Healthy Schools Network, Inc.

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Healthy Schools Network, Inc.
110 Maryland Avenue NE • Ste 505 • Washington, DC 20002 • T-202.543.7555
30 Broad Street • 30th floor • NY, NY 10004 •T- 212.482.0204
773 Madison Avenue • Albany, NY 12208
T- 518.462.0632 • F- 518.462.0433

About Us

     Healthy Schools Network, Inc. is a 501 c3 national environmental health organization that does research, information, education, coalition-building, and advocacy to ensure that every child has a healthy learning environment that is clean and in good repair.
      Founded in 1995,we have documented and publicized school environmental problems; shaped and won new education, health, and environmental policies; fostered dozens of local and state policy groups; won systemic federal and state reforms; and helped thousands of parents and schools make classrooms and buildings healthier through our EPA award-winning Healthy Schools/Healthy Kids Clearinghouse (Information and Referral Services).
      Major efforts include: building the platform and the forum for school environments through the collaborative Coalition for Healthier Schools which we founded and convene with more than 400 local, state, and national partners; leading National Healthy Schools Day; offering steady assistance through the Clearinghouse's publications and referrals; and refining our model New York Program. Throughout, we are focused on: 1) High Performance School Design/Construction consistent with children's needs for healthy environments; 2) Greening Existing Schools; and 3) Environmental Public Health for Children who are disproportionately affected by environmental exposures.

>> What Others Say About Us | >> Spring 2008 Symposium and Benefit Reception

Coalition for Healthier Schools Annual Meeting
December 2007

Coalition for Healthier Schools
annual meeting in Washington, DC,
December 4-5.

Coalition for Healthier Schools
Annual Meeting

December 2006

Washington, DC: Coalition for Healthier Schools meeting hosted by American Federation of
Teachers. Lunch Break!

Awards and Benefit Reception

October 2006

New York, NY: (left to right) John Shaw, HSN Board President; Peggy Shepard, WE ACT for Environmental Justice/Award Presenter; Jeff Jones, HSN Board Member; Stephen Boese, HSN NYS Director; Vernice Miller-Travis, HSN Board Member; Claire Barnett, HSN Executive Director; Neal Tepel, HSN Board Member; Joyce Bove, NY Community Trust/Award Presenter; Richard Iannuzzi, NYSUT/Honoree; Marcia Bystryn, NY LCV/Honoree; Robert Jackson, NYC Council/Honoree; Denis M. Hughes, NYS AFL-CIO/Award Presenter; James Naughton, Program Host.

Summit on Green Cleaning

April 2006

NY, NY: New York State and New York City organizations meet with NYS Department of Health and Office of General Services to discuss draft standards for new state law requiring all schools to use green cleaning products.

New York City Council
National Healthy Schools Day Proclamation

April 2006

(left to right) Peggy Shepard, WE ACT for Environmental Justice; John Shaw, Healthy Schools Network Board President; Claire Barnett, HSN Executive Director; Robert Jackson, NYC Council; Stephen Boese, HSN New York State Director; Gale Brewer, NYC Council; other parents and advocates from NYC.

Coalition for Healthier Schools Meeting

January 2006

Washington, DC: (left) Claire Barnett (center), Coalition Coordinator and HSN Executive Director, panel on children's exposures and intervention services; (right) Coalition for Healthier Schools meeting attendees, panel on High Performance School Design.

Back to School Breakfast

September 2005

Washington, DC: (left to right) Tom Anapolis, Healthy Schools Network Board Member; Governor Parris N. Glendening, Smart Growth Leadership Institute; Claire Barnett, HSN Executive Director; Ramona Trovato, Healthy Schools Network Board Member; Stephen Boese, Healthy Schools Network
New York State Director.

Awards and Benefit Reception

October 2004

New York, NY: (left to right) Leyla Erk McCurdy, Healthy Schools Network Board President; Charles Szuberla, New York State Education Department; Claire Barnett, Healthy Schools Network Executive Director; Peter R. Smith,
NYSERDA; Katherine Kennedy.

Healthy Schools Network, Inc.
Board of Directors & Board Committees, January 2009
(organizational affiliations for identification purposes only)

President
John Shaw is the President and co-founder of Next Wave Inc., a national health services consulting and evaluation firm. Here he has worked with several state and private agencies on health care consulting and evaluation projects.

Vice President
Beatriz Barraza is the Director of Health Promotion for the San Diego Colaborativo SABER Project that encourages community empowerment through local partnerships. She has also worked on various health promotion projects in San Diego, including the Tobacco-Free Workplace project. She currently serves on the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee of the U.S. EPA.

Secretary
Vernice Miller-Travis is Executive Director of Groundwork USA, a network of independent non-profit urban redevelopment organizations that help communities use their assets to eliminate environmental poverty and become vibrant, healthier, and safer places to live. As a former program officer of the Ford Foundation, she launched that institution's environmental justice portfolio in the United States. She was the Director of the Environmental Justice Initiative at the NRDC, served on the U.S. EPA's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and is co-founder of West Harlem Environmental Action, an 18-year-old community-based environmental justice organization in NYC.

Treasurer
Tom Anapolis is Director of Program Services for New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), the union representing more than 575,000 professionals in education and health care across New York State.

Chair- Science Committee
Dr. David Carpenter is the Director of the Institute for Health and Environment at the University of Albany. He has served on various national and international committees and was the founding Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Albany until he left the position in 1998. His research areas include environmental exposures to toxins, public health education, and neurotoxicology.

Kenneth Olden, Ph.D.
Dr. Kenneth Olden is the former Director of the NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program. At present, he is a Yerby Professor, Harvard University, School of Public Health, and Chief of the Metastasis Section, NIEHS.

Chair- National Policy Committee
Ramona Trovato is the founding and now former Director of the U.S. EPA Office of Children's Health Promotion. She has received several distinguished awards including the 2005 EPA Children's Environmental Health Champion Award.

Chair - New York City Task Force
Neal Tepel is the Assistant to the Executive Director of AFSCME District Council 1707 for Intergovernmental Affairs. This union represents members in childcare, early education, and health facilities. Through the years, Neal has worked with many labor organizations in strategic planning and public relations. As a current board member of Healthy Schools Network and chair of the New York City Committee, he has developed collaborations to foster healthy and energy efficient schools. Neal is also the founding board member to New York City Apollo and vice president of the Civil Service Merit Council.

Joellen Lawson
Joellen Lawson holds a bachelor's degree in Special Education and master's degrees in Counseling and School Health Education. Prior to her disability retirement in 2001, her twenty-three year career as an educator/consultant included working as a founding member of the Attention Deficit Disorders Institute, seminar leader for the Institute for Creative Education, and as a special education teacher for several public school systems in Connecticut. In 2002, she founded the Connecticut Foundation for Environmentally Safe Schools.

Shirley Schantz
Shirley Schantz, RN, EdD, ARNP is the nursing education director at the National Association of School Nurses which is the primary source of information for school nurses. The National Association of School Nurses improves the health and educational success of children and youth by developing and providing leadership to advance school nursing practice. She has served on national committees addressing the health and well being of all children. Shirley has a background in academia focusing on school health and maternal/child health.

Carolyn Smith Evans
Carolyn Smith-Evans is a teacher in the Salem-Keizer School District in Oregon. She graduated from Oregon State with a B.S. in Social Sciences and received a master's degree in Psychology. She became active in the area of environmentally healthy schools when her son was chemically injured at school. She began her work as a parent activist and then worked with her local union association on these issues. Eventually she worked at the national level within NEA to create awareness and training opportunities for NEA's members. She was one of the 3 co-founders of the NEA Healthy Schools Caucus and has served in a leadership position within the caucus since its inception.

National Policy Committee

Ramona Trovato, Chair

Denise Bowles
Assistant Director Health and Safety
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Washington, DC

Veronika Carella, Parent Advocate
Glenwood, MD

Doreen Croser, Executive Director
American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Washington, DC

Jay Feldman
Beyond Pesticides
Washington, DC

Ellie Goldberg, M.Ed.
Educational Rights Specialist and MA-PTA
Newton, MA

Tolle Graham, CIH,
MassCOSH and Coordinator, MA Healthy Schools Network
Boston, MA

Lloyd Kolbe, PhD, U. of Indiana/Bloomington
fmr Director
CDC-Div of Adolescent and School Health

Julia Graham Lear, Ph.D.
Center for Health and Health Care in Schools
Washington, DC

David Lohrman, PhD, Past-President
American School Health Association
Kent, OH

Elise Miller, Med, Executive Director
Institute for Children's Environmental Health
Freeland, WA

Virginia Mott
American Lung Association of Maine
Lakeville, ME

Carolyn Smith-Evans, President
National Education Association's Healthy Schools Caucus
Salem, OR

Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH, Executive Director
Children's Environmental Health Network
Washington, DC

New York City Task Force

Neal Tepel, NYC Chair

Nancy Anderson, Ph.D.
Sallan Foundation
NY, NY

Kirsten Brashares
Wellness in the Schools
NY, NY

Lawrence D'Addona
United Federation of Teachers
NY, NY

Marion Feinberg
For a Better Bronx
Bronx, NY

John Forster
Local 375, DC 37
New York, NY

Jacquelyn Kamin
New York, NY

Ernest Logan
Council of School Supervisors and Administrators
New York, NY

Cameron Lory
NY, NY

Cecil Corbin Mark
West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc.
NY, NY

Josh Nachowitz
NY League of Conservation Voters
New York NY

Joel Shufro Executive Director
New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health NY, NY

Kim Sweet
Advocates for Children
New York, NY

Patricia Zedalis
New York, NY

National Science Advisory Committee
* appointees are not necessarily peer-reviewers of HSN publications

David Carpenter, MD, Chair
Ken Olden, PhD, Co-Chair

Darryl Alexander, CIH
Coordinator, Health and Safety
American Federation of Teachers
Washington, DC

Hal Levin, Research Architect
Building Ecology Research Group
Santa Cruz, CA

Ruth Etzel, M.D., Ph.D.
George Washington University
Sch. Publ. Hlth/Hlth Svcs
Anchorage, AK

Eileen Storey, MD, MPH
Director, Center for Indoor Environments & Health
University of Connecticut
Farmington, CT

New York State Committee and New York City Task Force

Jeff Jones, NYS Chair

Judy Braiman
Rochesterians Against the Misuse of Pesticides
Rochester, NY

Kathy Curtis
Clean New York
Albany, NY

George Dunkel
American Academy of Pediatrics/District 2
Albany, NY

Janet Foley
CSEA
Albany, NY

John Green
New York State United Teachers
Latham, NY

Sally Guifrida
New York State PTA
Binghamton, NY

Wendy Hord
New York State United Teachers
Latham, NY

Heather Loukmas
Learning Disabilities Association of NYS
Albany, NY

Rob Moore, Executive Director
Environmental Advocates of NY
Albany, NY

Joshua Nachowitz
NY League of Conservation Voters
New York, NY

Paul Webster
New York State United Teachers
Latham, NY

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