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Chair: Anne Evens
Director of CNT Energy at the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago. Former Director of the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at the Chicago Department of Public Health. Prior to joining the Department of Health, Evens worked on public health and community development efforts in Mozambique, Mexico, and Nicaragua. She also worked with the Grass Roots Alliance for a Solar Pennsylvania.

Vice Chair: Megan Sandel, MD, MPH
Pediatrician and researcher at Boston Medical Center studying the effects of environmental health hazards on children’s health. Sandel is a Co-Principal Investigator on the Boston Healthy Homes Partnership and serves on the Asthma Regional Coordinating Council and with the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.

Whitlynn T. Battle
Founder and director of Citizens Lead Education and Poison Prevention Organization and the Mothers’ Environmental Coalition of Alabama. Representative to the African-American Environmental Justice Network and advisory board member of the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic Justice.

Linda Couch
Deputy Director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), which is dedicated solely to ending America’s affordable housing crisis. While NLIHC’s members include a wide spectrum of housing interests, it does not represent any segment of the housing industry. Rather, it focuses exclusively on the interests of people who receive or need federal housing assistance. Couch has worked at NLIHC since 1995 except for three years that she spent at at the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. She also has a background in state governmental affairs, working for a private consulting firm and as a fellow in the Connecticut General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Research.

Susan Holmes
Currently Senior Legislative Representative at Earthjustice in Washington, DC the nation’s largest environmental law firm. At Earthjustice, she works primarily on protecting endangered species and wildlife and defending and strengthening the Endangered Species Act. Before moving to Washington, DC, in 2002, Holmes was the Senior Regional Representative in charge of the Sierra Club’s New York City Office. Since the birth of her daughter in 2004, she has became particularly interested in issues affecting children’s health. While pregnant with her daughter, Holmes discovered that the water in the house was contaminated with lead and became active in the efforts reduce lead in the DC water supply. In 2005, she moved into a house contaminated with lead from old paint. After addressing her own daughter’s exposure to lead dust, Holmes became committed to helping others deal with lead hazards and to working toward better policies to control lead and educate the public.

Marie Lynn Miranda, Ph.D.
Professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University and faculty member in the Integrated Toxicology Program. Miranda also directs the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative, managing environmental research projects on health hazards in housing and children’s exposure to air and water toxics.

Patricia A. Nolan, MD
Former Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Community Health at Brown University. Nolan previously served as executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Juan Parras
Executive Director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (Tejas), Outreach Coordinator for Citizens League for Environmental Action Now (CLEAN), Board Member of Galveston Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP), and Advisory Board Member of the Sierra Club National Environmental Justice Committee. Former community organizer with the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Environmental Justice Clinic at Texas Southern University in Houston. Extensive experience working with low-income communities and immigrant and migrant workers on social justice campaigns.

Ed Petsche
Official with the Minneapolis Deparmtent of Health and Family Support. Former Lead Project Manager for the Greater Minneapolis Daycare Association (GMDCA), where he worked to ensure that in-home daycares are safe from lead and other health hazards, such as asthma triggers. Petsche serves as board chair for Project 504 in Minneapolis.

Elyse Pivnick, MCP
Vice President of Environment and Community Health Programs at Isles, Inc. in Trenton, NJ. Pivnick has over 25 years of experience in community outreach and planning in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She has previous experience as the founding executive director of a community-based organization, as project coordinator for the community development program in the City of Philadelphia, and as project manager for a civil engineering firm in Austin, Texas. While in Texas, she served on the city's Environmental Commission for several years. Pivnick currently oversees an interdisciplinary set of environment and community health programs including healthy homes, healthy schools, community gardening, open space development, environmental education, exercise, and nutrition. Pivnick received her Masters Degree in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a board member of the New Jersey Environmental Federation and the leader of the Trenton Coalition for Healthy Schools.

Stephanie Pollack, Esq.
Former Vice President of the Conservation Law Foundation and author of Massachusetts' landmark lead poisoning prevention law.

Madeleine Shea, Ph.D.
Assistant Commissioner for Healthy Homes at the City of Baltimore Health Department.

Bailus Walker, Jr., Ph.D.
Associate Director and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Howard University Cancer Center and a prominent public health educator and administrator. Past Dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, former Commissioner of Public Health for the State of Massachusetts, and former health director for the State of Michigan.

Donele Wilkins
Has over two decades of experience in occupational and environmental health as an educator, consultant, trainer, administrator, and advocate. In 1994, she co-founded and currently serves as the Executive Director of Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, a nonprofit organization addressing urban environmental issues in the City of Detroit. Wilkins is an appointee of the Detroit City Council to the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, Member of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Environmental Advisory Committee, Co-Chair of the National Black Environmental Justice Network, and Board President for the Colin Powell Public School Academy. She has served as a special member to the Pollution Prevention Subcommittee of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and many other committees and forums.

Jean Zotter, Esq.
Asthma Director for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Former Executive Director of the Boston Urban Asthma Coalition, an advocacy organization that focuses on improving asthma control in Boston. Zotter co-founded the Boston Urban Asthma Coalition while working at Boston Medical Center’s Family Advocacy Program as an attorney. Zotter worked with the Family Advocacy Program for 6 years and served as the Director for her last two years.

Chester G. Atkins (Honorary)
Director of ADS Ventures, a government relations firm specializing in environmental technologies. Former Member of Congress, with service on Appropriations, Budget, Foreign Affairs, and Ethics Committees. Former member of the Massachusetts House and Senate, and chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Author of Getting Elected.

Teresa Heinz Kerry (Honorary)
One of the foremost advocates on children's health and environmental issues. Trustee of Environmental Defense, national committee member of "Mothers and Others," Chairman of the National Council for Families and Television, and co-founder of Congressional Spouses Human Rights Forum.

Louis Stokes (Honorary)
Former Member of Congress. Currently Senior Counsel at Squire, Sanders and Dempsey, L.L.P, a Washington-based worldwide law firm, and Senior Visiting Scholar at the Mandel School of Applied Sciences Member at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.