Nancy Gould Chuda

Co-Founder & Chair of Honorary Board, Author & Environmental Activist

Nancy is the founder of Healthy Child Healthy World. Healthy Child Healthy World was established to honor the Chuda’s only child, Colette, who died in 1991 at the age of five due to a rare, non-genetic, form of cancer. Since launching both the Colette Chuda Environmental Fund and Healthy Child Healthy World, Nancy has won numerous awards for her advocacy. The California League of Conservation Voter's Environmental Leadership Award, The Healthy Schools Heroes Award, was presented to both her and her husband James Chuda by Governor Gray Davis for their legislative efforts in securing The Healthy Schools Act which was signed into law in September, 2000.

She serves as an associate of the Director's Council of Public Representatives of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was appointed by President Clinton’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Donna Shalala, to serve as a member of the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council for the National Institutes of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS), a position she held for four years. She is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving, an online magazine, blog which encourages a healthy eco-rich and vibrant lifestyle and provides a platform for people to express their views.

Nancy is in the process of writing The Flower That Shattered The Stone, a nonfiction memoir that details the death of her daughter, Colette, from cancer, the launch of The Colette Chuda Environmental Fund and (CHEC) Healthy Child Healthy World, the groudswell of scientific research in the past decade on environmental toxins and their effect on children, and the growth of the grass roots political movement to protect children against these assaults.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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Samuel S. Epstein, M.D

Professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health; Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. is professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, and Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition. Dr. Epstein is an internationally recognized authority on avoidable causes of cancer, particularly unknowing exposures to industrial carcinogens in air, water, the workplace, and consumer products--food, cosmetics and toiletries, and household products including pesticides--besides carcinogenic prescription drugs.

Dr. Epstein's past public policy activities include:

* Consultant to the U.S. Senate Committee on Public Works

* Author of Congressional legislation

* Membership of key federal committees including EPA's Health Effects Advisory Committee, and the Department of Labor's Advisory Committee on the Regulation of Occupational Carcinogens

* Key expert on banning of hazardous products and pesticides including DDT, Aldrin and Chlordane.

He has published some 270 peer reviewed articles, and authored or co-authored 20 books including: the prize-winning 1978 The Politics of Cancer; the 1995 Safe Shopper's Bible; the 1998 Breast Cancer Prevention Program; the 2001 GOT (Genetically Engineered) MILK!; and most recently, the 2009 Toxic Beauty (with Randall Fitzgerald).

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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).

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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?"

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.

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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.

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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.

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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/

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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."

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. 

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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.

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Tessa Hill

Board Member, President of Kids for Saving Earth

Motivated by the loss of her 11 year-old son and her husband to cancer, Tessa Hill founded and serves as President of Kids for Saving Earth. A founding board member of Healthy Child Healthy World, she has worked to protect the Earth and its children. Tessa is also is a board member of Beyond Pesticides, a Community Partner with The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and served on federal advisory board for the EPA's Children's Health Office.

"Clinton was 11 when he died. I don't know for sure if pesticides caused his death. Many scientific studies suggest a link between pesticides and brain cancer. I do know that it isn't worth taking a chance with toxic bug control methods. There are many safe ways to eradicate pests, including lice. I used boric acid to beat back a roach infestation at our beach house; it worked beautifully and didn't contaminate the property. I refuse to use standard mosquito sprays or flea treatments that contain cancer-causing chemicals.
Before he died, Clint wanted to start a club to teach kids and parents about environmental issues. Kids for Saving Earth (kidsforsavingearth.org), which provides materials to educate and empower children, parents, and instructors about ways to protect the Earth and children's environmental health, is Clint’s legacy."

To read more from Tessa 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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Tessa Hill

President, Kids for Saving Earth

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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."

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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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."

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.

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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.

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Philip J. Landrigan, MD MSc

Ethel H. Wise Professor of Pediatrics, Chair of Community and Preventative Medicine, Director of the Children's Environmental Health Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., M.Sc., is a pediatrician, epidemiologist, and internationally recognized leader in public health and preventive medicine. Dr. Landrigan is known for his many decades of work in protecting children against environmental threats to health, most notably lead and pesticides. His pioneering research on lead toxicity at low levels persuaded the US government to mandate removal of lead from gasoline and paint, actions that have produced a 90% decline in incidence of childhood lead poisoning over the past 25 years. He has been a leader in developing the National Children's Study, the largest study of children's health and the environment ever launched in the United States. He has been centrally involved in the medical and epidemiologic studies that followed the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He has consulted extensively to the World Health Organization, and has published more than 500 scientific papers and five books.

"I’ve seen some terrible cases of lead exposure during pregnancy. In these situations, pregnant moms and their partners decided to sand down old paint on window frames and doors because they wanted to make their homes safe and beautiful for their baby. Tragically, they didn’t realize that the paint they were sanding was lead paint with very high lead content. The sanding produced lead-contaminated dust, and the moms inhaled the dust. In one family, the mom developed a blood lead level of 45 mg/DL, an extremely toxic level. Lead passes easily across the placenta from mother to baby, and her baby was severely brain-damaged. The tragedy is that with proper information, this could have been completely avoided."

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

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Catherine McCord

Chef and Founder of Weelicious

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William McDonough

William McDonough + Partners

William McDonough is a world-renowned architect, designer, and winner of three U.S. Presidential Awards: the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development (1996), the National Design Award (2004); and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2003). Time magazine recognized him as a "Hero for the Planet" in 1999 and in 2007, stating that "his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that - in demonstrable and practical ways - is changing the design of the world." He is the founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, an internationally recognized design firm practicing ecologically, socially, and economically intelligent architecture and planning, and the co-author of 2002's book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

"Because of the fear of depleted resources, many people have a mentality dominated by the notion of limitation. How much can I get? How little can I give? That way of thinking is now part of our design, too. So we must design something new. We must come up with a plan that offers hope, expansiveness, and a sense of abundance rather than despair, fear, and a sense of limitation. There's no reason to perpetuate this current bad design; no reason for us to continue to use materials that are toxic to our species; no reason we can't put what we know about clean production to good effect. The next generation should be excited about the potential of this new plan, which is driven by a sense of fairness and community, forthrightness and decency, all of which we already have in abundance."

To read more from William 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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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.

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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.

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Robyn O’Brien

Founder of Allergy Kids

"I was completely clueless about food allergies, which is what my pediatrician diagnosed when I called her. And that’s when my education began. That night I sat down at the computer and started researching, and I was stunned at how prevalent the problem had become in the last ten years and how little information there really was about it. I thought, it’s tough enough to protect my child in my own home; how will I protect her when she’s old enough to be at school? Or at friends’ houses? It dawned on me that there had to be a universal symbol for food allergies the way there’s a pink ribbon for breast cancer, so allergy kids could be identified. And so that night I sat down and sketched out that symbol, which became the bright green “stop sign” shape stickers I’ve been trying to get into the hands of parents of the millions of children with allergies."

Robyn O'Brien authored "The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It." A former food industry analyst and mother of four, Robyn brings insight, compassion and detailed analysis to her research into the impact that the global food system is having on the health of our children. She founded www.allergykidsfoundation.org and was named by Forbes as one of "20 Inspiring Women to Follow on Twitter." The New York Times has passionately described her as "Food's Erin Brockovich" and her work has been critically-acclaimed by Dr. Oz, Dr. Bob Sears, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Erin Brockovich, Yoko Ono and others. You can learn more at www.robynobrien.com

Robyn's work has most recently been seen in Food, Inc,. filmmaker Robert Kenner's 2012 video, Labels Matter, and with Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

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

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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.

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Andrew Postman

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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