Nancy Chuda

Nancy Gould Chuda is co-founder of the Colette Chuda Environmental Fund, and co-founder and President Emeritus of Healthy Child Healthy World formerly (CHEC). Both of these organizations were established to honor the Chuda's only child, Colette, who died in 1991 at the age of 5 of a rare, non-genetic form of childhood cancer. (See Our Story on HCHW's website: www.healthychild.org).

She is also co-founder of www.luxecoliving.com which is an online magazine, a resource hub and a community of experts and citizen advocates that help each other learn how to navigate through the Green (R)evolution to attain vibrant inner and collective health.

Ms. Chuda has been active in environmental health awareness and reform for over two decades:as a broadcast journalist for three national broadcast networks, a full-time activist with Mothers and Others in Los Angeles, and in her present leadership roles in HCHW and CCEF.

In 1989, as a reporter of ABC broadcasting's "The Home Show" she was one of a few reporters in the nation to do an in-depth story on "Intolerable Risks, Pesticides in Our Children's Food," the first study of its kind by The Natural Resources Defense Council. A related story on the toxicity of Alar, in which she interviewed Meryl Streep and Wendy Gordon Rockefeller,the chairs of "Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet," heightened Ms. Chuda's concern about children's health and the environment and revealed to her the need for yet more in-depth reporting on children's health issues.

In 1990 she co-produced a national variety television special for ABC: "An Evening with Friends for the Environment," which starred Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Cher, Robin Williams, Olivia Newton-John and Lily Tomlin.
Since the founding of HCHW, Ms. Chuda has become well known in legislative and professional forums on environmental risk reduction and reform. She serves as an associate of the Director's Council of Public Representatives of the National Institutes of Health(NIH) and was appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary, Donna Shalala to serve as a member of the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council for the National Institutes of Environmental Health Science(NIEHS). Upon completion of her three-year term in 1999, Ms. Chuda was asked to serve an additional year. She is also on the Board of Directors of Beyond Pesticides/National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides.

Her dedication to children's environmental health protections continues to be respected and recognized not only nationally, but also prominently in her home state of California. In 1996 she received the California League of Conservation Voter's "Environmental Leadership Award." Most recently Ms. Chuda and her husband, James, were the recipients of "The Healthy Schools Heroes Award," by the Californians for Pesticide Reform for their legislative efforts in securing The Healthy Schools Act 2000, signed into law in September, 2000

Impassioned, articulate, and charming, Ms. Chuda projects well in all media formats and provides an outstanding and engaging interview opportunity on HCHW's Environmental Childproofing Campaign and the environmental health concerns and related toxic risks to children.