Testimony by Ellie Goldberg, adapted
from a March 24, 1997 version submitted to the Massachusetts Senate
Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture in support of the
(defeated) Massachusetts Citizens' Right to Know Act.
I am an educational consultant, advocate, author, speaker, and
workshop leader devoted to promoting children's healthy development,
especially their environmental health and safety. To see a formal CV click here >>.
I have been a high school teacher, writer and curriculum developer. I am author of Experiencing Psychology (1978), (Science Research
Associates, Inc. with Robert Goodale, PhD), and a series of faculty
and student textbooks for the 24-program PBS telecourse, Discovering
Psychology (1989), Print Projects, WGBH-Boston.
In the
mid-1980's I was health educator for the Massachusetts Department of
Public Health's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program and worked
on educational and legislative projects to update the Massachusetts
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention law in collaboration with the Conservation Law Foundation and other advocacy groups.
Ellie Goldberg for Healthy Kids
In 1989, I
founded www.healthy-kids.info, a consulting service dedicated
to promoting a better understanding of the health and educational needs
of students with asthma and other chronic health conditions. My resources and programs are designed to help educators, health
professionals, community officials, organizations, policy makers and
parents work together to improve policies and practices so that schools
are safe for children's healthy development.
I am or have been a board member of many health, education, and
environmental organizations including the Laboratory Safety Institute, the Silent Spring Institute, Clean Water Action, the Toxics Action
Center (MA), the Green Decade/Newton, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation
of America/New England (AAFA), the Coalition Organized for Health
Education in Schools (COHES), and the Special Needs
Advocacy Network (SPAN). I was the Asthma Resource Person and a
parent volunteer for Newton's Understanding Our Differences: A
Disability Awareness Program in the Newton Public Schools from 1987 to
1999.
As legislative chairperson of the
Massachusetts PTA, I have served as a member of MassPartners, a
collaboration of the major school administrator, teacher, and parent
associations in Massachusetts and as a board member of Citizens for
Public Schools. I served on the Massachusetts Interdisciplinary Health
Education and Human Services Advisory Council, one of sixteen councils
established by the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993. I also serve on the governing council and legislative sub-committee of the
Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, a statewide coalition of over 140
public health, education, labor, environmental and community groups
working for environmental health and safety.
I am on the advisory board of the national Healthy Schools Network, Inc.,
have been active in the Massachusetts Healthy Schools Network of the
Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) and have served as an expert consultant to the Committee on Asthma in
the School of the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program
(NAEPP/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute/NIH) for over eleven
years. I belong to the American Public Health Association
(Environmental Section), the Massachusetts Public Health Association,
The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), SpedWatch, and Health Care Without
Harm (HCWH). December
10, 2008, the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and
Health (MassCOSH) presented The Collaborative Action for Worker Justice
Award to Ellie Goldberg, of The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, for
outstanding efforts to promote safe jobs and healthy communities.
I have also contributed to programs and materials
developed by the Children's Television Workshop, the Food Allergy
Network, WGBH-TV, The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the
Allergy and Asthma Network/Mothers of Asthmatics, Inc., the National
Association of School Nurses, the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy
and Immunology, Dr. Tom Plaut's Asthma Guide for People of All Ages,
1999, and others.
COMMUNITY I am an active member of Green Decade/Newton advisory board and was the co-chair of
GreenCAP, the Committee for Alternatives to Pesticides for ten years. GreenCAP has been awarded grants
from the Toxics Use Reduction Institute (University of
Massachusetts/Lowell) and the New England Grassroots Environment Fund.
In
1997, I was recognized by the Massachusetts Department of
Environmental Protection as one of six "unsung heroes" in Massachusetts
for my work promoting alternatives to pesticides through community
education and public policy initiatives. In 2004 I received the Green
Decade Coalition's Environmental Leadership Award. GreenCAP's work
resulted in the City of Newton's adoption of a comprehensive Integrated
Pest Management Policy to eventually eliminate pesticides in all
city-owned buildings and grounds. It was the basis of the City of
Newton's application for the US Conference of Mayors City Livability
Award.
I am active in national and state coalitions to
eliminate the use of pesticides, especially in schools. I believe
that the key to reducing preventable illness and disabilities is clean
air, clean water, clean energy and safe food.
The world endures solely by virtue of the breath of school
children. (Talmud)
