Speaker Bios

Holly Mitchell is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Crystal Stairs, the largest private nonprofit child care development agency in California. In her previous role as Crystal Stairs’ Vice President of External Affairs, Ms. Mitchell contributed to the growth and community leadership of the agency. She created a fund development plan resulting in the most lucrative fund raising year in Crystal Stairs’ history. Her team has championed a public agenda that has significantly increased Crystal Stairs’ profile among government agencies, local media, as well as other community-based organizations.

In addition to her duties at Crystal Stairs, Ms. Mitchell is active in other child care and human services related organizations. These include her roles on the Public Policy Committees of the Los Angeles County Child Care Alliance and the California Resource and Referral Network, the Welfare Reauthorization Task Force of the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRA), the Advisory Board and Children’s Health Sub-committee of the State Department of Health Services’ California Health Information Survey (CHIS), and as a Board Member for the Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP). Ms. Mitchell has served on numerous boards and committees, including the Governor’s Women’s Health Advisory Council and California Breast Cancer Research Council.

Ms. Mitchell’s public advocacy career began in the office of State Senator Diane Watson, where she advised members of the legislature on issues related to quality child care as the senior policy analyst for the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Before joining Crystal Stairs, Ms. Mitchell was a Legislative Advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty where she coordinated with other advocates on health policy issues affecting low-income communities. Prior to this, she was the Executive Director of the California Black Women’s Health Project where she interfaced with community-based agencies, policy makers, government agencies, grant makers, and health care professionals on current trends and data on the status of women’s health.

A graduate of the University of California, Riverside, and the Coro Foundation’s Public Affairs Fellowship, Ms. Mitchell is the proud mother of 3-year old Ryan.

Sarah Weddington is a nationally-known attorney and spokesperson on public issues and leadership, and has been a long-time advocate for women. In 1972, she became the first woman elected from Austin, the state capital, to the Texas House of Representatives. Ms. Weddington served three terms during which she helped reform Texas rape statutes, passed an equal credit bill for women, passed a pregnancy leave bill for teachers, and led successful efforts to block all anti-abortion legislation. She was also instrumental in changing Texas law to provide equal consideration for mothers and fathers in custody disputes. From 1978 to 1981, she served as Assistant to the President of the United States. While working with President Jimmy Carter, she assisted in the selection of women for federal judiciary and other top federal appointments, co-chaired the 1980 U.S. delegation to the United Nations Mid-Decade Conference on Women in Copenhagen, and established other programs to ensure the equal treatment of women in the military in securing business loans and in social programs. In her first book, A Question of Choice, she detailed the landmark Roe vs. Wade case, which she successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in 1973. She is thought to be the youngest person ever to win a case in the U.S. Supreme Court. Ms. Weddington is particularly well known for her work on issues affecting women and through her many roles, including attorney, legislator, Presidential assistant, professor, and expert called upon by the national media, and has received numerous honors and awards. Dr. Weddingtonis a recent breast cancer survivor and is active in raising awareness and funds for groups fighting cancer.

Assembly Member Barbara Freedman was elected to the California Assembly in a special election on July 31, 1991, and left office in 1996 as a result of term limits. During her three terms in the Assembly, Ms. Friedman targeted her legislative efforts to remedy issues impacting the health and well-being of women and children. As the author of the legislation that created and funded both the California Breast Cancer Research Program and California Detection Program-Every Woman Counts, she led the advocacy efforts that established the most far-reaching breast cancer programs ever launched by a state. After leaving the legislature, Ms. Friedman directed the Community Benefits Department of L.A. Care Health Plan, a public sector plan that arranges health care services for low-income families. She is currently the Executive Director of the Children’s Burn Foundation. Barbara Friedman has a long history of community and public service. Prior to her election, she served as a Chief Deputy to Los Angeles City Controller Rick Tuttle and worked as a senior aide for Assembly Member Burt Margolin. Ms. Friedman graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in history. Her daughter, Annie, is ten years old.

Julia G. Brody, Ph.D.
Dr. Julia G. Brody is executive director of Silent Spring Institute, a scientific research organization dedicated to studying the links between the environment and women’s health, especially breast cancer. She is the principal investigator of the Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment Study, now in its ninth year. The Cape Cod Study is investigating exposures to endocrine disruptors and mammary carcinogens from air and water pollutants and common products such as pesticides, detergents, and plastics. Innovative methods include testing for 86 chemicals in women’s homes and historical exposure mapping using a geographic information system. Collaborating investigators include researchers at Boston University, Harvard, Tufts, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. US EPA recognized Silent Spring Institute’s research with an Environmental Merit Award 2000. Dr. Brody presented one of the Distinguished Lectures in Occupational and Environmental Cancer at the National Cancer Institute last year and has taught and lectured at the University of Texas at Austin, Tufts University, Harvard University, MIT, Boston University, and elsewhere. She serves on scientific advisory committees for the National Breast Cancer Coalition, Breast Cancer Action, The Breast Cancer Fund, Marin County Health Department, and others. She has conducted environmental health studies in a context of active community involvement on issues of deep public concern for several states, federal agencies, and the World Bank. She served in senior environmental policy positions as Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management and earlier at the Texas Department of Agriculture.

M. Ellen Mahoney, M.D., F.A.C.S., is a practicing breast surgeon in Arcata and Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at Stanford. She is the co-founder of the Community Breast Health Project in Palo Alto. Her work there resulted in extensive knowledge of current breast cancer literature and of the questions and problems faced by patients and families. She has used this knowledge to support other nonprofit breast cancer organizations, including the Breast Cancer Fund and the Humboldt Community Breast Health Project. She helps Susan Love M.D. in the maintenance of the Personal Guidance service on www.susanlovemd.com. Her goal is that all patients have the latest concepts and knowledge available in language they can understand. She describes herself as “passionate about the need to improve our knowledge about breast cancer and our care of all whose lives are affected by this disease.”

Marion Moses, M.D. is a physician board certified in Public Health and Preventive Medicine (Occupational Medicine). She is director of the Pesticide Education Center in San Francisco, founded in 1988 to educate workers, consumers, and the public about the hazards and health effects of pesticides.

Her interest in pesticides began with her work with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers union, beginning in 1966, first as a nurse and then as a doctor. She was Cesar Chavez’ personal physician. She has served on many government committees and task forces, and is a contributing editor to the American Journal of Industrial Medicine and the Archives of Environmental Health, and has held past university appointments. She is the author of “Designer Poisons, How to Protect Your Health and Home from Toxic Pesticides” for the general public and “Harvest of Sorrow”, videos and training manuals for farm workers.

John Peterson Myers, Ph.D.
With a doctorate in the biological sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, Pete Myers is Senior Advisor to Commonweal on environmental threats to children’s health and to the United Nations Foundation and the Turner Foundations for their programs in energy, national security, and the environment. From 1990 through the end of 2001, Myers served as Director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation in Charlottesville, Virginia, guiding the foundation’s philanthropic support of work to reduce the risks of nuclear war and protect the global environment. Prior posts include Senior Vice President for Science at the National Audubon Society in New York and research scientist at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Along with co-authors Dr. Theo Colborn and Dianne Dumanoski, he wrote Our Stolen Future, a book (1996) that explores the scientific basis of concern for how contamination threatens fetal development.
Myers now writes, edits and publishes a companion Web site for their book, www.OurStolenFuture.org, which tracks changes in science and policy that have followed the book’s publication. Dr. Myers has served on the boards of the Consultative Group for Biological Diversity (Chairman 1995-1997), a consortium of 40-plus foundations working to enhance the maintenance of biological systems and their contributions to human prosperity, and the National Audubon Society (1991-1995). In 1992 he was appointed by the Governor of Virginia to a 4-year term on the Virginia Pesticide Control Board. Currently he is on the board of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation and the National Environmental Trust.

Peggy Reynolds, Ph.D.
Peggy Reynolds is a cancer epidemiologist in the California Department of Health Services’ Environmental Health Investigations Branch, and currently serves as the chief of the Environmental Epidemiology Section. She received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and spent several years as an epidemiologist for the California Tumor Registry and San Francisco Bay Area SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) program. She has conducted a number of cancer epidemiology studies, with a particular focus on environmental risk factors. Her research is currently focused on female breast cancer and on cancers in children. Dr. Reynolds has served as the principal investigator for a study of regional variations in breast cancer in California, a study of body burden levels of endocrine disruptors in breast cancer patients, a study of breast cancer incidence in flight attendants, and a statewide study of patterns of childhood cancer.