SafeMinds Executive Board

Executive Board

Theresa Wrangham - President

Theresa Wrangham is the mother of Rachel, a teenager who is diagnosed with PDD/NOS, and Deanna. She lives in Colorado with her husband, Scott. She brings to the fore an experienced parent's perspective on raising a healthy child affected by ASD and the benefits of advocacy outside family needs. Theresa was appointed to the Board of SafeMinds in 2007 and currently serves as president. She served as a past Board Member with the Autism Society of Colorado and co-founded the Autism Society of Boulder County (ASBC), serving five terms as president. She is currently the immediate past president. Theresa is also the Director of Educational Development and Conference Liaison for the US Autism & Asperger Association.

During her tenure with ASBC, Theresa coordinated Colorado's first behavioral and biomedical conference in Colorado, spearheaded Colorado's legislative efforts to ban mercury containing vaccines and successfully collaborated with other state agencies to create treatment programs for autistic individuals not included in state-funded programs, as well as influenced legislation within the state of Colorado. She is a retired AMTA Massage Therapist with over 20 years corporate administrative and accounting experience. Her strong belief that the grassroots voice of parents and professionals will assure strong programs, effective treatments and positive long-term outcomes for ASD individuals is a primary driving force in her work with SafeMinds. Theresa has been featured in local and national news reports and was honored in 2006 by the Boulder County Business Report as a Health Care Hero.

Sallie Bernard - Executive Director

Sallie Bernard is a co-founder and the Executive Director of SafeMinds. She serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Cure Autism Now, one of the largest funders of biomedical research for autism. She was formerly the Executive Director of the New Jersey Chapter of Cure Autism Now, helping to secure millions of dollars in funding from the State of New Jersey for autism research and treatment. She was also a member of the Founders Forum for The Autism Center at UMDNJ in New Jersey.

Sallie has testified before Congress as well as made a presentation to the Institute of Medicine. She has published a number of research papers and letters in science journals, and participates in several government committees addressing the effect of mercury on neurodevelopment. Sallie is a co-founder and President of Extreme Sports Camp, a non-profit 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 - Vice President

Ms. Redwood is the co-founder and President of the Coalition for SafeMinds along with serving on the board of the National Autism Association. As a Nurse Practitioner, Lyn became involved in autism research when her son, Will, was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder in 1999. Having calculated the level of mercury exposure received from multiple vaccines containing thimerosal (mercury), Lyn discovered that her son was exposed to levels 125 times the EPA Federal Safety guidelines. As a result of this work, Lyn testified before the Government Reform Committee on "Mercury in Medicine: Are We Taking Unnecessary Risks?" and before a sub committee on health in 2003.

Lyn co-authored 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 has appeared on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer, the Montel Williams Show, as well as being interviewed by U.S. News and World Report, Wired Magazine, and People. Lyn is prominently featured in the award winning book by David Kirby, Evidence of Harm which will be a major motion picture.

Lyn lives outside of Atlanta with her husband and three children; Hanna, Drew and Will. She has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Masters of Science in Community Health Nursing as well as being an ANA certified Family Nurse Practitioner. Lyn also makes to time to serve as a member of the Fayette County Board of Health and carries over twenty years experience in the nursing profession.

Mark Blaxill, MBA - Vice-President

Mark Blaxill is the Vice President of SafeMinds as well as serving on the research committee. Mark is the father of a daughter diagnosed with autism. He carries a Harvard MBA with distinction and a Princeton A.B. Summa Cum Laude. Mark has authored several publications on autism including: What's Going On? The Question of Time Trends in Autism(Public Health Reports, 2004), Reduced Mercury Levels in First Baby Haircuts of Autistic Children (International Journal of Toxicology, 2003), and Thimerosal and Autism? A Plausible Hypothesis That Should Not Be Dismissed (Medical Hypotheses, 2004).

Mark's affected child is named Michaela, and is the driving force for the time he spends working on the fight against autism. In Mark's own words, "One of the most gratifying aspects of this work is to see how much better she has become as we have pursued the interventions (diet, anti-inflammatory medication, detoxification, chelation, etc.) that have come from the parent community. My passion comes from the obvious emergency that autism presents to our country, one that our medical and scientific leaders have failed to face up to."

Heidi Roger - Treasurer

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 - Board Member

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.

Vicky Debold, R.N., Ph.D. - Board Member

Dr. Debold has worked in the health care field for over 25 years and currently works as a consultant performing health services research and policy analysis related to patient safety. She has worked as a health policy analyst for the U.S. Congress, Physician Payment Review Commission, Michigan Health and Safety Coalition, and the Michigan State Commission on Patient Safety. Additionally, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan and an Associate Professor and Director of the Health Systems Management Program at the University of Detroit Mercy. Her doctoral degree is from the University of Michigan - School of Public Health (Health Services Organization and Policy) and School of Nursing (Health Systems Administration). She was a Regent's Fellow and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health systems research.

Her 9 year-old son is named Samuel and he was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in May 2000. Since that time, she has been actively involved in autism-related research, advocacy, and fundraising for several non-profit organizations.

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

Scott Laster has worked as an entrepreneur and engineer in the telecommunications industry for 20 years. He received an engineering degree with Highest Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Scott became involved in autism research when his son, Luke, was diagnosed with autism in 2005. With the biomedical interventions developed through close cooperation between parent-advocacy organizations and university researchers, Luke has significantly improved. Luke's struggles, and subsequent improvement, have inspired Scott to advocate for policy initiatives to prevent other children from being damaged by medical exposure to mercury and for expansion of research into effective treatments for autism. Scott lives in the Atlanta area with his wife and two sons.

Jim Moody, JD - Board Member

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 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.