Environmental Health Strategy Center

The Advisory Board to the Environmental Health Strategy Center includes:

Charlotte Brody, RN
Executive Director
Health Care Without Harm
Washington, DC

Sue Chase, MA, Administrative Secretary, Office of Special Services, Maine School Administrative District # 68
Dover-Foxcroft, Maine

Sandra Cort, Board of Directors
Learning Disabilities Association of Maine
South Windham, Maine

Carol Eckert, MD
Sheepscot Valley Health Center
Coopers Mills, Maine

Ken Geiser, PhD
Director, Toxics Use Reduction Institute
Co-Director, Lowell Center for Sustainable Production
Associate Professor, Department of Work Environment, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA

"Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life." —Rachel Carson

Beverly Paigen, PhD
Senior Staff Scientist
The Jackson Laboratory
Bar Harbor, Maine

Meredith Tipton, PhD, MPH
Associate Dean, Division of Community Programs
Director, Maine Statewide AHEC Program
University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
Biddeford, Maine

Syd Sewall, MD, MPH
Kennebec Pediatrics
Augusta, Maine

Will Sugg, MS, Executive Director
Maine Environmental Policy Institute
Hallowell, Maine

Diana White, RN, MS
Instructor, Department of Community Health and Recreation
University of Southern Maine
Farmington, Maine

BIOGRAPHIES

Charlotte Brody
Charlotte brings years of organizing experience and a public health background to her groundbreaking work to assist the health care sector to reduce their reliance on hazardous materials like mercury and PVC. She's also involved in broader efforts to hold the chemical industry accountable for replacing hazardous or untested chemicals in the marketplace. She recently co-authored a report on hazardous chemicals in cosmetics entitled Not Too Pretty: Phthalates, Beauty Products & the FDA.

Susan Chase
Susan Fierce Chase has been in the field of special education for over 22 years as a teacher of children with various disabilities including learning disabilities, emotional disorders and autism, as an administrator and currently as a consultant in a Maine public school district. In addition, Susan serves on the board of directors for Piscataquis County Child Development Services, an organization tasked by the Maine Department of Education with identification of and delivery of services to children aged 0-5 years throughout the county who have disabilities. She is also co-owner of a cross-country ski trail business that has won an international award for excellence in ecological business practices. Susan is a parent of a young child who has Asperger Syndrome, an autism spectrum neurological disorder and has been active in the dissemination of information to school personnel, parents and communities about this disorder.

Sandra Cort
Sandra is the past president and current board member of the Learning Disabilities Association of Maine (LDAME) and serves on the Research and Public Policy Committees of the Learning Disabilities Association of America. She is the volunteer site coordinator for LDAME's Healthy Children's Project and focuses her LDAME volunteer efforts around childrens' environmental health as it relates to developmental neurotoxicants. Sandra is a founding member and the current treasurer of the Friends of the Presumpscot River.

Carol Eckert
Carol has been a rural family physician at a community health center in central Maine for most of her career. She developed an interest in occupational health in medical school and has been active in a variety of occupational and environmental health policy groups in Maine for years. Carol is currently involved with the Maine Occupational Research Agenda (MORA), Maine Institute for Occupational Health Education (MIOHE) and Maine Labor Group on Health (MLGH).

Ken Geiser
Ken is a leading international expert on chemicals policy. His recent book Materials Matter: Toward a Sustainable Materials Policy sketches the history of materials use and the pathway for increased reliance on nontoxic, environmentally sustainable materials. He co-directs the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, which sponsors among other work, the Sustainable Hospitals Project, the definitive web-based guide to environmentally preferable purchasing for hospitals.

Beverly Paigen
Bev Paigen has provided scientific expertise to the grassroots movement for environmental justice since the early days of Love Canal, where residents were evacuated from homes built next to 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals. She contributed to several chapters on dioxin science in Dying from Dioxin: A Citizens Guide to Reclaiming Our Health and Rebuilding Democracy by Lois Marie Gibbs. Bev was active in the Campaign for a Dioxin-Free Maine that sought elimination of dioxin discharges from the paper industry through a switch to totally chlorine free bleaching in the 1990's.

Meredith Titpon
Meredith has been contributing her public health leadership in the health
services arena for over 30 years. Her public health practice has been
applied in a variety of settings including work as a commissioned
officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, Health Officer for the City
of Portland, Director of Health Services Research at Maine Blue Cross
Blue Shield, program manger at the Colorado and Maine State Health
Departments and Associate Dean for Community Programs at the University
of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. Most recently, Meredith
developed graduate public health education programs, including Maine's
only Master of Public Health.

Syd Sewall
Syd has been a pediatrician in Augusta for over 20 years. He went to medical school in Cincinnati and spent his summers there doing lead screening in city clinics. He earned a MPH in Quantitative Methods from Harvard University in 1997. Syd has been an active member of the Maine chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility since the 1980s. He has participated in various state advisory committees for immunizations, lead, mercury and infectious diseases. Syd is a long time officer of the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Currently, he is the Assistant Chief of Staff at MaineGeneral in Augusta. Syd enjoys sailing small boats and plays the violin in the local symphony. He has been married for over 30 years and has two grown children and a chocolate lab.

Will Sugg
Will is the director of the Maine Environmental Policy Institute. He has worked in conservation field work, research and policy since 1986 for the Smithsonian Institution, The Peregrine Fund, the National Wildlife Federation and the Forest Ecology Network. Will has a zoology degree from the North Carolina State University and a Master of Science degree in Environmental Science and Policy from George Mason University.

<>Diana White
Diana has years of organizing experience in the labor movement and in health care advocacy. She worked on the campaign to control toxics use and emissions in Maine in the early 1990s. Diana has experience lobbying the Maine Legislature and has an extensive background in public health, environmental issues, health care regulation and issue driven fundraising. She teaches nursing at the University of Southern Maine.