Speaker Bios:
Paints & Pipes: A Comprehensive Approach to Lead Poisoning Prevention
Amanda Reddy is the Executive Director of the National Center for Healthy Housing, an organization founded on the premise that better housing can be a powerful platform for better health. Since joining the organization in 2012, she has advanced numerous initiatives, including those related to healthcare financing of healthy homes services, training and TA to support the launch and growth of sustainable healthy homes programs, and the development of indicators for the HUD Healthy Communities Index. Prior to NCHH, Ms. Reddy was a research scientist with the New York State Department of Health, where she provided program evaluation, management, and technical support for the Asthma Control, Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Primary Prevention, Healthy Neighborhoods, and Healthy Home Environments for New Yorkers with Asthma programs. Ms. Reddy holds an MS in environmental health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a BA in neuroscience from Mount Holyoke College.
Mona Hanna-Attisha is founder and director of the Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, an innovative and model public health program in Flint, Michigan. A pediatrician, scientist, activist and author, Dr. Hanna-Attisha has testified three times before the United States Congress. A frequent contributor to national outlets including the New York Times and Washington Post, she has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, BBC and countless other media outlets championing the cause of children in Flint and beyond. She is the founding donor of the Flint Child Health and Development Fund (flintkids.org). A Covid-19 survivor, Dr. Hanna-Attisha has donated her convalescent plasma three times while continuing to advocate for health and racial equity. With concentrations in environmental health and health policy, Dr. Hanna-Attisha received her bachelor’s degree and Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan. She completed her medical degree from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and her residency at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, where she was chief resident. She is currently a Charles Stewart Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health and an associate professor of pediatrics and human development at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.
Jean Mugulusi is the Environmental Health Coordinator at the City of Paterson Division of Health in New Jersey. With 18 years of experience as an Industrial Hygienist, Registered Environmental Health Specialist (REHS) and lead inspector/risk assessor, Ms. Mugulusi has played an integral role in the City of Paterson’s lead poisoning and occupational lead exposure prevention efforts. The pandemic and the events that followed saw Ms. Mugulusi become a COVID-19 case investigator, as well as overseeing the creation of a Lead Safe Registry using GIS Mapping technology to indicate properties that are newly constructed, or have been inspected and found to be lead-safe. Additionally, she is currently the Program Manager for the City of Paterson’s newly acquired Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which seeks to help low-income homeowners and tenants obtain help remediating lead hazards in their homes to provide children with safe and healthy housing options.
Joia Jenkins is a Lead Inspector/Risk Assessor for the City of Paterson’s Division of Health. With over 12 years of experience as a Lead Inspector/ Risk Assessor and 15 years in public health, Joia has seen first-hand the effects that child lead poisoning can have on children and the community. A married mom of two daughters ages 15 and 1, she understands the importance of keeping homes safe from lead hazards, especially those not visible to the eye such as lead in pipes and lead dust.
Alicia Espinal-Mesa is the Community Liaison for the City of Paterson’s Division of Health. Since joining the Division of Health’s Child Lead Program (CLP) team in 2019, Alicia has helped create educational initiatives and campaigns about lead poisoning, prevention and remediation/abatement. Alongside the CLP team, she oversaw the creation of the City of Paterson’s Lead Safe GIS MAP and continues striving for its improvement through conversations with community members and leaders, as well as constant assessment and evaluation. Working primarily with the city of Paterson’s Spanish-speaking population, Ms. Espinal-Mesa works to ensure the needs of the community are at the forefront of decision making and communication in order to provide more equitable services.
EPA’s Lead & Copper Rule: What Schools and Child Care Need to Know
LaTricea Adams is a proud native of Memphis, Tennessee and is the Founder CEO & President of Black Millennials 4 Flint (BM4F), a grassroots, environmental justice and civil rights organization with the purpose of bringing like-minded organizations together to collectively take action and advocate against the crisis of lead exposure specifically in African American & Latinx communities throughout the nation. Ms. Adams is the immediate past President for the Memphis Urban League Young Professionals and Thursday Network— Greater Washington Urban League. Ms. Adams is also a former member of the Board of Directors for the Memphis Urban League. She is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and a terminal doctoral student at the esteemed HBCU Tennessee State University.
Ms. Adams served as a featured speaker at the highly acclaimed BroccoliCon 2018 at the Google Headquarters in Washington, DC alongside actress Amanda Seales and actor Laz Alonso. She also founded the first Lead Prevention Commission in the State of Tennessee's history in 2019. Ms. Adams was also featured on BET’s docuseries “Finding Justice” focusing on her work in Baltimore specifically surrounding lead paint issues in housing and environmental racism.
Lindsay McCormick is a Program Manager for Environmental Defense Fund’s Health Program. In this role, Ms. McCormick supports EDF’s efforts to protect public health from toxic chemical exposures by improving chemical policy and practice in the public and private sectors. Prior to joining EDF, she worked in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Children’s Health Protection as an Environmental Health Fellow for the Associations of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH). While at EPA, she analyzed science and policy related to children’s exposure to pesticides, air pollution, toxics in consumer products, and other environmental contaminants.
Ms. McCormick holds a master’s in Environmental Health Science from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in Biology from Haverford College. Her areas of expertise include Environmental Health, Chemical Safety, Children’s Health.
Caroline Pakenham serves as the Senior Manager for Water Programs at Elevate Energy. She leads Elevate Energy’s water safety, affordability, and efficiency initiatives, including lead testing training and services and research into water affordability issues in the region. Ms. Pakenham also oversees Elevate Energy’s efforts to address water-related issues that increase the cost of operating and maintaining affordable and healthy housing.
The Lead and Copper Rule and Lead Service Line Replacement: Opportunities to Accelerate the Removal of an Important Source of Lead Exposure
Tom Neltner is a chemical engineer and attorney with experience in chemical safety issues in the workplace, the environment, the home, consumer products or food. Mr. Neltner has worked on lead poisoning prevention at the federal, state and local levels for more than 20 years.
More recently, he played a leading role in an EPA-convened, multi-stakeholder workgroup that made recommendations to the agency to upgrade its lead in drinking water regulations. He has worked in chemical, food additive, pesticide, and pharmaceutical manufacturing as well as state government and public interest advocacy with stints as an adjunct professor at Indiana University through many of those years.
He is a Healthy Homes Specialist, Certified Hazardous Materials Manager and elected Fellow of the National Institute for Hazardous Materials Managers. He is admitted to practice law in Indiana, Washington DC, and the federal courts of appeal for the 9th and District of Columbia circuits.
Meg Trubee manages Denver Water's Government and Community Relations team along with the day to day management of public affairs efforts for Denver Water's Lead Reduction Program. She has extensive natural resources policy, public engagement and communications experience in government and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining Denver Water, Ms. Trubee gathered a wide range of project experience including community agroforestry in Senegal, West Africa; environmental compliance on the Big Dig highway project in Boston, MA; Water policy in Southwest Colorado; and prior to joining Denver Water, she managed the communications and special projects team with the Water Quality Control Division at the Colorado Department of Health & Environment. Ms. Trubee holds a B.S. and M.S. in Natural Resources Management with a focus in public administration and conflict resolution.
Maureo Fernández y Mora serves as the Massachusetts Associate State Director for Clean Water Action and is an alum of the United World College and Smith College. Originally from New México, Maureo was introduced to the environmental justice movement in high school, and spent time organizing around clean energy replacement in predominantly communities of color.
While attending Smith College, they joined the Clean Water Action canvass office in Northampton. After graduating in 2017 with a Bachelor’s in Government concentrating in international relations, Maureo spent some time as a canvas trainer before joining the Boston program office as the Massachusetts Drinking Water Advocate.
Currently, Maureo is focused on lead and drinking water and works to prioritize environmental justice communities that bear a disproportionate burden when it comes to environmental impacts. Maureo believes that care of the environment is, at its core, a social justice issue. Therefore, Maureo works to center underprivileged communities in ways that interrupt racism, classism, sexism, and other institutional oppressions.
Moderator Bio:
Nsedu Obot Witherspoon is the Executive Director for the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN), where, for the past 20 years, she has served as a key spokesperson for children’s vulnerabilities and the need for their protection. She also serves as a member of the NIH Council of Councils, on the Science Advisory Board for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the External Science Board for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) NIH Research work. Ms. Witherspoon is a Co-Leader for Advancing the Science/Health initiative of the National Collaborative on a Cancer-Free Economy. She is also a Board member for the Pesticide Action Network of North America, the Environmental Integrity Project, and serves on the Maryland Children’s Environmental Health Advisory Council.
This project was supported by Spring Point and the Environmental Defense Fund.
Our Partners are:
