WVE STAFF

Erin Switalski

Executive Director

Before joining Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) in 2005, Erin worked in a variety of fields, including affordable, green-built housing and human rights.  At WVE, Erin led statewide initiatives to reduce women’s exposure to mercury from mercury-containing products and introduced comprehensive legislation to ban the sale of mercury products in the state of Montana. She was also responsible for developing and implementing all aspects of the national Safe Cleaning Products Initiative, which has garnered international media attention, moved major corporations to make unprecedented policy changes, and resulted in the introduction of federal legislation that will reduce women’s exposure to cleaning product chemicals.  Erin has given numerous presentations about the unique role women play as advocates to diverse audiences across the Unites States. Erin is a 2010 winner of the “40 Under 40” leadership award for advocacy from the New Leaders Council.  Erin has traveled to Colombia twice to act as a human rights observer.  She holds a BA in Spanish from the University of Montana.

Jean Claire Duncan
Director of Finances & Administration

Jean Claire Duncan has a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Montana and a Bachelor's of Science from University of Kentucky. Jean oversees the financial, human resource and technical systems management of the organization. She brings eight years of experience with business and financial management, office systems and other entrepreneurial endeavors. Most recently, Jean spent the last six years working with Montana-based Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO) as an Interim Executive Director and board member. She also served three years as the Business Manager for Jeannette Rankin Peace Resource Center in Missoula, as Executive Director of the Montana Hunger Coalition, and as the General Manager of a California-based food cooperative. The pursuits that keep her happy are the great out of doors, fresh local organic food consumption and being with her wonderful children, all but one of whom are up and out!

Alexandra Scranton
Director of Science and Research

Alexandra Scranton has a Masters degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and a B.A. from Amherst College. Alex authors WVE’s scientific reports and provides scientific review for the organization's programs. Prior to working at WVE, Alex worked in the epidemiology and statistics unit at the American Lung Association headquarters in New York. Alex currently sits on Institutional Biosafety Committee for Rocky Mountain Laboratories (a National Institutes of Health facility).  Alex lives and works from Pullman, WA with her husband and beautiful baby daughter.

Jamie Silberberger
Director of Programs and Policy

Jamie’s work focuses on advancing policies and strategies that will reduce women’s exposure to toxic chemicals in both the home and occupational settings. She also co-manages the National Healthy Nail Salon Alliance and serves on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics national steering committee and grassroots and legislative subcommittees.

Jamie is also a state steering committee member of Montana Women Vote, a coalition dedicated to educating and mobilizing low-income women to participate in the democratic process.

She has a Masters degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.  While attending the University of Montana, Jamie was named a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (2005-2006).

Mizue Suito
Director of Development

Mizue joined the WVE team in February 2010 as Director of Development to help build on the strong network that WVE has established over 15 years and to expand the organization’s national fundraising campaign.  She has 15 years of resource development and strategic planning experiences, having managed diverse fundraising and cultivation program portfolios at the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, the National Women’s Law Center and Conservation International, among others.

 
Mizue has a J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law and a B.A. in Government Studies from Clark University.  Mizue “fell into” a development job 15 years ago and has never looked back since.  Originally from Japan, she is fluent in Japanese and English.  Mizue is based in Northern Virginia, where she lives with her husband and two daughters, and is active in DC area’s non-profit community, currently serving on the board of a local immigration legal services organization called Just Neighbors.  A passion for social justice jump-starts Mizue’s days, and love for her family keeps her grounded each evening.         

Cassidy Randall
Program and Outreach Coordinator

Cassidy coordinates efforts to mobilize and engage women in WVE’s efforts and oversees the corporate outreach elements of campaigns. She developed the Green Cleaning Action Kit, Disinfectants Horror Show, and other engagement tools, and organizes WVE’s Green Cleaning Party campaign.

Cassidy brings organizing experience as an Outreach Coordinator with the Surfrider Foundation Malibu Chapter, co-founder of Students for Economic and Social Justice at the University of Montana, and as a campaign organizer with Montana Conservation Voters. Cassidy has served as a board member with Community Action for Justice in the Americas, on the steering committee for the Fair Trade City Missoula campaign, and as Advisor to Eduquemos a La Nina at Ak’Tenamit, a Maya cooperative in Guatemala. She is currently Vice President of the Montana Conservation Voters Missoula Chapter.

Cassidy has an M.S. from the University of Montana in Environmental Studies, and a B.A. in American Literature from UCLA. She is the author of Fighting for the Dream: Voices from a New Generation of Maya Women. In her free time, Cassidy likes snowy slopes, fast rivers, and pulling weeds out of her garden.

Courtney Ryan
Administrative Assistant

Courtney is excited to have the opportunity to work with WVE, as her passion for environmental justice and health issues directly corresponds with WVE’s mission.  Courtney is currently pursuing a J.D. with a focus on environmental law from the University of Montana School of Law and has a B.A. in History from the University of Vermont.  When not studying, Courtney is a culinary arts and organic gardening enthusiast and enjoys exploring Montana’s wilderness on foot, bike, board, shoes and skis.

Maria Mabbutt
Spanish Communications Consultant

Maria Mabbutt was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas but has called Idaho home since the early ‘70s. She brings many years of experience in grassroots advocacy. She worked with farmworker advocacy for 15 years with Idaho Legal Aid Services, Migrant Farmworkers Law Unit and the Idaho Department of Employment as the state’s Farmworker Advocate. She also served as the Executive Director for Marketing for the Hispanic Business Association and coordinated Idaho Hispanic Caucus Institute for Research and Education’s Latino Vote 2002. Maria currently serves on the Board of the Western States Center has been President of Idaho’s Hispanic Women’s organization, Mujeres Unidas.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lisa Woll
Washington, D.C.

President

Lisa Woll is CEO of the Social Investment Forum (SIF), the non profit organization representing the socially responsible investing industry which integrates social, environmental and other screens in investing. Prior to SIF, Lisa was executive director of the International Women’s Media Foundation, an international organization seeking to strengthen the role of women in the news media around the world and to protect press freedom. Lisa has extensive experience in international and domestic social policy and has worked extensively around the globe on human rights issues, particularly children’s human rights. She was the director of the first international study to look at the impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and directed the Washington, DC office of Save the Children, She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. She has also worked on a wide range of social policy issues in the United States, as executive director of Friends of Vista, as a legislative assistant in the U.S. Congress, and as a New York City Urban Fellow. Lisa is the founder of Suited for Change, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization that provides professional clothing and ongoing career education to low-income women who have completed job training programs and are seeking employment. She was a founding board member and former president of the board of The Women's Alliance, a national membership organization of community organizations that increase the employability of low-income women. In 2001, Lisa was named a Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine in recognition of her pioneering role with Suited for Change. She has received numerous other awards and has volunteered on numerous other nonprofit boards and commissions. Lisa holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in public policy and women’s studies from George Washington University. She spent 1990 – 1991 in Melbourne, Australia, as a Fulbright Fellow.

Aimee Boulanger
Seattle, WA

Aimee Boulanger is a consultant providing nonprofit organizations with short and long term program and management support services. She has worked as Program Director for the Institute for Children's Environmental Health, a national nonprofit organization working for a healthy, just and sustainable future for all children.  Prior to this, Aimee served as Executive Director for Women's Voices for the Earth, an organization increasing women's leadership to reduce the environmental links to breast cancer, birth defects, children's illnesses, and reproductive harm.  She has also worked as Field Director for the Mineral Policy Center (now called EarthWorks), supporting communities in the western US and around the globe to reduce the negative impacts of mining. Aimee has lived in Alaska working on both environmental health and coastal forest protection for nonprofit organizations.  She has focused on hunger issues in a position with Oxfam America, traveled to the Philippines to study deforestation issues, and has years of experience working in environmental education programs for children. Aimee serves on the board of directors for Great Basin Mine Watch in Nevada, Women's Voices for the Earth in Montana, and the Western Mining Action Project in Colorado.  She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Politics from Mount Holyoke College.

Ogonnaya Dotson-Newman
New York, NY

Ogonnaya Dotson-Newman joined WE ACT in April 2008 as the organization’s Environmental Health and Community-Based Research Coordinator. Prior to joining the WE ACT team, Ogonnaya worked at Loma Linda University’s School of Public Health as a Research Associate and Instructor. Born and raised in California to a family of community organizers and environmental activists, she learned at an early age the strong link between health and the environment. Her strong passion for linking social justice and science led to an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science. She also holds an MPH with an emphasis on Environmental Health.

Shortly after graduating from the University of Colorado with a degree in Environmental Biology, Jennifer took the unlikely path of starting her career in the financial services industry in 1994 at TIAA-CREF, a company that specializes in retirement plans for universities. Jennifer later moved to Missoula MT. She became a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch, and worked there until January 2010. Jennifer is now a partner at Estep, Hope and Weber Capital Mangement, Inc., an independent full service brokerage firm that specializes in socially responsible and community investing. Jennifer is active in the Missoula community as a volunteer for a variety of women's and social organizations. She and her husband have two elementary school aged girls. She enjoys a good book, cooking, camping and hiking.

Anuja Mendiratta, M.E.S.
Berkley, CA

As an independent consultant working the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, Anuja works on a diversity of environmental, social justice and human rights issues. Prior to launching her consulting business, Anuja served as a senior program officer with the Women's Foundation of California, as a program officer at the Marin Community Foundation, and as the coordinator of the San Francisco Foundation’s Environmental Health and Justice Initiative.  Anuja is the co-founder of the California Healthy Nails Salons Collaborative and the National Healthy Nail Salon Alliance.  She currently serves on the board of Women’s Voices for the Earth and is a committee member of Center for Environmental Health’s Justice Fund, which makes small grants in support of environmental justice efforts across California.  Anuja holds an undergraduate degree from Antioch College and a Masters in environmental studies from York University.

Angela Park
Hartland, VT

Angela Park is an independent consultant and founder and director of Diversity Matters, a nonprofit organization that aims to make diversity and inclusion foundational assets of environmental and social change leaders and organizations. As a writer Angela's articles have been published most recently by Yale University Press, The Diversity Factor, and Grist Magazine. Angela brings government, nonprofit, and private sector experience to her expertise on diversity and inclusion, organizational culture change, sustainable development policy, environmental justice, community development, and leadership. She has testified before Congress and state legislatures; consults to foundations, community-based organizations, national social and environmental policy organizations, Fortune 50 companies, and educational institutions; and lectures at universities across the country. Previously, Angela worked at The White House in both terms of the Clinton/Gore administration, directed state level sustainable development policy initiatives at the Center for Policy Alternatives, and co-founded and served as deputy director of the Environmental Leadership Program. She participated in the inaugural class of the Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program, graduated from the NTL Institute's Diversity Practitioner Certificate Program, and was named a Young Woman of Achievement by the Women's Information Network. She lives on an organic farm and 270-acre ecological cohousing community in Vermont.

ADVISORY BOARD

Sandra Steingraber is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Ithaca College in New York. Sandra is a noted ecologist, author and internationally recognized specialist on the connection between environmental pollution and its impact on human health. Steingraber's highly acclaimed book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment presents cancer as a human rights issue. It was the first to bring together data on toxic releases with newly released data from the U.S. cancer registries. Her second book, Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood, is both a memoir of her own pregnancy and an investigation of fetal toxicology. In August 2007, Sandra published a report for the Breast Cancer Fund called The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls: What We Know, What We Need to Know. Sandra is an enthusiastic and highly sought-after public speaker, known for her unique ability to serve as a translator between scientists, activists, researchers and mothers.

Liz Banse is Associate Director of Resource Media in Seattle. She provides media support, training, and outreach for environmental and public health organizations across the West.

Dr. Mary Rohlfing is Professor of Communications at Boise State University in Idaho and is an outspoken activist on gay and lesbian rights and the environment.

Terry Tempest-Williams is an author specializing in environmental issues and natural history. She is the former Naturalist-in-Residence at the Utah Museum of Natural History.