Marc Edwards grew up in Ripley, NY on the shores of Lake Erie, where he watched the once “dead” Great Lake recover from excessive nutrient loading in the 1970s and 1980s. Thus dedicated to environmental conservation and improvement, he received a B.S. in Biophysics from SUNY Buffalo (1986), and then an M.S. and PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington.

After the PhD, his first consulting job was with homeowners in Danville California who were afflicted by “blue water” problems in their potable water—he has devoted his entire scientific career to advancing research that addresses real-world issues at the nexus of water-infrastructure-public health, with vital contributions to drinking water treatment, corrosion control, green engineering, recycled water distribution, opportunistic pathogen control and engineering ethics.

His research group (alone or in extensive collaborations with Dr. Amy Pruden) aspires to pursue science as a public good, through laboratory work on practically important but underfunded topics such as corrosion in buildings and opportunistic premise plumbing pathogens. Those efforts also provided groundwork for investigative science uncovering the depths of deceit associated with the 2001-2004 D.C. Lead Crisis and the 2014-2016 Flint Water Disaster. In the former case, government officials falsified reports to cover up widespread harm to children, escaping accountability and ensuring that none of the affected children or families would receive financial assistance to deal with their health problems arising from their misconduct.

In the latter case, Dr. Edwards and the “Flint Water Study” team launched an "open science" research collaboration with Flint residents that revealed high levels of lead, Legionella bacteria, and extensive damage to the city’s water infrastructure due to the failure to implement federal corrosion control laws. Undaunted by attempts to discredit their work, they fought against agencies which were failing to follow the law, and educated residents about the serious public health risks. They demonstrated a compassionate and caring attitude to work alongside Flint residents and pushed to protect their health, well-being and future through an unprecedented scientific “relief effort” that combined citizen science, laboratory experimentation, field sampling trips, investigative reporting, and the power of social media. The team ultimately galvanized local, state and federal agencies into action, culminating in the declaration of a national “Public Health Emergency” by President Barack Obama, which has led to over $500 million in financial, health and infrastructure assistance for Flint residents. The work also prompted a long overdue debate on water infrastructure in America.

Ever seeking to find good in dark places and inspire courage in others, Dr. Edwards teaches a unique graduate course on aspirational ethics and heroism, which was an inspiration for much the Flint Water Study team. He also advocates on the need to create ethical cultures for academic, government and industry scientists. Dubbed “Hero Professor” by The Washington Post, he was named amongst the most influential people in the world by TIME, Fortune and Politico magazines.

After growing up in Oregon and finding his passion for food and agriculture at The Mountain School and Yale, Curt moved to Iowa to investigate the role of subsidized commodities in the American obesity epidemic. The film he co-created there, King Corn, produced with Ian Cheney and Aaron Woolf, received a national theatrical release and PBS broadcast, sparked policy discussion around the Farm Bill, and earned a George Foster Peabody Award.

While touring college campuses with the film, Curt was struck by the number of young people who shared his passion for food and agriculture, and who were eager to commit themselves to the work of creating a more equitable, healthful and sustainable food system. In 2009, Curt and five co-founders began developing FoodCorps, the national nonprofit he now leads. Rapid expansion has led FoodCorps to work across 18 states, where its 215 AmeriCorps members build school gardens, improve school lunches, and transform schools into healthy places for children to eat, learn and grow. In addition to this direct impact in schools, Curt and FoodCorps pursue systemic change by training a new generation of leaders, forging a national network of partners, and championing policy changes that lead us toward a future where all children––regardless of race or place or class––will know what healthy food is, care about where it comes from, and eat it every day. Curt lives in Oregon with his wife Caitlin Boyle and their three-year-old son, Border collie, and chickens.

In 2011, Raina Rippel helped found the SWPA Environmental Health Project (EHP) in response to growing concerns associated with gas drilling activity and health impacts in Washington County, PA. Rippel heads up a team of eighteen consultants and various interns with expertise in healthcare, public health research, toxicology, air and water quality, strategic development and community organizing, in developing a targeted and timely public health response to unconventional natural gas development (UNGD). EHP focuses their work on gathering data from residents of SWPA and beyond on the most probable health impacts from oil and gas development, routes of exposures, best-practice air and water monitoring tools and guidance, and associated, accessible and effective interventions for individuals and households.

EHP receives no state or national funding and is entirely funded by private foundations. EHP partners with the Carnegie Mellon University CREATE Lab to distribute monitoring technologies to residents, and has worked on community-based participatory research projects with the Yale School of Medicine Occupational and Environmental Health Program, the University of Pittsburgh Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Duquesne University, SUNY Albany’s Institute for Health and the Environment, and various NGO’s including Earthworks, the Clean Air Council, and the Heinz Air Collaborative, among others. EHP is also a member of the Protect Our Children coalition and the Protect PA coalition.

Dr. Laura Vandenberg is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, School of Public Health and Health Sciences. She earned her BS degree from Cornell University in 2003 and her PhD from Tufts University School of Medicine in 2008.

Dr. Vandenberg’s research focuses on how low level exposures to endocrine disruptors, chemicals that interfere with hormones in the body, can induce diseases including infertility, metabolic syndrome, and breast cancer. Dr. Vandenberg has also contributed to ongoing discussions in the scientific community about how to best evaluate endocrine disruptors for their potential to cause harm to humans and wildlife. In particular, she evaluates issues that affect risk and hazard assessments for these chemicals including evidence of low dose effects and vulnerable periods of susceptibility, evaluating weight of evidence, and identifying the most sensitive endpoints that are predictive of disease. Dr. Vandenberg is an author on more than 55 peer reviewed papers and eight book chapters. She regularly contributes editorials and articles to newspapers and online publications as a means of communicating the science of endocrine disruption to the public. She has also served on a number of US and international expert panels to assess endocrine disrupting chemicals.