Executive Board
Sallie Bernard - President
Sallie Bernard is a co-founder and the Executive Director of SafeMinds. She has testified before Congress, presented to the Institute of Medicine, published a number of research papers and letters in science journals, and participates in several government committees addressing the effect of mercury on neurodevelopment. She previously served as board chair for CAN and executive director of the New Jersey chapter, helping to secure millions of dollars for autism research and treatment. She is a member of the board of directors of Autism Speaks and a member of the Founders Forum for The Autism Center of UMDNJ in New Jersey.
Bernard is also co-founder and president of Extreme Sports Camp, a nonprofit summer camp for older children and teenagers with autism. The camp offers outdoor sports and recreation including hiking, rock climbing, swimming, rafting and water skiing.
Sallie is the founder and former president of ARC Research, a full service market research and marketing consulting firm which she sold in 2004. She graduated with honors from Radcliffe College, Harvard University, in 1979. She is married, with three children, one of whom has autism and lives in Aspen, Colorado with her family.
Lyn Redwood, RN, MSN - Executive Director
Co-Chair Research Committee
Lyn Redwood, R.N., M.S.N., is co-founder and board member of the Coalition for SafeMinds and the National Autism Association. Ms. Redwood testified before the Government Reform Committee on “Mercury in medicine: Are we taking unnecessary risks?” in 2000, and before a Congressional sub-committee on health in 2003. She has published in the journals Neurotoxicology, Molecular Psychiatry, Medical Hypotheses, Mothering Magazine, and Autism-Aspergers Digest. Ms. Redwood has appeared on "Good Morning America," the Montel Williams Show, and has been interviewed by U.S News and World Report, Wired Magazine, People and numerous other publications. She is prominently featured in the award-winning book by David Kirby “Evidence of Harm.”
Ms. Redwood served on the Department of Defense Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Program from 2007-2009 and currently serves as a public member of the National Institutes of Health Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee.
She resides outside Atlanta with her husband Tommy, and three children, Hanna, Drew and Will.
See also: FAIR Autism Media Interview with Will and Lyn Redwood
Heidi Roger - Treasurer
Chair, Fundraising Committee
Heidi Roger, a founding board member of SafeMinds, is very involved in the public policy arena. She was one of the parents involved with passage of the New Jersey Infantile Autism Biomedical Research Act passed in New Jersey. Heidi helped craft the original draft of the first federal autism legislation, the Children's Health Act of 2000. Heidi was a co-author on Autism: A Novel Form of Mercury Toxicity, a landmark paper linking the symptoms of autism with excessive exposure to mercury and was published in Neurotoxicology, Medical Hypothesis, Molecular Psychiatry, Mothering Magazine and Autism- Asperger's Digest. She served as president of the Cure Autism Now New Jersey chapter for two years and co-chaired the first New Jersey/New York Walk Now event, which raised more than $300,000. She has one child, Andrew, a teenager, who has autism, and began speaking for the first time at age 11. Heidi is the Vice President of Financial Operations for Barney's New York.
Laura Bono - Vice-President
Co-Chair, Research Committee
Laura Bono has actively advocated on behalf of autistic children and families since the early 1990s. Her focus is on helpful biomedical interventions as she lobbies Congress and our government agencies for effective scientific research to seek the cause, treatments, and a cure for autism.
Laura is working with members of Congress to increase National Institute for Health (NIH) funding for autism/mercury research and compel the Health & Human Services (HHS), to allow families to seek and receive compensation for their mercury poisoned children in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. She helped organize the Federal Office of Special Counsel investigation which requested Congress have hearings on the FDA and CDC regarding the link of mercury poisoning and vaccines. She has been interviewed by numerous magazines and newspapers, appeared on the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw and The Today Show, and provided background research to NBC Dateline, Meet the Press and independent documentaries. Her advocacy has also included planning press conferences and rallies to focus the media on the link between vaccines containing thimerosal (mercury) and autism in children. Laura is a Board Member, co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the National Autism Association. She graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina with a B.S. in Journalism with a minor in Marketing and has over 25 years business experience in marketing. The youngest of her three children, Jackson, is diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified and heavy metal toxicity. Laura resides in Durham, NC with her family.
Mark Blaxill, MBA - Board Member
Mark Blaxill is the father of a daughter diagnosed with autism, editor at large for Age of Autism, a director of SafeMinds and a frequent speaker at autism conferences. He writes often on autism, science and public policy issues for Age of Autism and has published a number of articles, letters and commentaries on autism in journals such as Public Health Reports, the International Journal of Toxicology, the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Neurotoxicology and Medical Hypotheses. He has also been invited to peer review articles in journals such as theNew England Journal of Medicine, the American Journal of Epidemiology, Pediatrics and the International Journal of Toxicology.
He received a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. In his professional career, he is Managing Partner for 3LP Advisors, an advisory firm focused on intellectual property transactions. He recently published a business book, The Invisible Edge: Taking Your Strategy to the Next Level Using Intellectual Property (Portfolio, March 2009) and is teaming with Dan Olmsted to write a book, called The Age of Autism, due out in September 2010.
Scott Bono is Chairman Emeritus and a founding board member of the National Autism Association (NAA). Scott has been an active advocate on behalf of autistic children and families since the early 1990s at the local, state and national levels. He has appeared before the US Congress, and has spoken at rallies, universities and local service organizations to increase awareness of the need for biomedical research, treatments, therapies, and improved educational opportunities for those with autism. When lobbying Congress and the State Legislature, Scott advocates on behalf of those who cannot defend their own rights and strives to educate society that autism is not a lifelong incurable disorder but one that is biomedically definable and treatable. Most recently Scott has served on the SafeMinds Government Affairs Committee as Co-Chair.
Gayle DeLong - Board Member
Dr. Gayle DeLong is a parent of two girls with autism. Starting in May 2005, her family began biomedical interventions to treat the girls' illness. Both girls have benefited greatly from supplements, diet, chelation, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Gayle holds a Ph.D. in international business and finance from New York University as well as an International Master's in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina. She teaches international finance at Baruch College, City University of New York. She serves on SafeMind's research committee. She has attended rallies in Washington, DC to promote safer vaccines and spoken against adding vaccines to New Jersey's mandated schedule at a public hearing in Trenton, NJ. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Morristown, NJ.
Deirdre Imus – Board Member
Ms. Imus, a national leader in children’s health and environmental issues, is the founder and president of the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology, part of Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) in New Jersey, a 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation. The Center represents one of the first hospital-based programs whose specific mission is to identify, control, and ultimately prevent exposures to environmental factors that may cause adult, and especially pediatric cancer, as well as other health problems with our children.
Deirdre is also co-founder and co-director with husband, Don Imus, of The Imus Cattle Ranch for Kids with Cancer, a 501(C) (3) not-for-profit authentic 4,000 acre working cattle ranch in northern New Mexico, which provides the experience of the American cowboy to children suffering from cancer and various blood diseases, as well as to children who have lost a brother or sister to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Scott Laster – Board Member
Chair, Environmental Committee
Scott Laster has over 20 years experience as an entrepreneur and engineer in the telecommunications industry. He received an engineering degree with Highest Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Scott chairs the environmental committee of SafeMinds.
Jackie Lombardo - Board Member
Jackie Lombardo is the mother of three with a keen interest in children’s environmental health. She is motivated by ever increasing childhood illness, research consistently revealing harm from toxins, the endless creation of new, untested chemicals, and studies demonstrating these chemicals and other toxins are storing and building in children’s bodies at faster rates than adults.
Founded in 2005, Jackie leads Friends and Advocates for Children, Teachers and Schools (FACTS), a local group whose objective is to educate communities about impacts of toxins on children’s health. Featured on local radio, newspapers and TV, FACTS efforts resulted in the Albemarle County, Virginia Board of Supervisors stopping routine applications of pesticides in public buildings, parks and school fields and switching to green certified cleaners in June of 2007. State legislation protecting all Virginia school children from unnecessary, routine exposure to pesticides and toxic cleaning products will be introduced to the General Assembly in early 2009.
As a member of the Sierra Club National Toxics Committee, she has been involved in national projects stressing education, precaution and strong legislation for mercury, bisphenol A, pesticides, and lead in children’s products. With a strong belief that children’s health can be improved through public policy promoting a cleaner and safer environment, she remains confident proper legislation will reverse the tragic decline in children’s health.
Jackie lives happily in Earlysville, VA with her husband Joe, their three children, two aloof cats and a ridiculously happy dog.
Photo Credit: Jon-Phillip Sheridan
Jim Moody, JD - Board Member
Chair, Government Affairs Committee
Jim Moody chairs the government affairs committee of SafeMinds. He is the founder of Citizens for a Competitive Economy. Jim is a practicing attorney and is active in cause-related advocacy for children with autism.
Katie Weisman - Board Member
Chair, Communications Committee
Katie Weisman is the mother of identical triplet boys who all have autism. After a career as a technical designer, she is now a full-time mom and autism advocate. She has been a Special-Ed PTA co-chair, co-chairs a support group for spectrum parents and is a founding member of the Westchester Chapter of Autism United, which is currently working to form a statewide coalition of parents. She has helped develop two autism awareness programs for 4th and 5th grade students and an integrated after-school recreation program. She has also worked with local police to develop Kind Find, which provides training for local law enforcement and a way for parents to register disabled children with the police in case of an emergency.
All three of Katie’s sons have mercury poisoning which she believes is the primary cause of their disability. She is working on the SafeMinds environmental committee and heading the group’s initiatives on fluorescent lighting. She lives in Mount Kisco, New York with her husband, Doug, and sons.
Katie Wright – Board Member
Katie is the mother of two boys, Mattias, age 3 and 5 year-old Christian. Christian regressed into autism at 2.5 years old. Katie completed her under-graduate studies at Boston University and received a Masters in Education from Columbia University. Studying counseling psychology, she received her professional license in 2000 and was the Clinical Director of the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Stamford, CT providing free and confidential counseling services to male and female survivors of rape and sexual assaults. Katie resigned her position when Christian became ill and now, with her husband Andreas, is dedicated to working to improve the lives of children and families affected by Autism.
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