmy nomination for in 2010. She is the only cast member who starred in the film of the same name in which she played opposite Billy Bob Thornton.

Britton is set as the female lead in “American Horror Story,” Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's highly anticipated drama pilot for FX. Britton continues to be attached as a producer and star to another FX project, a David O. Russell drama, now in development. She is also currently in production on the film, “The Hand-Job,” along side Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live). She will also appear in “Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World” starring with Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley.

Britton starred in Michael Bay’s recent “A Nightmare on Elm Street” with Jackie Earle Haley and Kellan Lutz. She was also recently seen on the big screen in “Women in Trouble” with Carla Gugino, Adrianne Palicki, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and Josh Brolin.

Britton received two individual nominations from the Television Critics Association and “Friday Night Lights” was the organizations most nominated show in its first season and been nominated the last two years as well. The show and its creators have received several awards over the course of the series. By far the most prestigious of these is the George Foster Peabody Award for broadcasting excellence. It also received accolades from the American Film Institute which named the show one of the ten best TV shows of the 2006-2007 season and Teen Choice Award nominations two years in a row. Most recently, Connie was nominated for a Women’s Image Network Award (WIN), which honors work that features female protagonists.

Britton starred in ABC’s award-winning comedy “Spin City” opposite Michael J. Fox for five seasons, as well as “Lost At Home” opposite Mitch Rouse and Gregory Hines. Her other television credits include “The Fighting Fitzgeralds” opposite Brian Dennehy, and a recurring role in the highly-acclaimed drama “The West Wing,” as well as, FOX’s popular “24.”

Britton received accolades for her starring role in Edward Burns’ acclaimed independent film “The Brothers McMullen” in which she captivated moviegoers with her portrayal of Molly, the luminous wife of a cheating husband. This popular low-budget film went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. After nearly canceling her audition with director Ed Burns, this last meeting of the day turned into the role that would launch her career.

Some of her other feature credits include Edward Burns’ “No Looking Back,” and “Looking for Kitty” and ‘The Lather Effect”, the critically acclaimed, independent feature “The Last Winter” opposite Ron Perlman which received a Gotham Award nomination for Best Ensemble Cast.

In her free time, Britton, who resides in both New York and Los Angeles, enjoys hiking and yoga. She is currently finalizing a documentary which she produced and directed on the orphans of Ethiopia.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Britton moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, at the age of seven with her family, including her fraternal twin sister. She went on to attend Dartmouth College, where she majored in Asian studies and spent a term in Beijing, China studying Chinese. Upon graduation she moved to New York, where she spent two years at the Neighborhood Playhouse studying with Sanford Meisner, and then performed in regional theater and off-Broadway productions.

Danielle Friedland

Social Media and Community Relations Manager

Danielle Friedland is a social media strategist with deep roots in the blogging world. She is the founder and creative force behind the wildly popular, Celebrity Baby Blog, the first site of its kind devoted entirely to celebrity pregnancies and celebrity babies, which she sold to People.com in 2008. An expert in the blogosphere and connecting directly with other moms, she also manages social media for Healthy Child Healthy World, Danielle works to increase awareness and expand the movement to create healthier environments by utilizing social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

She also manages social media for giggle, a one-stop source for today's new parent. A Certified Lactation Counselor, she is also the editor-in-chief of Bravado Designs' Breastfeeding Diaries. She's a lifelong New Yorker who now lives in Maplewood, NJ with her husband Josh, a food blogger, and two young children.

Follow her on Twitter at @that_danielle.

David Carpenter, MD

Professor of Environmental Health & Toxicology University of New York at Albany

Dr. Carpenter is a public health physician who is currently the Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany (recently named as a Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization) as well as Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health. He is the former Dean of the School of Public Health, as well as the former Director of the Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department of Health. He is an Editor-in-Chief for the journal, Reviews on Environmental Health, and serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Environmental Health Perspectives. He has ongoing international collaborations in several countries. He has over 350 publications in peer-reviewed journals, has edited five books and has published numerous book chapters and other publications.

His current research interests are as follows:

• Environmental causes of reduced cognitive function in children
• Environmental causes of violence
• Health effects of air pollution
• The role of chemical contaminants in etiology of diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease
• Health effects of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation

 

David Orr

Professor of Environmental Studies, Oberlin College, Author of The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture and Human Intention

"What can we do to improve parenting? Most important, we must protect children and childhood, which means changing our priorities. As a society, that means such things as fewer shopping malls and more parks; less television and more family time; fewer roads and more trails. It means no child left behind...in every way.

That goal requires that we, parents and teachers, foster a sense of hope along with the competence to act faithfully. Hope and competence include old and durable standards of decency, compassion, and foresight but now extended to all life for as far out as we can imagine. But hope grows out of the practical necessities to:
1. love our children thoughtfully and consistently.
2. slow the velocity of life by eating together, playing together, reading together, working together.
3. eat well, which means mostly local, organic, and unprocessed foods.
4. engage the natural world—more accurately, to enjoy a love affair with it. The natural world is not an abstraction...yet."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

 

To read more from David and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

 

Denise McCain-Tharnstrom

Director and Public Policy Committee Chair, The Every Child Foundation

Dr. McCain-Tharnstrom is a committed leader in the area of children’s policy and philanthropy with strong interests in leveraging foundation philanthropy ‘beyond the grant’, training women to become effective children’s policy advocates, raising awareness about environmental policy impacts on children’s health, and promoting investments that support the unique needs of infants and toddlers. She is currently the founding Public Policy Chair for the Everychild Foundation, a member of its Board of Directors, and the Chair of the Los Angeles Public/Private Funders Partnership for Infants and Toddlers.

A former litigator, she received her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her law degree from the University of Florida. Early in her career she practiced law in Florida, serving as an assistant state prosecutor (where she received her first exposure to child welfare issues working on child abuse cases) and then a commercial litigator and appellate attorney. In 1990 she chose to take a career leave to provide home care for her young children while serving on her town’s Environmental Review Board. Following her family’s transfer to Los Angeles in 1995, she returned to graduate school to pursue a Masters in Public Policy at University of Southern California’s School of Public Administration, with an emphasis on environmental policy issues. Recipient of the Certificate of Merit for Outstanding Graduate from the Masters in Public Policy Program, she graduated with honors in 1999.

In 2001, she became involved with a novel young philanthropic giving circle, the Everychild Foundation, which focused on grant making to local non-profits providing critical services alleviating the suffering of children in the Los Angeles area. She has served the Everychild Foundation as a member of the Grant Outreach and Grant Monitoring Committees as well as acted as the chair of its Grant Screening Board from 2003-2005, and Treasurer of the Board from 2004-2007. In 2007 she founded the foundation’s Public Policy Committee. As founding and current chair, she has worked to train her committee members in children’s policy and advocacy issues. Trained committee members have undertaken local leadership in efforts to solve local policy issues and participated in meetings with government or organizational representatives charged with policy implementation. Members have also worked to pass selected legislation in California and Washington DC. In 2010, she rejoined the Everychild Board of Directors.

In 2007, she decided to meld her interests in environmental policymaking and children’s politics, and returned to USC to research her dissertation. In December of 2008 Dr. McCain-Tharnstrom received her doctorate with honors from University of Southern California for her work examining the adequacy of political representation of children’s health interests in federal environmental policy implementation.. She has maintained a strong connection with the university and has taught as an adjunct instructor in the School of Policy Planning and Development in 2003 and 2009 (teaching master’s level courses in Public Policy Formulation and Foundations in Public Policy Analysis) and currently acts as a mentor to policy students interested in environmental and children’s policy issues. She co-authored Bureaucracy, Politics and Environmental Policy in the America West in Environmental Politics and Policy in the West ed. by Zachary Smith and John C. Freemuth. (University Press of Colorado 2007) and has been a featured policy speaker at area conferences including the 2008 Baby Futures Conference.

Dr McCain-Tharnstrom is married and has three children ages 22, 21 and 18.

Dennis Odin Johnson

Devra Davis, PhD, MPH

Director, Center for Environmental Oncology, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute; author, The Secret History of the War on Cancer

Bio: Devra Davis's career has spanned all areas of academia, public policy, and scientific research. President Clinton appointed Dr. Davis to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, (1994-99) an independent executive branch agency that investigates, prevents, and mitigates chemical accidents. As the former Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, she has counseled leading officials in the United Nations, World Health Organization, and World Bank. She also served as a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—the group awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with Al Gore. She is the recipient of a Women’s Leadership Exchange Compass Award, for breaking the paradigms of how women are perceived, and the first Lisa Zhang Environmental Award from the United Nations in July 2008. She is the author of more than 190 scientific publications, the editor of 11 books, and has written two best-selling books.

Book Quote "What concerns me most is the insidious repackaging of information—the distorting, revising, concealing, and ignoring by corporations and the government. Thomas Jefferson said that democracy rests on an informed public that freely consents to be governed—but that assumes we're getting the proper information. And we're simply not. How can we consent when we don't even know they put toxic stuff in a product that we then rub on our babies' bottoms? People often ask me if I think the facts I report are just too alarming. I don't. We all have natural repair processes that keep us healthy much of the time. Getting informed about hazards we can avoid is critical to our health and that of our children and grandchildren. What I do find alarming is the volume of information that's been withheld from us...That's what people should be alarmed about, and what has to change."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

 

To read more from Devra and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

View all Voices For Change

 

Diane Farr

Actress/Author

Diane Farr, who according to The New York Times, “Looks like Barbie and talks like Ken” brought her beauty and unique sense of humor to Showtime’s CALIFORNICATION last season as Jill Robinson – the id to David Duchovny’s ego. Having just finished three years as the female lead on CBS’s NUMB3RS, playing FBI Agent Megan Reeves – Farr was thrilled to put her gun down and don a sundress for a comedy. Just prior to NUMB3RS,

Farr starred on the critically acclaimed FX show RESCUE ME as the female firefighter Laura Miles. As The Boston Globe stated, “Farr eloquently portrays the struggles of being the lone woman in a highly masculine work environment while also capturing the subtle power particular to that position.”
Farr previously starred opposite Denis Leary in the critical darling, THE JOB, as well as in THE DREW CAREY SHOW and ROSWELL, but it was Farr’s work as the sole female on the MTV hit, LOVELINE, that made her whisky-soaked voice so recognizable. Farr offered council in 200 episodes of this cult phenomenon, while she was simultaneously publishing her first book.

The Girl Code, a comic look at single women in the 21st century, was released on Valentine’s Day 2001. It has since been sold to seven countries in five languages. Farr’s latest book, Kissing Outside The Lines, has just been released and it hilariously chronicles her path to an interracial marriage. Part of a two book series, Kissing will be followed up next year with Shades of America – which discusses raising biracial children. Diane writes for most American magazines and recently took over Dave Barry’s internationally syndicated column for Herald Tribune Newspapers, writing a comedic comment on pop culture. She also has a web series with FunnyorDie.com called “Ass Castles” and it is just as ridiculous as the name implies. Farr most recently finished shooting CHERRY written and directed by Stephen Elliot (author of The Adderall Diaries) with James Franco, Dev Patel and Heather Graham.

Diane is also a mother to “Irish Triplets”: A four-year old son, and identical twin daughters who are age three. She considers 16-hour days on set “like a spa treatment” compared to 16 hours at home with her three. Diane is also a mommy ambassador for The March of Dimes and The Mineseeker Foundation.

Dick Jackson, MD, MPH

Professor/Chair, Environmental Health Sciences, UCLA

Richard Jackson’s passions are health, nature, architecture, creating visions, and protecting children—and he enjoys a good policy scrap. He has worked on pesticide and other chemical effects on children, biomonitoring of the population, building public health strategy and defense systems, and leadership. He has served as chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health, as the CDC National Center for Environmental Health’s director, and as California’s state health officer.

Over the past decade a portion of his work has been on how the 'built environment', including architecture and urban planning, affects health. He recently served on the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects. Jackson works on the health impacts of environmental threats, ranging from toxic substances, chemical body burdens, terrorism, loss of resources, destructive farm policies, climate change, and poor urban design. He is chair of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA School of Public Health, and was recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine.

Dina Goda

Program Intern

Dina has been helping Healthy Child Healthy World in researching and writing blogs, program assitance and web contents.

She has earned a BA degree from UC Berkeley in Spanish Literature and another Molecular and Cellular Biology with Genetics Emphasis. She will be attending the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, medical school in January of 2009.

Dr. Alan Greene

Founder of DrGreene.com, Author of Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care

"Though a doctor may not provide the "greenest" answers to your questions, how he or she answers is often just as illuminating. Willingness to engage in a dialogue may be the real hallmark of a green pediatrician. When choosing a doctor, you of course want someone steeped in science, and aware of recent literature and controversies. But you also want someone who both articulates a point of view and desires to hear yours. I believe that teaching and inspiring one's patients, along with their families, about the value of nutrition, exercise, and overall attentiveness to environment may be of greater importance than the ability to write a prescription."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

To read more from Dr. Greene and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today. 

View all Voices For Change

Dr. Alan Greene, author of Raising Baby Green and Feeding Baby Green is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of California San Francisco. In addition to being the founder of http://www.DrGreene.com, he is the Medical Director of HealthTap and is on the Board of Directors of Healthy Child Healthy World and The Lunch Box Project. Dr. Greene is a practicing pediatrician at Stanford University's Packard Children's Hospital.

Dr. Andrea Rudominer M.D., M.P.H.

Pediatrician

Dr. Rudominer is a practicing pediatrician with Kaiser Permanante in San Jose, California and a passionate advocate for children’s health.

Throughout a ten-year career in healthcare, she has demonstrated a commitment to educating others and recently organized seminars on dental health, environmental health, and diabetes self-management. She is currently designing a program that will provide group doctor’s visits by conference call to parents with children of similar ages or diseases. The goal is improve healthcare by encouraging parents to share knowledge and support each other.

Dr. Rudominer is a graduate of UC Davis Medical school and UC Berkeley’s school of public health where she received an MPH in Maternal and Child Health. She trained as a resident at Stanford University’s Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Harvey Karp

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine, Creator of The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block

Harvey Karp has been a practicing pediatrician and child development specialist for 30 years and is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the USC School of Medicine in Los Angeles. He has been a spokesperson on children’s environmental health for the American Academy of Pediatrics, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the California Department of Health Services, and the California Medical Association. He is the creator of "The Happiest Baby on the Block” and "The Happiest Toddler on the Block" book and DVD series, and has committed his full-time efforts to writing, lecturing and education.

"John Muir, the great American naturalist, said that if you reach out and tug on a tiny piece of nature, you’ll discover that everything is connected to everything else. And because of this great connection, we often blunder into doing harm. “Oops, we’re sorry we polluted your river for the next 100 years!”…“Oops, we didn’t know the chemical we were using caused cancer!” These unintended consequences are especially worrisome for our children because early life experiences and exposures influence whether or not they will grow up to have healthy and happy lives.We've changed the world before and now, for the sake of our children, it’s time to do it again. This book lays out many ideas to boost health, shrink risks, and stack the deck in favor of your child’s well-being. And, as a bonus, your thoughtful example will nurture in your children your deep values, respect for nature, and the desire to make the world better."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

 

To read more from Harvey and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

View all Voices For Change

Dr. Philippe Grandjean

Adjunct Professor of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health

Dr. Grandjean has served as Vice-Dean and Institute Chair at the University of Southern Denmark and as member of the Danish Medical Research Council. He is founding editor of the web-based journal Environmental Health and is currently a member of editorial boards of ten scientific journals. He has been elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and as board members of the Collegium Ramazzini in 2005. Past committee memberships include the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency SAB/SAP Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program Subcommittee, the Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty, the Panel on Contaminants of the European Food Safety Authority, and Chair of the Commission on Toxicology of IUPAC and the Danish Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Research.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/faculty/philippe-grandjean/

Elisabeth Röhm

Seen to many as a supermom, Elisabeth Röhm has been successfully juggling a full time job as a mother and actress over the past couple years. Now, with five film projects in the pipeline, a recurring weekly celebrity mom blog on People.com that is reaching a million readers, and philanthropic events plastered all over her calendar-- it is amazing that she stays beautiful, healthy and positive while managing to be consistently by her daughter’s side.

2011 is going to be an eventful year as Röhm has five feature films pending release. She teamed up with Kyra Sedgwick and Vincent Donofrio in Chlorine; she stars in Warner Bros.’ thriller Transit across James Caviezel, produced by Joel Silver; and she stars in the highly-anticipated film Abduction directed by John Singleton, starring Taylor Lautner and Sigourney Weaver, due out September 2011. Recently Elisabeth has completed shooting the Lionsgate feature by Brian A. Miller, titled Officer Down as well as Darkroom, an independent feature directed by Britt Napier and produced by Michael A. Liberty and Ron Stein (The Kids are Alright).

Born in Europe, yet a U.S. citizen, Röhm was raised in New York City. Her first childhood interest was riding horses, for which she trained intensively. By the time she entered Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, her goals shifted to writing, in the form of fiction and history. It was during college when Röhm fell in love with acting. After receiving her degree, she quickly found work on the soap opera One Life to Live and followed it up with a long line of recurring appearances on the WB television show, Angel. However, most know Röhm best as the “A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn” on the NBC staple series, Law & Order where Dick Wolf, creator/producer of Law & Order praised her as "one of the finest young actresses working in television." She went on to star as “Alex Mason,” a love interest to Michael Vartan’s character, in the ABC drama Big Shots and later returned to NBC as a new addition to the cast of the cult-favorite Heroes.

Röhm has also starred in numerous films including Miss Congeniality 2, starring Sandra Bullock, and Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry. She starred in Kreutzer Sonata, an independent project co-starring Danny Huston and starred opposite James Caan in the film Barry Minkow.

The desire to seek new challenges is not unusual for someone so multi-talented. Röhm has published a novel, is writing a cookbook (brilliantly titled “The Wooing of the Gay Man and the Actress”) as she loves to cook, sings, and continues to ride horses; she also counts hiking, biking, skiing, yoga, traveling, and studying architecture among her hobbies. Being that she believes in health and being active, she is developing a gym franchise and has already invested in Circuit Works located in Brentwood, CA. She supports The Red Cross, The Go Red Foundation, and supports children and women in need all over the globe.

Röhm welcomed her first child, a girl named Easton, on April 10, 2008. She has residences in New York, Venice, CA, and in Holland.

(photo credit Kimberly Metz)

Emily McKhann

TheMotherhood

Emily McKhann is co-founder of the popular, award-winning web community for moms TheMotherhood.com and the online marketing firm TheMotherhood Creative.  She has been a blogger since 2004 and was recently named one of Parents Magazine's "Most Powerful Moms on the Web."  She also contributes to Been There: Official Blog of TheMotherhood. Emily co-authored the bestselling book Living with the End in Mind, ran public relations agencies in New York and Dallas, and was Director of International Business and Acting Commissioner to the United Nations and Consular Corps for the City of New York.   Emily lives in Larchmont, NY with her husband and two daughters.

Parent Ambassadors are not official representatives of Healthy Child and their opinions and recommendations do not necessarily reflect those of the organization.

Erin Brockovich

President of Brockovich Research & Consulting, Environmental Advocate

"To bring about change, the most important thing is information. The Freedom of Information Act gives you access to records. I know it sounds like a lot, but there’s always one angry mom in the group who’s willing to do the research. It doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with public agencies, Congress, neighbors: If you go into a tirade without facts, it will fall on deaf ears. (If you don’t like to speak publicly, work with someone who can; none of us is ever a lone warrior.) But when you have documents, when you can say, This is poison being sprayed…Look at how often they’re spraying…people are masters at making connections. Oh, my god, my daughter has been acting like that, too. As soon as it hits home, as soon as it’s about parent and child and neighborhood, people spring into action."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

To read more from Erin and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today. 

View all Voices For Change

Erin Brockovich

President of Brockovich Research & Consulting, Environmental Advocate

Erin Brockovich is President of the consulting firm Brockovich Research & Consulting and was the Director of Environmental Research at Masry and Vititoe law firm until 2008. She is credited for spearheading the 1996 environmental lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric Company on behalf of 600 members of the Hinkley, California community. Her tireless efforts resulted in a $333 million compensation package, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit. Erin’s Healthy Child Healthy World message advocating for children’s health appeared on over 22 million Organic Valley milk cartons in 2003.

Gabrielle Anwar

Gabrielle Anwar stars as Fiona in the USA Network original series BURN NOTICE, which returned with new episodes of its fifth season on Nov. 3rd at 10/9c

Born in Berkshire, England, the endearing and accomplished Gabrielle Anwar has over 45 film and television performances to her credit in both Europe and the States, including her breakout film “Scent of a Woman,” where she was whisked off her feet into an acclaimed tango with Al Pacino.

Anwar has enthralled in a vast array of diverse characters from the blind diving horse circus performer in Disney’s biopic “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken” to the risqué royal in Showtime’s “The Tudors” to the supercilious counterpart to Noah Wyle in TNT’s “The Librarian II.” And from the fatal object of desire in “Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead” to the regal Queen Anne in “The Three Musketeers.” From the expat party girl in BBC’s adaptation of Mortimer’s “Summer’s Lease” to the coquette pursuing Dermott Mulroney and Hope Davis in the independent feature “The Family Tree.”

With three children, a canine, feline, and equine menagerie, an art studio, a yoga practice, a garden, a green lifestyle, and a slew of literature in the works, Gabrielle has no free time.

Gigi Lee Chang

Founder, Plum Organics

Gigi Lee Chang is the founder of leading baby and toddler food brand, Plum Organics. Launched in 2006, Plum was founded on the basic principles of creating organic meals that exemplify freshness, optimal nutrition and great taste without compromise.
In just four short years, Plum Organics has grown its distribution to over 1500 stores in national retailers such as Whole Foods Market, Babies “R” Us and Target. Recognized as a leader and innovator in baby food, Plum Organics was selected for Entrepreneur’s 2007 annual “HOT LIST” and named “Brand Innovator 2008” and “2010” by Brand Packaging.

Gigi and Plum Organics have been featured in over 250 media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, MORE magazine, Yogi Times, KIWI Magazine, Cookie, Parenting, OK! Weekly, Celebrity Baby Blog, TODAY Show, Newsweek and Time Out New York Kids.

Gigi proudly brought Plum Organics to its new home at the Nest Collective in 2008, and currently spends her time growing the Plum Organics Ambassador community and sharing her inspirational story with women entrepreneurs and new parents. Gigi often speaks on the topics of food, nutrition and entrepreneurship.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Actress, Mother to Apple and Moses

"Food was the beginning of my awareness of the toxic substances we ingest. Now we do other things to protect our family's health, from installing a water filtration system to sleeping on organic mattresses and using nontoxic shampoos. I try to open the windows in the day—an old-fashioned airing out—even in winter, because the air inside the house is often more polluted than the air outside. I read a lot—moms email each other links to studies and health alerts, the kind that keep you up at night. But I try not to get hysterical about it. I'm not doing all this to turn my kids into freaks--I just want them to be as healthy as they possibly can. I don't want to fill them with anxiety. I keep the anxiety part to myself.

An ancient Chinese proverb says something like, 'Food and medicine have the same root.' The more I learn about food, the more amazed I am at how their properties can basically fix anything."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

To read more from Gwyneth and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

Holly Robinson Peete

Actress, Mother to Rodney Jackson (“RJ”), Ryan, Robinson, and Roman

"When my twins were born 10 years ago they were both asthmatic. We used nebulizers; we tried aromatherapy, acupressure, acupuncture. They both ended up growing out of it, thank God. But now I’m dealing with my 5- and 2-year-old, and you never know when something is going to trigger an attack.

Sometimes I wonder why this is happening to us. (I should mention that my oldest son, Rodney, is on the autistic spectrum, and there’s lots of discussion in the scientific community about environmental causes for that, too.) I’ve noticed that strong chemical smells can trigger the twins’ asthma, and you never know when it will kick in. They’re also both allergic to wheat and sometimes that causes it. To deal with their illness, we’ve had to make our home as healthy as possible, but it’s been a steep learning curve."

 

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

To read more from Holly and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Ph.D.

Chief of the Division of Environmental Health & Professor of Epidemiology, University of California, Davis

Dr. Hertz-Picciotto, PhD, is Chief of the Division of Environmental Health, and Professor of Epidemiology, MIND (Medical Investigations of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute at the University of California, Davis. She is an internationally renowned environmental epidemiologist with over 200 scientific publications addressing environmental exposures, including metals, pesticides, air pollutants and endocrine disruptors, their interactions with nutrition, and their influences on pregnancy, the newborn, and child development.

In 2002, she turned her attention to autism, launching the CHARGE Study, the first large, comprehensive population-based study of environmental factors in autism, and a few years later, MARBLES (Markers of Autism Risk in Babies – Learning Early Signs), to search for early environmental and biologic predictors of autism, starting in pregnancy. She also collaborates on the multi-site EARLI study, and is Director of the Northern California Center for the National Children’s Study. Dr. Hertz-Picciotto sits on editorial boards for four major scientific journals in epidemiology, environmental health, and autism, including as Associate Editor of Environment International and has held appointments on state, national and international advisory panels to organizations such as the Food Safety in Europe Working Group, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Toxicology Program, California Air Resources Board, and NIH Interagency Coordinating Committee on Autism Research.

She has been elected President of two of the largest professional epidemiology societies; chaired the Expert Panel on CDC’s Vaccine Safety Database for Studies of Autism and Thimerosal; chaired National Academy of Sciences Panels on Agent Orange and Vietnam Veterans and more recently the Institute of Medicine Committee on Breast Cancer and the Environment. Dr. Hertz-Picciotto has taught epidemiologic methods on four continents and mentored 60 doctoral and postdoctoral scholars. In 2011, she received the Goldsmith Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.

 

 

Isabel Kallman

Alpha Mom

Isabel is the founder and chief at Alpha Mom, which began as the nation’s first parenting TV channel found in 13 million homes and has since transformed itself into an online destination and marketing research lab. The term “Alpha Mom” has been recognized by media-- such as USA Today, The Today Show, and Good Morning America-- as the category generic for the ultimate influencers. More recently, Forbes anointed Alpha Mom one of the Top 10 Mommy ‘Hood Gurus and Parents Magazine named Isabel an online “Power Mom.” For Isabel, this year should bring some exciting new business initiatives that are in the works and fun travel with her husband and 7 year-old son.

Parent Ambassadors are not official representatives of Healthy Child and their opinions and recommendations do not necessarily reflect those of the organization.

James Chuda

Co-Founder & Environmental Architect

is a dedicated environmentalist, and co-founder of Healthy Child. He is an independent, nationally board-certified, architect specializing in the creation of non-toxic living and working environments that welcome healthful lifestyles. Along with his wife Nancy, Jim received the 1996 "Environmental Leadership Award" from the California League of Conservation Voters.

Jane Buckingham

Founder and CEO of TRENDERA

Is there a difference between trends, micro trends and fads? Does the generation gap still exist? And why does it matter to you as marketers, employers, and even as parents? Jane Buckingham has the answers.

As the founder and CEO of TRENDERA, Buckingham is the leading expert on Generations X, Y, and V. Having studied these generations for over 20 years, she is able to help companies and individuals gain insights into these often inscrutable groups. Her services to clients combine sophisticated research tools with trend knowledge, helping companies to understand how consumers feel and to anticipate what trends will impact their businesses. Trendera produces the trend forecasting report “THE TRENDERA FILES” and works with clients including Facebook, Paramount, Fox, Target, L’Oreal, and many others.

Buckingham began her career at age 17 by writing the book Teens Speak Out about her own generation. This started her on a quest to better understand and explain how young people feel.

Buckingham pioneered the trend forecasting field by creating the marketing and consulting firm Youth Intelligence, which she sold to Creative Artists Agency in 2003. She created and published The Cassandra Report as well as the daily trend newsletter, TrendCentral which she also sold to CAA. Buckingham is the author of the bestselling The Modern Girl’s Guide book series, including The Modern Girl’s Guide to Life, The Modern Girl’s Guide to Motherhood and The Modern Girl’s Guide to Sticky Situations. She was the host of the television series “The Modern Girl’s Guide to Life” on the Style network for four years.

Jane is committed to public service work. In addition to speaking to parents and schools across the country, she serves on the Board of Directors for the non-profit organizations for The Rape Treatment Center and Stuart House, which provides comprehensive, free treatment for sexual assault victims both adults and children and Women in Film, both based in Los Angeles.

In her roles, Buckingham has been the subject of in-depth profiles in The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe, as well as on “60 Minutes,” and “Good Morning America.” She has appeared on numerous other television programs, including “The Today Show,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and “The View,” and was voted by Elle Magazine as one of the Most Powerful women in Hollywood.

Jane Buckingham graduated from Duke University in 1990 with a degree in English.

Janelle Sorensen

Director of Communications

Janelle Sorensen is a seasoned environmental health advocate with extensive experience in public education, communications, policy analysis, program management, e-advocacy and strategic development. She has worked with a diverse array of stakeholder groups from across the country ranging from nonprofit organizations and community groups to school districts and government offices.

Janelle also takes care of her sweet little girls, cooks, cleans, gardens, reads, bikes, hikes, crafts, laughs, speaks using silly voices and accents, drafts environmental policies, works on a Master's Degree, and tries to keep up with social media. Well, typically not all at the same time.

Janet Dean

The Green Mom Review

Janet Dean is a mother of two from Florida. She first started thinking more seriously about green issues and the environment when she got pregnant with her first child. Her transformation started with buying organic milk so her baby wouldn’t be exposed to synthetic bovine growth hormones in utero. From there, she became MUCH better informed and frankly, a little dejected about the state of our food, water, air and the legacy we are leaving future generations. So, for the past nine years she has been slowly greening and detoxifying her family’s life as much as possible while harboring secret dreams of moving to the Pacific northwest. When not momming around and raising the next generation of eco-activists (she hopes) or searching for THE perfect Greek yogurt, Janet can be found writing about greener living at her site, The Green Mom Review.

Parent Ambassadors are not official representatives of Healthy Child and their opinions and recommendations do not necessarily reflect those of the organization.

Jason Graham-Nye

Kimberley (wife of me) and I (Jason) had this grand plan...to move to America from Australia and launch a new and very unique kind of baby diaper: gDiapers. They are flushable and compostable and have been in Australia since 1991. We were just happy customers who loved it so much, we bought the rights to the rest of the world and headed to Portland, Oregon with child and dog in tow.

We launched the product 11 months ago and are now available nationally through Whole Foods & Wild Oats and 300 or so natural supermarkets.

We are the very first consumer good with William McDonough’s "Cradle to Cradle" product accreditation - something we are very proud of. We also give a percentage of revenue to CHEC - we love those guys and gals.

Jay Feldman

Executive Director, Beyond Pesticides

Co-founder and executive director of Beyond Pesticides, has dedicated himself to finding solutions to pesticide problems after working with farm workers through an EPA grant to the national advocacy organization, Rural America. Since 1981 he has helped to build Beyond Pesticides’ capacity to assist local groups and impact national policy. jfeldman@beyondpesticides.org

Jeffrey Hollender

Former President, Seventh Generation, Inc., Father of Meika, Alexander, and Chiara

Former President and Chief Inspired Protagonist of Seventh Generation, Jeffrey Hollender is a well-respected leader in the socially and environmentally responsible communities. Jeffrey led Seventh Generation from its humble beginnings to its current position as the leading and fastest-growing brand of natural products for the home. Currently he serves on the Board of Directors of Greenpeace USA, Healthy Child Healthy World, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, and Alloy Inc., a publicly traded company.

"We know how to create that healthy home the doctor spoke about, and we have. What I want is for everyone else to know, too. Because so many people simply don't. People just don't realize that many of the things surrounding them are turning their homes into toxic sinks in which the air is two to five times more polluted than the air just outside. Most of all, they don't realize what all these things can do to the most vulnerable and defenseless among us. I don’t want anyone else to feel what I felt on that scary summer day. I don't want another child to suffer. From where I sit, I can see the place where those things never happen. I can see a world that's safe, clean, and healthy, one that nurtures life instead of harming it, and we're going to get there."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

 

To read more from Jeffrey and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

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Jena King

Environmental Activist

Jena King is a founding member of C.O.A.C.H for Kids, an organization that provides medical assistance to underprivileged children. She is also on the Boards of University Elementary School (UES) and the Environmental Media Association. Jena is a philanthropist who oversees the Jena and Michael King Foundation, helping support numerous causes championing children and the environment. Jena and her husband Michael King live in Los Angeles with their two children Audrey and Teddy.

Jenna Elfman

Actor, Mother of Story

"I start with little things I can face easily. Right now I’m about to research what plastics to use (and not) for food storage. I just need twenty minutes on Google every so often. I also have organic food delivered and I switched to Seventh Generation cleaning products. (I’ve never liked the smell of cleaning products; but when I was pregnant, I really hated it.) I also use phthalate-free nail polish (that was pregnancy, too—one whiff of the regular stuff and I nearly passed out, plus it’s bad for you when you’re expecting). I’ve bought lots of organic products for the baby—crib mattress, fitted sheets, towels, sleeping gowns, clothes. I even stopped using deodorant and switched to The Rock. Seriously. See, there’s that gradient scale again. Suddenly it all made sense. I was willing to change. "

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

 

To read more from Jenna and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

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Jenna Elfman

Jenna Elfman is best known for her role as Dharma in the hit series "Dharma and Greg", for which she garnered a Golden Globe Award, three Emmy Award nominations and two TV Guide Awards. Elfman also has an impressive feature film resume, including the feature film, Friends with Benefits, starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis hitting theatres in July 2011. She also starred opposite Ben Stiller and Edward Norton in the film Keeping the Faith and opposite Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in Ron Howard's EdTV among many others.

Elfman is a classically trained ballerina who was born and raised in Los Angeles and currently lives there with her husband Bodhi Elfman and their two sons. Some of her interests include charity: water, criminal rehabilitation and a slight obsession with recycling.

Jennie Garth

Jennie Garth skyrocketed to stardom with her role as Kelly Taylor on Beverly Hills, 90210. The show became a ratings juggernaut, lasting 10 seasons, and remains one of the most successful television series produced. Last season Jennie reprised her role as Kelly in the new 90210 series. She was back at West Beverly High, but this time she was all grown up and working as the school guidance counselor.

In 2007, Jennie competed on ABC’s hit show Dancing with the Stars. Her newfound moves and loyal fans made her a crowd favorite and kept her in the competition through the semi-finals.

In 2002 Jennie made her comedy debut as the straight-laced sister of Amanda Bynes in the WB’s What I Like About You. The series concluded in 2006 after a four season run.

 

Jennie serves as a National Spokesperson for the American Heart Association, working to raise awareness not only on heart disease, but preventive measures to reduce risk factors. Jennie’s dedication to a healthy heart is crucial to women worldwide as heart disease is the number one cause of death amongst women. Jennie continues to contribute her time through numerous national media outlets.

Jennie and husband, actor Peter Facinelli have three daughters Luca Bella, Lola Ray, and Fiona Eve. The family enjoys spending time at their home in Los Angeles and ranch in Northern California.

Jennifer Taggart

The Smart Mama

Jennifer Taggart is a passionate advocate for children’s environmental health. She is the mother of two - a 3 and 1/2 year old boy and a 1 and 1/2 year old girl. She is committed to eliminating or reducing toxins from their environment in today’s busy word, focusing on simple and practical solutions. Outside the home, Jennifer is a partner with Demetriou, Del Guercio, Springer and Francis, LLP, a Los Angeles boutique law firm where she practices environmental law, focusing on consumer product labeling and Proposition 65 compliance and litigation.

Prior to becoming an attorney, Jennifer worked as an environmental engineer for an aerospace company. She has a B.S. in Engineering Science. This technical background helps her understand the complex chemistry of today’s consumer products.

Jennifer also teaches a course entitled Smart Mama’s Green Guide: Reducing Toxins in Your Baby’s Environment. She focuses on practical advice to busy parents to reduce exposures to toxic chemicals. She recognizes that in today’s busy world, deciphering product labels and researching product ingredients can be daunting. She focuses on easy steps that can eliminate or reduce toxic chemical exposures. Her forthcoming book is designed for parents who want to reduce toxins, but need easy to implement ideas. In other words, it will educate, inform and encourage parents and caregivers to hug a tree without getting dirty.  Jennifer also contributes to 3greenangels.com.

Parent Ambassadors are not official representatives of Healthy Child and their opinions and recommendations do not necessarily reflect those of the organization.

Jennifer Taylor

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Jennifer Taylor discovered that she enjoyed acting after she landed a TV commercial. Following a successful modeling career she made her film debut in “Wild Things” portraying Matt Dillon’s girlfriend. While living in Miami she was a series regular on the telenovela “Miami Sands” and appeared in the Adam Sandler comedy “The WaterBoy.”

Since moving to Los Angeles she has guest-starred on numerous series such as “Ghost Whisperer”, but her most propitious role transpired when she guest-starred on “Two and A Half Men”. The show’s executive producer, Chuck Lorre, cast her in four different roles. After portraying Charlie Sheen’s fiancée for one season they decided that the chemistry was so good between them they hired her as a series regular for the following season.

Taylor leads a multi-faceted life when she’s not acting. She recently went back to college and completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science after a 10 year hiatus from school. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

Jeremiah McNichols

Jeremiah McNichols

Jeremiah McNichols is a blogger, author, industry consultant, and consumer advocate. With his wife Jennifer, Jeremiah publishes Z Recommends, a daily parenting blog featuring product reviews, consumer research, industry reports, and information, with an emphasis on safe, educational, and entertaining toys, activities, and projects to help kids grow into intelligent consumers with sustainable lifestyles. Z Recommends' research and reviews have been cited by such sources as the Washington Post, the Environmental Working Group, the Sierra Club, U.S. News and World Report, Grist, and a wide variety of blogs and websites.

In addition to publishing Z Recommends, the blog's parent company, ZRecs, publishes the blog giveaway hub PRIZEY and the group gardening blog and garden planning tool, Gardenaut. Jeremiah is a frequent guest on the parenting podcast Jumping Monkeys and a contributor to the Wired.com blog GeekDad. Current projects include a series of audio stories for children, a novel for young adults, and a book for toddlers about vegetarianism. Jeremiah and Jennifer are also the proud parents of Z, who started it all.

Jessica Capshaw

Actress, Mother of Luke & Eve, Wife of Healthy Child Prior Executive Director, Christopher Gavigan

What I so appreciate about Healthy Child's book is the way the information is delivered. It offers the most credible parenting advice, passed through a trusted filter that makes it understandable and doable. Every parent out there can feel personally empowered to prioritize what they should do today. It shows me the best products, affordable and inexpensive alternatives, and supports my instincts to do all I can for my children and family's health.

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Jill Fehrenbacher

Inhabitots

Jill is the founder of Inhabitots.com, the founder and publisher of Inhabitat.com, and a green designer living in New York City. She created Inhabitots in the summer of 2008 in preparation for the arrival of her first baby. With healthy parenting on her mind, she works to provide information to fellow mommys and daddys, helping them keep their green babies toxin-free. She is an avid idealist, design junkie and believes firmly that becoming a parent doesn’t have to mean sacrificing style or ideals. At least not too much.

Joe Henry

Poet & Lyricist

Although formally educated, JOE HENRY attributes much of his learning to his many years as a laborer, rancher and professional athlete. A renowned lyricist, his words have been performed on more than a hundred recordings by such varied artists as: Frank Sinatra, John Denver, Olivia Newton-John, Garth Brooks and Rascal Flatts. In addition to his many music awards, Henry also received a National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation "for the celebration of the natural world in his work," and the (Colorado) Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. This is his first work of fiction.

Joel Schwartz, Ph.D.

Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health

Dr. Joel Schwartz is a Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and Director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. His work has been instrumental in the removal of lead from gasoline, and the setting of particulate air pollution standards around the world.

Schwartz’s work tightened federal clean-air standards and improved compliance within industry. In addition to his research into lead, he was among the first to link elevated death rates to particulates of sulfur from coal-burning power plants and black carbon from motor-vehicle exhaust.

Dr. Schwartz’s current research interests include:

• * Health consequences of exposure to pollutants.
• * Health effects of ozone exposure.
• * Effects of antioxidants on respiratory health.

Dr. Schwartz received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University.

John Wargo, PhD

Director, Center for Children’s Environmental Health, Yale University

Dr. John Wargo is a Professor of Political Science and of Environmental Risk Analysis and Policy at Yale University. His most recent work has focused on children’s exposure to air pollution, especially diesel emissions.

Dr. Wargo has conducted extensive research on childhood vulnerability to complex mixtures of toxic substances, particularly pesticides. His research explores spatial, temporal, and demographic distribution of environmental health risks, providing a basis for evaluating past environmental and natural resource management policies, and for suggesting legal reform.

Professor Wargo has also conducted extensive research on the ecological basis of park and protected area management, concentrating on the Adirondack Park in New York, barrier islands within U.S. National Seashores, and UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. He is affiliated with the Yale–New Haven Teachers Institute, and works with urban primary and secondary school teachers in developing environmental curriculum units. He is a fellow of Branford College.

Dr. Wargo received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.L.A. from the University of Massachusetts, and his Ph.D. from Yale University.

Josie Maran

Model, Founder of Josie Maran Cosmetics, Mother to Rumi

"I wanted to get the word out, and I wanted to find out what other products you could make that would be free of synthetic chemicals. So I took some of my favorite ones to a lab and asked if they could make natural versions. That’s how my company was born.

Now that I have a daughter, I use 100% organic products as much we can. Sometimes that means going without deodorant, but I’ve tried to make it cool to stink. I’ve embraced it and I’ve gotten my friends to do it as well.

During my years of pursuing my career, my family said, Come on Josie, do something. I always knew I wanted to affect change--my grandmother teaches human rights activism at UC Berkeley, and my dad’s a green builder, after all--but I didn’t have any direction. Finally something just clicked, and it was easy to act."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

 

To read more from Josie and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

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Josie Maran

Raised in a bohemian household in Northern California, Josie Maran grew up appreciating natural, unpretentious beauty. At the time, makeup—heavy and mask-like—seemed anything but pretty to her.

"When I compared the supposedly glamorous women I saw in magazines to my mother, who never wore a stitch of makeup, it was no contest," says Josie. "My mom was, and still is, a true beauty."

Josie began modeling at age 12 after being discovered at a family friend's barbecue. Though she loved working, Josie waited until she finished high school before pursuing modeling full-time. At 17, she signed with Elite in Los Angeles, and her career as a professional model kicked into overdrive. Josie quickly earned a name for herself by landing some of the most coveted jobs in the business, including the cover of Glamour (she would go on to grace it five more times), and a stint as the iconic GUESS girl. Soon, Josie was appearing regularly in top fashion magazines including Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, and Mademoiselle.

"As I began to land jobs, I discovered what a lot of other girls already knew: the power of makeup. I'd never even applied lip gloss, but I learned trade secrets from the team of expert artists who applied my makeup on photo shoots. I was surprised to see how makeup could transform not just my look but also my mood! I saw that a little could go a long way, and I stopped seeing makeup as the enemy."

With a remarkable portfolio of commercials, advertisements, and music videos already behind her, Josie moved cross-country and signed with Elite in New York. In 1997, she landed a lucrative contract as the face of Maybelline, a title she held for nearly a decade. In another career coup, Maran was featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue three years in a row. Josie also made a successful transition into acting, appearing in feature films including Van Helsing and The Aviator.

But it was the birth of her first child that jumpstarted Josie's latest endeavor. Josie explains, "Becoming a mother inspired me to take a look at my life and ask, "What can I do for the world? How can I contribute?" Having spent so many hours in the makeup chair, Josie was ready to create her own signature line.

The result: Josie Maran Cosmetics, launched in 2007. The products made with superior ingredients and housed in chic, biodegradable packaging, embrace eco-friendly initiatives wherever possible.

"I want to contribute to making positive change, and I also want to create something fun, beautiful, and luxurious," Josie says. "My dream is to build a brand with so much influence and popularity that my customers and I can work together to make the world a better place."

Kate Hudson

Actress, Entrepreneur, Mother of Ryder

"Food is another area where I try to exert control. Cooking is one of my favorite things to do; when I'm away on a set and can’t cook for Ryder, it drives me crazy. I like to get as inventive as possible--Jessica Seinfeld beat me to the punch with her book because I hide good things in Ryder's food all the time. He doesn't like veggies so I boil them, puree them, then hide them in anything so he doesn't say, "Mommy, I see something green..." It's all about taking charge. You can't stop your child from what they're going to do outside the home. But I can do something—quite a lot, actually—about the products in my home. That requires my being as conscious about things as possible—what you put in and on your body. Plus, I believe in constantly finding new ways to do things, myself."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

To read more from Kate and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

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Kelly Blackstone

Co-founder of Three Branches Healthy Living

Kelly Blackstone grew up in Baton Rouge, LA and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 with a degree in Kinesiology: Health Promotion and Fitness. After college, inspired by Allison Evans, her best friend and future business partner, Kelly and Allison ventured to Hunt, Texas where they spent a summer learning about the harmful characteristics of every day personal care products, cleaning products, and food. From that point forward Kelly knew that she wanted to dedicate her time to educate and inspire others to make their own healthier decisions.

Kelly co-founded Three Branches Healthy Living, an online retail shop, in 2009 with a goal of preventing people from one day saying "Why didn't anyone tell me?!" Three Branches Healthy Living offers customers a plethora of educational opportunities as well as a number of high quality non-toxic products and supplements. One of Kelly’s main focuses within the company is the Three Branches blog, which offers practical examples of how to replace conventional products with easy, healthy alternatives. She is living proof that you can go throughout life using the same products for years without realizing they are harmful to your health until you make the switch to non-toxic products.

Kelly and Allison launched their own non-toxic cleaning line, Branch Basics, in the winter of 2010. Having such a passion for using only safe and healthy cleaning products, the two women are completely hands-on with every step of the process, including mixing, bottling and labeling.

Kelly has gone on to study Building Biology, which looks at the effects of conventional building materials on our health, as well as the hazards of electromagnetic radiation and poor indoor air quality.

She currently lives in Jackson, MS where she is the manager of the Pilates Place of Mississippi, and travels to teach healthy living workshops with Allison.

Kelly Preston

Kelly Preston was born and raised in Hawaii. As a result of her father’s position with an agricultural firm, Kelly moved to Iraq when she was five years old and also lived several years in Australia as a teenager. Moving back to Hawaii, Kelly appeared in numerous television commercials and developed an interest in an acting career.

Kelly graduated from Punahou High School in Hawaii along with fellow alumni, President Barack Obama.

She then relocated to Los Angeles and enrolled in the University of Southern California where she studied drama and theatre. She would soon land her first role and make her feature film debut in the hit motion picture “Twins.”

Kelly is married to international star, John Travolta. They met while making the film “The Experts” and were married in a quiet and romantic wedding in Paris, France in 1991. They have since taken on the role of being proud parents of three beautiful children, Jett, Ella Bleu, and Benjamin.

Kelly loves spending time with her family, going antiquing, and of course, traveling the world with her children and her husband as pilot.

Kelly is a strong supporter of parents and childrens’ rights, drug rehabilitation, education, and environmental issues. You can find out more about the groups that she supports on the Causes page.

Kelly Rudnicki

Food Allergy Mama

Kelly Rudnicki is the author of the bestselling “The Food Allergy Mama’s Baking Book”, “Vegan Baking Classics”, and the award winning blog www.foodallergymama.com. Her blog has twice been named Babble’s Top Food Blog and ranked #6 in Healthiest Eating. She has appeared in numerous publications including Parenting, Shape Magazine, Family Fun Magazine, Woman’s Day, USA Today, Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune. She has also appeared on morning news shows including ABC 7 Chicago and WGN News and is an expert food blogger for Martha Stewart's Whole Living.

As the mother of five young children, one of whom with severe food allergies, Kelly also spends much of her free time advocating for food allergy awareness and improving school nutrition. She volunteers and speaks on behalf of food allergy organizations such as FAAN and FAI, and helped write the food allergy guidelines for the Chefs Move to Schools Chicago, an initiative launched by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Go for the Gold campaign to promote higher standards for food, fitness and nutrition education.

Kelly lives in the north shore suburbs of Chicago with her five children and husband Mike. Together the family loves to cook, bake, see live music and play a lot of sports.

Kelly Rutherford

On and off screen mother, best known for her incredible fashion sense and loving maternal instincts, Kelly Rutherford stars on TV’s hottest show “Gossip Girl,” where she plays the role of Blake Lively’s character’s mother, “Lily van der Woodsen.” Created by Josh Schwartz, the hit show airs Monday nights at 9 pm on The CW Network. The show is shooting its highly-anticipated fourth season now.

Prior to “Gossip Girl,” Rutherford was last seen on television starring opposite Benjamin Bratt and Dennis Hopper in the Jerry Bruckheimer series “E-Ring” on NBC. She notably starred in the 1990s hit series “Melrose Place” for three seasons, in the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated 40’s drama “Homefront,” and in the comedy “Brisco County Jr.” Additionally, her made for television movie, “No Greater Love,” has become a holiday classic.

In film, Rutherford appeared in “Scream 3,” “I Love Trouble” with Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte, and the independent film “Swimming Upstream.” Kelly has also appeared in numerous short films including “The Tag” with Djimon Hounsou for director Peter Winther and “Disturbance at Dinner,” a black and white film about a blind girl who finds love by listening to her heart.

Kelly travels between Los Angeles and New York with her two young children Hermes (3 yrs) and Helena (1 yr). She is a supporter of the (RED) campaign through Bugaboo, the Step Up Women’s Network, Healthy Child Healthy World, and is an avid environmentalist who values an organic and green lifestyle personally and for her family. In September 2009, Kelly was named Big City Moms’ MOM OF THE MONTH in NYC and prior to that was honored at the Step Up Women's Network Inspiration Awards.

Keri Russell

Actress, Mother of River

"Last summer I was sitting with a couple of friends, watching our naked babies on the grass. We were in Martha’s Vineyard, where my husband was raised; my son River and the others were lying and rolling around without diapers, happily flapping their little arms and legs.

My friends and I were saying that we wish our babies could always just run around without clothes and that we wouldn’t have to worry about what’s in the grass, or about other kinds of outdoor pollution

Recently I took River for a walk in Fort Greene Park early in the morning. There are always families with strollers and babies toddling around this little green oasis. If you squint your eyes you wouldn’t know you’re in New York City. And I can’t help but think that if we keep cleaning up our acts, maybe someday our babies will be able to roll around naked on the grass here, too."

 

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

To read more from Keri and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

 

Kiernan McGuire

Co-Founder & CEO, ClassMonkeys

With over 15 years of experience spanning the education and digital media space, Kiernan has a passion for start-up and early stage environments. While working for The Washington Post Company, he helped launch the Kaplan-Simon & Schuster publishing business and served as the Managing Editor for the Newsweek-Kaplan imprint. He later led Kaplan’s launch of the first nation-wide in-home tutoring company, spearheading its growth from 4 to 26 major US markets. Putting his for-profit background to work for mission-based organizations, Kiernan would go on to lead business development and product at GreatSchools.net, the leading provider of consumer-friendly K-12 school data. His efforts would create multi-million dollar earned income streams from licensing and advertising businesses. Most recently, he served as Chief Development Officer at Common Sense Media, where parents turn to make good decisions for their kids about media and technology. During his tenure there, he built the organization’s first online product team, managed all revenue operations and oversaw the development and implementation of a distribution network reaching into over 100 million households via licensing partnerships with leading companies including Comcast, DIRECTV, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, AOL, Yahoo!, Netflix and others. He is Co-Founder and CEO of ClassMonkeys, a free online guide that connects local class providers and potential students of all ages.

Kiernan holds a BA from the College of the Holy Cross and an MA in history from Boston University.

Kiersten Alton, Rph.

Nutritionist

After graduating from the University of Montana with a Pre-Med Zoology degree, I then attended pharmacy school at the University of Texas where I obtained a bachelors degree in Pharmacy.

I currently work for a holistic, wellness Pharmacy called Peoples Pharmacy. We specialize in helping patients get back their health by changing diet and lifestyle first. When needed, we use supplements, herbs, vitamins and diagnostic testing to help manage all types of conditions. I have over 500 additional hours of training in other modalities of healing. I love working with infants, toddlers and older children.

My true passion lies in changing the way we feed our children. I firmly believe many of the childhood diseases and conditions such as asthma, ADD, and eczema could be reduced if we gave those little growing bodies the building blocks to develop a healthy system. As a pharmacist I feel that the overuse of antibiotics has greatly contributed to many of these conditions. I work with many Autistic and special needs children. This is the most rewarding work anyone can do. These children desperately need our help. Their bodies are extremely toxic from the environment, the food and modern medicine. My future goals are to start a structured nutrition program in schools, which engages the parents, teachers and children to develop healthy eating habits. Good eating habits begin with that first bite of food at 6 months of age.

I love what I do, but more importantly I love being a mother even more! My toddler has taught me more about life in the last 4 years than any school or class ever will. He has helped me develop toddler friendly programs and tests all of my recipes and natural remedies!

Kristin O’Connor

Founder, Nourish This

Kristin is a home trained chef who’s abilities in the kitchen have been nurtured by the women in her family for three generations. As a small child, her interest in food and adventurous spirit were evident through her continual cooking experiments… which her family lovingly nicknamed botching.

Over the years, botching turned into daily dinners and various confections that friends and family came to love. After suffering from multiple frustrating health issues that were treated by traditional medicine with medication for life, Kristin sought alternative means of healing and changed her diet to get well. In doing so, her perspective on food and cooking changed dramatically and inspired her website: NourishThis.com, which she created as an individual venture. At this point, Kristin was attending NYU’s graduate program for Art Therapy and upon graduation, she worked at an afterschool program and an outpatient center for women with eating disorders.

Out of her website, Nourish This, Kristin began to explore a career in sharing her passion for the positive impact of eating well and signed with a production company to pitch a cooking show about eating for optimal health. She was then brought on as an Associate Producer for a production company developing cooking shows for Food Network and Cooking Channel. Kristin volunteers with non-profit organizations such as Healthy Child Healthy World and Green Village Initiative. Healthy Child Healthy World asked Kristin to be an expert advisor for the Eat Well section of their website and she provides recipes, web videos and articles on preparing healthy food for families and hosts Twitter parties for the organization.

In addition, Kristin created an organic garden, which she documented through a video blog and shared with Healthy Child Health World and will be on her website Nourish This in 2012. Kristin has worked as a food consultant, helping individuals or families who were recently given a new diet to make the necessary changes to stick to it; offering consultation, customized recipes, tours through the grocery store as well as cooking classes.

Most recently, Kristin began working with Drum Hill Publishing and wrote 4 cookbooks (one book per blood type – A, B, AB, O) for Dr. D’Adamo’s Eat Right For Your Blood Type diet, called: Personalized Living Using The Blood Type Diet. Books were published in eBook format (found on Amazon.com) and will be published in print Summer 2012. As an extension of the book, Kristin began a Personalized Living blog where she provides new recipes, articles and tips each week on living the Blood Type Diets.

Kristin presented at the Kid’s Food Festival in Bryant Park in New York City along with celebrity and master chefs Ellie Krieger, David Burke, Lehangir Mehta and more. The festival was designed to educate families about the benefits of eating well, combating childhood obesity and learning how attainable healthy food can be. Kristin’s demonstration event was about teaching children and parents how to cook allergy-free food.

Laila Ali

Laila Ali is the founder of the Laila Ali Lifestyle brand and an athlete and champion of health and fitness. The youngest daughter of Veronica Porsche Anderson, and of the legendary Muhammad Ali, she is a strong, intelligent, woman, daughter, and wife.

While Laila has undoubtedly been the major draw in professional women’s athletics for years, she took on a new challenge when she strut her stuff in front of nearly 40 million people every week on ABC’s hit show, Dancing With The Stars. A glamorous and elegant Laila surprised everyone and charged into the finals, as viewers were able to get a sense of her humor, femininity, genuineness and beauty.

Laila’s personal background as a licensed manicurist, and her past work with skin care companies, led Laila to launch her consumer products brand with her own line of beauty and personal care products, “Laila by Laila Ali”. The multi-SKU product line is currently on shelves at Walmart and Sears, and will be available soon in more than 3,000 beauty salons nationwide.

Fitness is another important component of Laila’s life. Her attention to an overall healthy lifestyle has rendered her an expert in this field. Laila is currently the President of the Women’s Sports Foundation, an organization founded 37 years ago by Billie Jean King to promote sports, health and education among girls and women. Never one to stray from her passion, Laila has conveyed her commitment to health and wellness through multiple television platforms, as the host of “Student Body” on The N Network, a show that followed a group of teens as they attempted to change their own lives-from diet and exercise to volunteering and academics, as she co-hosted NBC’s “American Gladiators” with Hulk Hogan, and as she formerly served as a regular correspondent on CBS’ “The Early Show” as its resident Health, Fitness, and Lifestyle expert. Active in the community, Laila has lent her support to Kroger’s health and wellness initiative, a 2,400-store, nationwide endeavor encouraging Kroger customers to lead healthy, active lives, and to DoSomething.org’s Healthy Schools Challenge battling childhood obesity. In furtherance of her consumer product brand, and in line with leading a healthy lifestyle, Laila recently partnered with Vita Food Products for a signature line of fresh salsas, salad dressings, seasonings and marinades, which will be in stores in early 2012.

A true “multi-hyphenate”, Laila also authored a motivational book titled Reach! She wrote the book in an effort to help young women who may need to be inspired in life; using her own experiences and challenges as an example for her readers. Laila, a multi-talented entrepreneur, owned and operated a nail salon in California before entering the boxing profession. She had earned her degree in Business Management at Santa Monica College, but after watching women’s boxing on television for the first time, she instantly wanted to step in the ring. About a year later, she sold her business and started training to become a professional boxer.

Laila made her professional boxing debut on October 8, 1999, and in a sign of things to come, she knocked out her opponent, April Fowler, 31 seconds into the 1st round. Laila retired from boxing as the undefeated Super Middleweight Boxing Champion of the world with a 24-0 record, with 21 knock-outs. In her last fight, on February 3rd, 2007, Laila knocked out her opponent, Gwendolyn O’Neal, in just 56 seconds. The bout, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, was attended by Nelson Mandela, a long time family friend.

Laila currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, former NFL star, Curtis Conway, their son, Curtis Jr., and the newest addition to the family, daughter Sydney.

Larry Eason

Web and New Media Strategist

Larry brings to the Healthy Child board a lifelong commitment to the environment and to improving the lives of children.

As President & Founder of digital strategy and communications firm DotOrgPower Larry helps dot orgs harness the web and new media to achieve their goals. He works with cause leaders to expand their sense of what is possible online and to use that transformed thinking to innovate and succeed.

Larry is an evangelist for the power of online storytelling – pioneering digital storytelling in the 1990s to advance grassroots advocacy.

In 2005 Larry received the Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet's Golden Dot award for Best Statewide Internet Campaign for developing the online campaign for a California ballot measure funding mental health services. Larry led the online campaigns to defeat California Propositions 1D and 1E in 2009 and to defeat California Proposition 85 in 2006.

Larry's clients include the California Department of Mental Health, International Medical Corps, the Parent Revolution, RAND Corporation, and US Public Interest Research Group.

A surfer, painter and potter Larry teaches ceramics and lives with his wife Wendy, daughter Elise, and 5 rescue dogs in Silver Lake.

Laura Dern

Laura Dern has emerged as one of the great actresses of her generation proving that she is capable of great depth and range, touching audiences and critics alike with her moving and heartfelt performances. The recipient of countless awards, Laura is recognized for her ability to portray a wide range of characters. Not only is she a wonderful actress, but she is a dedicated environmentalist and mother. Her decision to join the Healthy Child Healthy World Advisory Board and become their spokesperson is a testament to her commitment to the cause.

"We hear the news that we're having a baby and we want to be really healthy and careful. So we eat organically, avoid mercury in fish, don’t drink, don’t smoke; we don’t use hair color or paint our nails. We spend all this energy and time creating a really healthy environment--and then we totally switch gears. We stop thinking about health and somehow lead ourselves to believe that the most important thing for the baby when it comes home from the hospital is…a pretty room. And so we choose the coolest crib design, instead of the safest or healthiest crib. We pick the absolute cutest linens, even if they’re covered in flame-retardants and other chemicals (never mind that a baby can hardly see at first). Unwittingly, we put loads of toxic chemicals into the room as we strive to make it look just right."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

To read more from Laura and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

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Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP

Associate Professor in Pediatrics, Environmental Medicine and Health Policy, New York University

Dr. Trasande's research focuses on identifying the role of environmental and other factors in chronic childhood disease, and documenting the economic costs for policy makers of failing to prevent them proactively. Dr. Trasande is perhaps best known for a 2011 study in Health Affairs which found that children's exposures to chemicals in the environment cost $76.6 billion in 2008. His analysis of the economic costs of mercury pollution played a critical role in preventing the Clear Skies Act (which would have relaxed regulations on emissions from coal-fired power plants) from becoming law. He has also published a series of studies which document increases in hospitalizations associated with childhood obesity and increases in medical expenditures associated with being obese or overweight in childhood. These studies have been cited in the Presidential Task Force Report in Childhood Obesity, and another landmark study identified that a $2 billion annual investment in prevention would be cost-effective even if it produced small reductions in the number of children who were obese and overweight. He serves on a United Nations Environment Programme Steering Committee which is developing a Global Outlook on Chemicals Policy, and on the Executive Committee of the Council for Environmental Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He recently served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Trasande earned a Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed a pediatrics residency at Boston Children's Hospital, a Dyson Foundation Legislative Fellowship in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and a fellowship in environmental pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He has testified before the Senate's Environment and Public Works committee and Democratic Policy Committee. His work has been featured on the CNN documentary Planet in Peril and in National Geographic, and frequently appears on national media, including NBC's Today Show, ABC's Evening News and National Public Radio.

Leslie Robison, Ph.D

Professor of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota

Dr. Leslie Robison is the Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Control at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital Cancer Center. He is also Chair of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, and Co-Leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program.

Dr. Robison’s current research interests include:

• * Epidemiology and etiology of childhood cancer
• * Cancer survivorship
• * Outcomes research
• * Clinical trials in cancer prevention and control

Dr. Robison received his B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his M.P.H. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Lisa Druxman

Founder, Stroller Strides

Lisa Druxman, M.A. is the founder of Stroller Strides, the country's largest fitness program for moms. Stroller Strides is committed to help moms make strides in fitness, motherhood and life. Lisa's personal mission is to raise healthy moms so they can raise healthy children in a healthy world. Lisa believes that health and wellness starts with mom. Her books, blog and speaking events inspire moms to be healthy role models for their families.

Liza Huber

CEO and Founder of Sage Bears, LLC

Liza Huber is the CEO and Founder of Sage Bears, LLC and creator of Sage Spoonfuls. She has been both a busy working mom and a busy stay-at-home mom taking care of her 3 children. She has been making homemade baby food for many years and has seen the enormous benefits it has given her own children. This inspired her to create a system that gives moms all the tools they need to make fresh, healthy and delicious food for their babies in a fun and convenient way. Drawing from her own experiences and the guidance of a leading pediatrician, she designed Sage Spoonfuls to fit the needs of all moms and their busy schedules. Liza speaks to mom groups and hosts homemade baby food workshops all over the country sharing the many benefits homemade baby food provides, including preventing picky eating. She believes strongly in Healthy Child, Healthy World’s mission of raising children in a non-toxic, natural and healthy environment and is honored to be a parent ambassador.

In addition to launching Sage Spoonfuls, Liza has been appointed an Ambassador Mom for the March of Dimes and will be raising awareness about premature birth. The March of Dimes is the leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health. With chapters nationwide, the March of Dimes works to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Having been the mom of a preemie herself, the March of Dimes, along with Healthy Child, Healthy World, is very close to her heart.

Liza and her husband, Alex, have been married since 2004. They have 3 children, Royce 5, Brendan 3, and Hayden 1.

Lori Popkewitz Alper

Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Groovy Green Livin'

Lori Popkewitz Alper is the founder and editor-in-chief of Groovy Green Livin, a site dedicated to sharing simple green living tips and current information on sustainable living with individuals, families, schools and businesses. Lori uses Groovy Green Livin as a platform to create awareness, dialog and debate surrounding advocacy for healthy environments without harmful chemicals.

A contributing writer for multiple blogs and websites, Lori speaks, writes and advises on a variety of issues related to creating a greener lifestyle.

Lori is a green living educator, social media consultant, freelancer, blogger, borderline vegan and recovering attorney. She lives in the Greater Boston area with her three sons, chocolate lab and groovy husband.

In her free time she can be found practicing yoga, pitching a baseball, running, cycling, skiing, reading, cooking, or trying out a new eco friendly product.

Connect with Lori and Groovy Green Livin on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Lynda Fassa

Founder, Green Babies

In 1994, Lynda Fassa founded Green Babies out of her NYC apartment with a simple idea: that every baby is wonderful and deserves the very best and the very safest products the world can offer, without breaking mom & dad's budget. Green Babies began as a maker of certified organic cotton baby clothing, and has grown to include a line of wooden made in USA toys, two natural parenting books: Green Babies, Sage Moms and Green Kids, Sage Families, both from NAL Penguin, and a line of clean, natural and premium baby body care also called Green Babies.

Lynda frequently lectures on safe, easy and fun choices for parenting groups and at Whole Foods Market where she is a VIP vendor. She is a blogger for sites including Beliefnet, Scholastic, Grist, Nick Parents Connect, Treehugger and Planet Green, where she is also the baby and family expert. Lynda has appeared in major print media including People Magazine, The New York Times, Parents, Parenting, Working Mother and many more and on television on The Today Show, Access Hollywood, Planet Green, Fox News Happy Hour, CBS Sunday Morning and ABC News.

She lives in Westchester County, NY with her husband and business partner, Hoss, and their three daughters.

Lynn Goldman, MD

John Hopkins School of Public Health

Dr. Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and an epidemiologist, is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, where her areas of focus are environmental health policy, public health practice, and children's environmental health.

Dr. Goldman has served as Assistant Administrator for the EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS). With the EPA, she successfully promoted children's health issues and furthered the international agenda for global chemical safety.

Prior to joining the EPA, Dr. Goldman served in several positions at the California Department of Health Services, most recently as head of the Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control. She has conducted public health investigations on pesticides, childhood lead poisoning, and other environmental hazards.

Dr. Goldman’s research interests are in the following areas:

• * Environmental Epidemiology and Surveillance
• * Chemicals Policy
• * Disaster Preparedness
• * Education and Training
• * Pediatric Environmental Health

Dr. Goldman has a B.S. in Conservation of Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley, an MPH from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Goldman has served on numerous boards and expert committees, including the Committee on Environmental Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control Lead Poisoning Prevention Advisory Committee, and numerous expert committees for the National Research Council. She currently is Vice Chair of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences and Chair of the IOM Gulf War and Health Study.

Margie Kelly

Communication Manager

Margie Kelly is the Communications Manager at Healthy Child, Healthy World. She has more than two decades experience in high-profile media, marketing, and brand building for environmental health and human rights organizations.

Previously, she was the Communications Director for Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a coalition of organizations working to overhaul the nation’s toxic chemicals law, and SAFER, a multi-state coalition of environmental health organizations. During her dream-come-true chance to live in New York City, Margie was the Director of Communications for the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal organization dedicated to advancing reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right.

Margie lives in Chicago, Illinois with her husband Joe, whom she met when they both worked for the Greenpeace Toxics Campaign. She has two children, a teenage son and a tween-aged daughter, and the world’s sweetest chocolate Lab.

Mariel Hemingway

As the granddaughter of illustrious author, Ernest Hemingway, Mariel was always destined to be well-known and publicly recognized. However, at the young age of 13, Mariel became famous in her own right when she made her silver screen debut in “Lipstick”. Four years later her work in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” earned her an Oscar nomination. She has since made 30 films and numerous television appearances in series and as a host of several environmental and humanitarian documentaries.

Now at the age of 48, Mariel is the mother of two daughters, Dree 22 and Langley 21. For over 20 years, she has been pursuing her passion for yoga and health and is now seen as a voice of holistic and balanced health and well- being. As part of that role she has leads wellness retreats all over America, sharing her insights about movement, silence, nutrition, and home. In 2003, she published her powerful bestselling memoir, Finding My Balance. A truly insightful and inspiring story, of her life’s journey through the eyes of yoga and meditation. Mariel’s second book called “Mariel Hemingway’s Healthy Living from the Inside out (Harper Collins San Francisco 2007), is a how-to guide to finding ones balance and health through self-empowering lifestyle techniques and is a huge success for Mariel and especially for those whom incorporate her inspiring advice.

Mariel’s passion is her love of the outdoors…connecting with nature and becoming younger through food breath exercise and nature. She has partnered with Robert Williams an eco adventurer whose life has been dedicated to adventure, healing and nature in a new book. There are traveling all over sharing what they know about anti aging, having fun and feeling great.

Her current business is Mariel’s Kitchen…a company that will produce real food products with a real life message. Her first Product is Blisscuits ( a healthy gluten free sugar free cookie soon to be sold in target)! The Blisscuits will be launched with the paperback version of her Cookbook Mariel’s kitchen Simple Ingredients for a healthy and Delicious Life.Mariel believes that the health of the body mind and spirit is the first step in becoming conscious of the health and well being of the environment that surrounds us. So eat real food grown organically and locally and get more in touch with who you are and how we interact with our communities. You can check out her message and her mission on both Marielhemingway.com and Marielskitchen.com.

Marion Nestle

New York University

Marion Nestle; author of "Food Politics," "What to Eat," and three other books; is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition.

Mary Martin Gant

Chair / National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences / Program Analyst National Institutes of Health

Matthew C. Parker

Environmental Health Program Intern

Matthew is a recent alumnus from the University of Southern California, graduating with honors with Bachelor’s of Science degree in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Studies. Matthew became interested in Healthy Child Healthy World as a result of his exposure to the nonprofit last year while working in Washington, D.C. As the Environmental Health Programs Intern, Matthew has the opportunity to utilize his passion for health and writing through contributing to the daily BLOG posts. Matthew has extensive background experience as a student researcher at USC, and, last spring, Matthew split his time between volunteering as a student researcher at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and working as a Children’s Health Intern at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). He has decided that he wants to pursue a possible career in either health writing and marketing or continue his schooling and earn his M.D. He is currently pursuing his Master’s of Science degree in Biostatistics and Epidemiology at USC’s Keck School of Medicine. In his free time, Matthew enjoys attending concerts around Los Angeles and finding every opportunity to escape the LA smog and experience the outdoors with his friends.

Mayim Bialik, PH.D.

MAYIM HOYA BIALIK is best known for her role in the early 1990’s NBC sitcom “Blossom.” Bialik was born to first generation Jewish American parents who were documentary filmmakers and teachers. She drew international attention when she played the young Bette Midler in “Beaches” in 1989 and has had guest roles on some of television’s most beloved shows of the 1980s and 199s, such as “MacGuyver”, “Webster”, and “The Facts of Life”. She appeared in Woody Allen’s “Don’t Drink the Water” in 1994, and has more recently appeared HBO's “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. She recurs as Counselor Bink on ABC Family’s “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” will appear as Nancy Kurshan in “The Chicago 8” (to be released this year), and continues a recurring role as Sheldon Cooper’s love interest on CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” and through 2012.

Bialik earned a B.S. in Neuroscience and Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2007 from UCLA. Her thesis in psychoneuroendrocrinology examined Hypothalamic Secretions and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in adolescents with Prader-Willi syndrome, specializing in the hormones of attachment and their role in obsessive and compulsive behaviors. Dr. Bialik designs and teaches a Neuroscience curriculum to Junior High School homeschoolers in Southern California, where she also teaches Hebrew.

Bialik is married to her college sweetheart and has two sons: Miles Roosevelt, born naturally in 2005 and Frederick Heschel, born at home (unassisted until the final push) in 2008. She is the celebrity spokesperson for the Holistic Moms Network and she speaks nationally and internationally on topics including green and holistic parenting, religion and observance, feminism, and the industry that has employed her sin she was a child. She has written on these and other topics for both online and print magazine and newspapers and has been featured in an array of popular media as well.

Dr. Bialik has completed coursework and training to be Certified Lactation Educator/Consultant (CLEC), and plans to continue on after this certification to be an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC).

Touchstone Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, will release Bialik’s first book, BEYOND THE SLING: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way with an introduction by Dr. Jay Gordon in March 2012.

Please visit: http://www.mayimbialik.net or www.simonandschuster.com for more information.

Melina Kanakaredes

Actress, Mother to Zoe and Karina

"When you become a parent, it offers a chance to do things in a new way, to be more conscious about the decisions you make because each one affects more than just you. You want to give your children the greatest parts of what your parents gave you and then maybe take it even a step further. From my family I learned a respect for using and not abusing the land, not taking it for granted. Now I'm trying to convey to my girls the value in simple things, especially given the opulence of LA and big-city life: eating fresh food from the farmer’s market; looking for fairies or lightning bugs in the woods rather than sitting in front of the TV; observing how the flowers and trees change with the seasons. We love watching things grow. In our yard we have some amazing fruit trees—grapefruit, lemons, figs—which remind me so much of Greece."

From HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

 

To read more from Melina and many others, pick up your copy of our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, today.

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Melinda Gray