Alexandra is SafetyNEST’s founder and CEO. For over two decades, she has worked to spark swift change in our public health system. Her aim? To promote global sustainability – not in theory but in practice. Rather than preaching to the converted, she brings together public and private organizations, champions and naysayers, leading healthcare, non-profit and Fortune 500 companies, to drive change. She launched the Public Health Institute’s Center for Climate Change and the American Hospital Association’s environmental stewardship initiative; co-developed The Greenfield Path, a communications project driving Ford Motor Company’s move to a more sustainable business; and directed Playworks’ capital campaign, raising a record $27.3 million in two years. Distressed by the tidal wave of toxicity found in every day products that are linked to adverse health outcomes, she resolved to focus on prenatal environmental education – our lack of which costs the US $340 billion a year, and many children their health. Alexandra serves as an advisor to NIEHS Center on Health and Environment Across the LifeSpan, Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, and holds degrees from Harvard, Cornell and the Sorbonne.

Becky is the co-creator of our BetterNest Score tool. She is the Executive Director of Maternal and Child Health Services at the NJ Dept. of Health, Division of Family Health Services. She builds partnerships across sectors to improve health disparities, having worked in healthcare, federal government, non-profit, and academic medicine. Becky is passionate about maternal and child health and data-driven policy, and her work focuses on the intersection of research, service delivery and policymaking.  She recently completed her DrPH in Leadership, Practice and Research at Rutgers School of Public Health, and has an MPH in Environmental Health Sciences and Toxicology and a BS in Biochemical Engineering. She is also a certified full-spectrum doula, and lives in Jersey City with her family.

Christine is a second -year Ph.D. student at the University of California, Irvine, specializing in Public Health. Her research focuses on environmental cancer prevention, community health promotion, and their intersection with women, minoritized, and immigrant populations. Her research interests are strongly rooted in her experiences, including her work in cancer survivorship and her contributions to data analytics for non-profit organizations committed to addressing basic needs insecurity and advancing social justice. Christine is a firm believer in the potential of translational and accessible research findings. She is dedicated to using her diverse skillset and her extensive experience with social media to share valuable health and wellness information for SafetyNEST.

James Earl Schier Nolan, MPH, is the Manager, Community Engagement with Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (WSPEHSU). He also serves as Director, Community Engagement Core with Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH) Center, University of California, San Francisco. He focuses on bridge building and strategic community-researcher collaborations. Informed by intersectional analysis, social determinants of health and structural violence, this work engages partners in environmental and climate work, contextualized to better address the upstream drivers of environmental injustices. He brings an emphasis on diversifying STEM fields and harnessing local assets through community based participatory research (CBPR). This approach builds awareness, expands capacity and engages community members in co-designing more relevant and effective health interventions. He has managed a range of CBPR projects on pesticide, cleaning products, and air pollution disparities. More recently, he has focused on bringing environmental justice into medical education and collaborating with medical professionals to develop clinic-facing materials such as Prescriptions for Prevention. James assists SafetyNEST compile the most credible and current research and content for our site.

Janila Lynn is a writer who holds a degree in Human Biology from the University of Southern California. She kick-started the Sierra Club Outings Journal and presented at the Summer School on Innovative Approaches in Science (2020) hosted at Johns Hopkins. Her only submitted work of fiction is a Writing By Writers Short Contest winner (2021). She is a former member of the Cancer Free Economy Network. Janila enjoys travel and dance and supporting SafetyNEST’s Spotlight series of environmental health change makers.

Julie is a professional writer and editor with more than fifteen years of experience, a master’s degree in English Literature, and a Professional Editing certificate from the University of California, Berkeley Extension. She specializes in public health, medical, environmental, and cultural topics for academic, policy advocacy, public, and community audiences. Some projects that represent the scope of her work include editing public health reports for the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Institute for Global Health Sciences; editing UCSF medical student curriculum; rewriting scientific papers into plain language for UCSF’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment; editing a report on community-based, air quality improvement programs for Physicians for Social Responsibility, Los Angeles. Currently, she serves as part-time communications director for San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, and of course, as an editorial consultant for SafetyNEST.

Kristee serves as SafetyNEST’s creative director. She pioneered the field of User Experience. Since co-founding The Apple Computer Human Interface Group in 1985, and working as a principal designer at the Apple Multimedia Lab in San Francisco, Kristee has been practicing, teaching and speaking about this field for 26 years. As one of the first visual designers in technology to help shape the UX practice, Kristee has worked across multiple media platforms and across multiple channels to execute a vision. Her experience as a VP, Director, Creative Director, Art Director, Designer, and Project Manager enables her to work with, speak to and connect diverse development disciplines together with a common language, agile processes, and vision.

Eliza serves as executive director of American Medical Women’s Association. Working with and collaborating with women physicians leaders is her passion. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley, Harvard Medical School, and Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health. She completed her training in Primary Care at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She was Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia for many years before relocating to California where she continues to teach medical students and practice medicine part-time. She is a past Visiting Scholar of the Women’s Leadership Institute at Mills College.

 Kathryn E. Johnson served as the Chief Executive Officer of Health Forum for 25 years and retired in 2002. She is the co-founder of the Center for Global Service and an active consultant on global health issues. She has served on numerous boards, including chairing the boards of the Institute for Research on Learning and the American Society of Association Executives. She also served the UN World Food Program USA and the Health Technology Centner as a board member. She is a former W. K. Kellogg Foundation Fellow and a current board member of the International Leadership Association and OmniMed and an advisory board for MedShare, UN Women of Northern California, HOW WOMEN LEAD.  She received the 2018 UN WOMEN of Northern California’s “She’s Got My Back Award.”

Katie is a Certified Nurse-Midwife and is the Executive Director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. She works with nurses and national nursing organizations on a variety of environmental health issues including climate change, chemical policy, inclusion of environmental health into nursing education, and sustainable healthcare. Katie has written numerous peer-reviewed articles on environmental health issues and was an editor of the recently released environmental health e-textbook “Environmental Health in Nursing” which won the 2017 AJN Book of the Year in Environmental Health.

Maida is a pediatrician whose clinical, research, and advocacy work is dedicated to promoting healthy environments for all children, with a focus on high poverty communities. She is Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health and the Department of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where she is Founding Director of the New York State Children’s Environmental Health Center (NYSCHECK)—the first state-wide, publicly funded model for children’s environmental health clinical services in the United States. Her many accolades include the 2016 Region 2 EPA Environmental Champion Award and the 2017 Science Champion Award from Clean and Healthy. In 2023, she was appointed to the New York City Board of Health.  As Director of Community Engagement for both the NIEHS-funded Mount Sinai Center for Health Across the Lifespan (HEALS) and NIH-funded Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program at Mount Sinai Conduits, Dr. Galvez translates emerging research into programs and policies that prevent and reduce environmental exposures.

Marya is a Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences at UCSF, and close collaborator of UCSF’s Program in Reproductive Health and the Environment. She is a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist, with clinical expertise in ultrasound and the diagnosis of fetal anomalies. She serves as the Associate Director of the Maternal Fetal Health and the Environment Program within UCSF’s Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) and the Director of Clinical Outreach of the UCSF Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH) Center’s Community Engagement Core.Marya is an obstetrician and gynecologist who specializes in caring for both mother and fetus in high-risk pregnancies. Her research interests include obstetrical ultrasound and preterm labor. Marya earned her medical degree at the University of Iowa. She completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine and a master’s program in medical science at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Michael is a designer and producer specializing in learning solutions based on emerging technology. He currently advises game projects in the US and Europe on, among other things, rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury victims, asthma, diet and nutrition, and health care policy. He directed education research in Apple’s advanced technology group; produced Oxford, Stanford and Yale’s online offerings to their alumni; and edited and published research on digital media and learning with the MIT Press. He was a strategic advisor to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning initiative and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Mohini has over 20 years’ experience in marketing and communications. She has worked in both the corporate and nonprofit sector. Currently, she serves as project manager at Media Monks as well as manages youth programming and charter member engagement at TiE Global; a nonprofit network assisting startups. Previously, she was responsible for fundraising at Child Advocates of Silicon Valley; serving foster children in the Bay Area. She is passionate about the future of technology and its convergence to benefit the grassroots. In her role as a PR consultant in India, she managed communications for major pharmaceutical companies including GlaxoSmithKline and Dr. Reddy’s, among others. She has been a journalist at the BBC in the UK, and for several business publications in India. She has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from New York University and an International Journalism master’s degree from City University in London.

Adept at corporate governance and innovating at scale in complex and dynamic regulatory markets, Stacie is a qualified financial expert (QFE), 2X Audit Committee Chair of public companies, and Chief Investment Officer. As a member of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, she oversees the Thrift Savings Plan, the world’s largest defined contribution plan, with $800 billion AUM on behalf of its 6.8 million participants. President Biden appointed Stacie to the role following her confirmation by the United States Senate.  Stacie has a decade of C-suite experience and two decades of executive experience. She is the former Chief Investment Officer of Lendistry, a small business fintech lender, and of COIN, a $29 billion ESG investment fund of the insurance industry. Building ventures and investments that yield strong social and environmental impacts is Stacie’s passion. Her career spans the private and public sectors across the areas of finance, economics and mobile technology. Stacie is an alumna of the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard University.