Most Rev. Julio Xavier Labayen, OCD, D.D., is a Canon Law Bishop and former Bishop Prelate of Infanta, Quezon province in the Philippines. Bishop Labayen is a former national director of NASSA, Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines. He is also a former executive chairman of the following organizations: Office for Human Development of the FABC, Asian Social Institute, Ecumenical Center for Social Concerns and Catholic Association of Schools in the Prelature of Infanta. Bishop Labayen has been a retired bishop for several years but he is still active in participating in social issues and campaigns like Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), Stop Toxic Debt Campaign, etc. He is the main author of the book, "Revolution of the Church of the Poor."
Michelle C. Sunico, DMD, MOH, FADI, FPFA, is a Doctor of Dental Medicine who also obtained her Masters Degree in Occupational Health from the University of the Philippines- College of Public Health. Currently the Vice-President of the Philippine Academy of Esthetic Dentistry, Secretary of the Academy of Dentistry International Republic of the Philippines Section and Member of the Pierre Fauchard Academy, Michelle has been a permanent faculty of the Department of Clinical Dentistry of the University of the Philippines for almost sixteen years. She has made several local researches which were published in The Journal of the Philippine Dental Association two of them are entitled, "Dental Waste Management (Practical tips for the dental office) and "The Dentist and the Mercury Issue."
Merci Ferrer worked for more than a decade as an organizer and advocate for Indigenous Peoples rights to their ancestral lands and self determination in the Philippines. She has also worked as co-director of Philippine Development Forum (PDF) a US-Philippine initiated organization that gave information on US corporate investments' impacts on the Philippine environment. And she has served as a Program Officer for Initiatives for International Dialogue's program in Burma. She is a former board member of Amnesty International Philippine section. Merci is a social scientist who graduated from the University of the East, Manila with a background in Sociology.
Armand H. Mejia is an attorney involved in environmental law. For more than a decade, he has been the Legal Counsel of the Ecological Waste (EcoWaste) Coalition of the Philippines Inc., a Senior Partner at the Loveria Astive Mejia and Velasco Law Offices and Project Coordinator for Angat Watershed Conflict Mediation Project of the Mediators' Network for Sustainable Peace (MedNet). He has also served as Legal Consultant for Marine and Fisheries Law Enforcement Project in Donsol, Sorsogon, a project of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and NGOs for Integrated Protected Areas (NIPA) of the Conservation of Priority Protected Areas Project, and a Staff Lawyer for Tanggol Kalikasan (TK) Inc., a public interest environmental law office and Haribon Foundation Inc. He co-authored two books on environmental protection: Paralegal Training Manual for Protected Areas and The Legal Environment.
Manny Calonzo co-coordinates the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives / Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance's (GAIA) global network. He has over 25 years of experience in environmental health and justice organizing as a student leader, consumer rights advocate and environmental activist. He has traveled to more than 40 countries, and shares with GAIA a broad network of public interest contacts. Manny currently also serves as co-coordinator for the International POPs Elimination Project (IPEP) in Southeast Asia and as President of the EcoWaste Coalition in the Philippines.
United States Board of Directors
As Obesity Program Director, Dr. Shikha Anand coordinates with the heads of NICHQ's obesity projects, focusing on strategic planning, development, and expanding the organization's influence in the obesity space. She identifies new opportunities for NICHQ to offer its unique quality improvement methodology to help reduce childhood obesity throughout the country. Dr. Anand, who previously served as a physician champion for NICHQ, also serves as the director for the MA CHIPRA medical home project and the MA Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration Project.
Dr. Anand has a long history of championing children's health, particularly in obesity prevention. After receiving her medical degree from Albany Medical College in 2000 and completing her residency training at Yale New Haven Hospital in 2003, Dr. Anand went on to complete General Pediatrics fellowship training and receive a Master's in Public Health at Boston University in 2006. She has served as the Pediatric Director at the Whittier Street Health Center in Roxbury, where she worked to create a primary care obesity clinic. She cofounded the Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program, an initiative to bring fresh produce to low-income families in Massachusetts. She is passionate about creating equal access to healthcare and other resources that support health for underserved children.
Throughout her career, Barbara Blakeney, MS, RN, past President of the American Nurses' Association, has maintained a passion for providing access to high quality, affordable health care. As a clinician, she focused her practice in poor communities, both urban and rural and from that learned the power of resilience and the oppression of poverty.
Barbara is the recipient of many awards and honors including the Pearl McIvor Public Health Nursing Award from the American Nurses' Association, the Chief Nurse Award of the US Public health Service and the Distinguished Alumni Award at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. As ANA President, Barbara was named one of the 100 most powerful people in health care for 4 successive years. She has served as a member of both the US and International Council of Nurses delegations to the World Health Assembly. Barbara has served on the National Advisory Board for the Joint Commission and as a member of the advisory group for the first nursing sensitive quality indictors for the National Quality Forum. Barbara is a Distinguished Public Policy Fellow of the National Academies of Practice.
Barbara has served on many boards of directors including as a founding member of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, the American Nurses Credentialing Center, Health Care Without Harm, Practice Greenhealth, The Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTS) as well as advisory boards for the Colleges of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts at both Amherst and Boston. As the Innovations Specialist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Barbara is on the cutting edge of practice, technology and policy.
Charlotte Brody joined BlueGreen Alliance as Director of Chemicals, Public Health and Green Chemistry in January 2010. Prior to joining the BlueGreen Alliance, she was the National Field Director for Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a nationwide effort to pass smart federal policies to protect us from toxic chemicals. A registered nurse, Charlotte previously served as the Director of Programs for Green For All, Executive Director of Commonweal, and a co-founder and Executive Director of Health Care Without Harm.
Kathy Gerwig is Vice President, Workplace Safety and Environmental Stewardship Officer for Kaiser Permanente, one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans serving almost nine million members. Kathy is responsible for developing, organizing and managing a nationwide environmental initiative for the organization. Under her leadership, Kaiser Permanente has become widely recognized as an environmental leader in the health care sector.
Kathy has testified twice to Congress on the need for federal chemical policy reform, and she has appeared at numerous hearings on environmental and safety issues. Kathy is also Kaiser Permanente's national leader for Workplace Safety, responsible for strengthening efforts to eliminate workplace injuries for the organization's 164,000 employees and 15,000 physicians. She is on the boards of several leading non-governmental organizations focused on safety and environmental sustainability in health care.
Jeffrey Hollender is a leading authority on social entrepreneurship, corporate responsibility, sustainability and social equity. More than twenty-three years ago, he co-founded Seventh Generation and went on to build the company into a $150 million natural product brand known for its authenticity, transparency, and progressive business practices. Jeffrey's passion for changing the negative impact that industry has on the environment and society is evident in each of his seven books, including 2010's The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win.
Jeffrey's first business ventures were in the fields of banking, education and publishing: he was a co-founder of Brooklyn's Community Capital Bank, and the founder of the Skills Exchange in Toronto and Network for Learning in New York City. He sold Network for Learning to Warner Publishing, a division of Warner Communications in 1985. Jeffrey is on the boards of Greenpeace US; the Environmental Health Fund; and Verité, a leading workers' rights organization. He is co-founder and Board Chair of the American Sustainable Business Council, a coalition of 110,000 business leaders committed to changing the rules of business.
John Strong is Principal of John Strong, LLC a healthcare consultancy specializing in working with manufacturers and distributors on national accounts contracting projects as well as Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) and Healthcare Organizations. John retired in early 2011 as Senior Vice President of Management Services at Nexera, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Greater New York Hospital Association Ventures. This Division provides outsourced supply chain services to healthcare providers.
With more than 35 years of healthcare experience, John has an extensive background in supply chain management. John was founding President and CEO of Consorta, Inc. a leading healthcare GPO owned by 12 of the nation's leading healthcare systems for more than ten years. Prior to Consorta, John was Senior Vice President at Concepts In Healthcare, an Ashland, MA, consulting firm. Previously he was Chief Operating Officer of Premier Purchasing Partners, LLC. John combines this industry experience with more than 15 years of hospital administration and supply chain management experience at hospitals in the Midwest.
Sister Susan Vickers is the Vice President of Community Health for Dignity Health. She is responsible for directing and overseeing system-wide community benefit initiatives, corporate social responsibility and ecology programs. In conjunction with her community health work, Susan directs Dignity Health's shareholder initiatives. She collaborates with other members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) to raise social responsibility issues with the management of companies in Dignity Health's investment portfolio. Susan took a leadership role in developing Dignity Health's system wide commitment to improved environmental performance and in the decision-making process which led Dignity Health to endorse the Ceres Principles for environmental protection and conservation.
Susan currently serves as board member of Practice Greenhealth, Healthier Hospitals Initiative, Partners for the Common Good Loan Fund, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, and St. Mary Medical Center Foundation.
Prior to joining Dignity Health, Susan served on the Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy — Regional Community of Burlingame, California. She has worked as pastoral minister/administrative assistant in assisted rental housing for elderly and handicapped persons and spent twenty years in teaching and administering elementary schools.
Europe Board of Directors
Hanns M. Moshammer, MD, is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Environmental Health at the Medical University Vienna in Austria. He serves as an expert for the Indoor Air Quality working group of the EU Commission, as well as being tapped as an expert when information on environmental health is needed for court cases. He also coordinates and participates in research projects in Austria and other European countries. He is currently the president of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment.
Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Pathology at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), in Greece, where she oversees the "Environment and Health: Capacity Building for Decision Making" masters program. She also teaches at Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB). Neni has published on the environmental impacts of transportation and mobility, as well as waste management. She has also published material on a range of issues such as fertility, endocrine disrupters, cancer, and congenital diseases. She is a member of International Physicians of the Prevention of Nuclear War.
Michael Wilks, MB, BS, FFFLM was Senior Forensic Medical Examine at St Mary's Hospital and is currently Forensic Medical Examiner at the Metropolitan Police in London, UK. He has served on the Ethics Committee of the British Medical Association and was recently elected BMA's Vice-President. He was also President and Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) and developed CPME's policy on the health aspects of climate change.
Daniel Eriksson is the director of the TEM Foundation, a consulting service that helps businesses and other institutions to improve the sustainability of their operations. He has ten years of experience working hands-on with environmental issues in healthcare. For five years he was the Environmental Coordinator at Malmö University Hospital, where he continues to work as an independent advisor and project manager. He has managed additional projects within the field, for example for Green Health Care Öresund and Sustainable Healthcare.
Davide Sgarzi, a chemist, works for the civil government of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, where he coordinates working groups on liquid and solid hospital waste management and helps to put environmental management in place in public hospitals and local health units. He also addresses worker safety in the building yards of highways and railways and emergency planning in industrial plants that are at risk of major environmental hazards. He is a lecturer at the Bologna University on sustainable development and waste management.
Latin America Board of Directors
Elba Stancich, President of the HCWH Latin America Board of Directors, has been working with civil organizations, networks and coalitions since 1981. She is a member of the general coordinating team of the NGO Taller Ecologista. She was the coordinator of the Political Ecology Forum from 2002 to 2006. Ms. Stancich has coordinated research activities, developed public campaigns and written many technical and advocacy reports. She took part in the operating coordination board of the Ríos Vivos Coalition and is now a member of the coordinating team of the Latin American Network against Dams for the protection of the rivers, the communities and the water. Professionally, she has done research work and has provided technical support in areas such as transportation and the environment. She has an extensive teaching background, both at the university level and in other education venues. Her professional specialization is in Environmental Engineering.
Silvia Oliviero, Vice-President of the HCWH Latin America Board of Directors, is a Professor in the Master's program on Environmental Engineering at UTN (National Technological University) and also works as a Technical Assistant at UFIMA (Environmental Research Fiscal Unit). She was a technical advisor at the Chemicals Unit of the National Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development and a member of the National Coordinating Team for Integrated Chemicals Management within the Program sponsored by the Ministry of Health and UNEP.
For almost 20 years she worked at the National Institute of Industrial Technology providing technical assistance in environmental matters and occupational health and safety to industries and public agencies. Prof. Oliviero received a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the Universidad del Litoral, a postgraduate degree in Economics and the Environment from the University of Buenos Aires, and a Master's Degree in Environmental Conflict Resolution from FLACSO (Latin American School of Social Sciences).
Marcela Garriga, Treasurer of the HCWH Latin America Board of Directors, is a Professor of fundraising skills at Aedros' Training Cycle and a Board Member at the NGO Acceso Ya. She is a former Fundraising Director at Caritas Argentina, Fundraising Director at Greenpeace Argentina, and Board Member at Aedros. Prof Garriga earned a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of Buenos Aires and a Master's degree in Marketing at the University of San Andrés.
Cecilia Allen, Secretary of the HCWH Latin America Board of Directors, is a member of the coordinating team of GAIA, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, an international network of citizens' associations and individuals from over 80 countries that works towards eradicating incineration of all kinds of waste and promoting alternative waste management strategies based on the concept of Zero Waste and Clean Production. Ms. Allen takes part in the Citizens' Anti-incineration Coalition of Argentina and has worked in other environmental and social organizations. She has a Bachelor's degree in Sociology.
Dr. Luis Somaruga, Member of the HCWH Latin America Board of Directors, is a pediatrician and Chief of Neonatology at Hospital Rivadavia in the City of Buenos Aires. Dr. Somaruga has led the effort to eliminate mercury in his hospital, thus making it the first Argentine health care facility to sign a commitment to mercury elimination. Dr. Somaruga is a member of the Environmental Health Committee of Hospital Rivadavia in the City of Buenos Aires.
