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Staff

Meet the Women of WVE!

Erin Switalski

Executive Director

Before joining Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) in 2005, Erin worked in a variety of fields, including affordable, green-built housing and human rights.  At WVE, Erin led statewide initiatives to reduce women’s exposure to mercury from mercury-containing products and introduced comprehensive legislation to ban the sale of mercury products in the state of Montana.  She was also responsible for developing and implementing all aspects of the national Safe Cleaning Products Initiative, which has garnered international media attention, moved major corporations to make unprecedented policy changes, and resulted in the introduction of federal legislation that will reduce women’s exposure to cleaning product chemicals.

Erin has given numerous presentations about the unique role women play as advocates to diverse audiences across the Unites States. Erin is a 2010 winner of the “40 Under 40” leadership award for advocacy from the New Leaders Council.  Erin has traveled to Colombia twice to act as a human rights observer.  She holds a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Montana.

Jean Claire Duncan

Director of Finances & Administration

Jean Claire Duncan has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Montana and a Bachelor’s of Science from University of Kentucky.  Jean oversees the financial, human resource and technical systems management of the organization.  She brings eight years of experience with business and financial management, office systems and other entrepreneurial endeavors.

Most recently, Jean spent the last six years working with Montana-based Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO) as an Interim Executive Director and board member.  She also served three years as the Business Manager for Jeannette Rankin Peace Resource Center in Missoula, as Executive Director of the Montana Hunger Coalition, and as the General Manager of a California-based food cooperative.  The pursuits that keep her happy are the great out of doors, fresh local organic food consumption and being with her wonderful children, all but one of whom are up and out!

Alexandra Scranton

Director of Science and Research

Alexandra Scranton is the Director of Science and Research at Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE). Alex authors WVE’s scientific reports and provides scientific review for the organization’s programs. Prior to working at WVE, she worked in the epidemiology and statistics unit at the American Lung Association headquarters in New York. Alexandra currently sits on the Research Advisory Committee for the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative and on the Institutional Biosafety Committee for Rocky Mountain Laboratories (a National Institutes of Health facility). She has a Masters degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and a BA from Amherst College. Alexandra lives and works from Pullman, WA, with her husband and two beautiful daughters.

Jamie Silberberger

Director of Programs and Policy

Jamie’s work focuses on advancing policies and strategies that will reduce women’s exposure to toxic chemicals in both the home and occupational settings.  She is the National Coordinator of the National Healthy Nail and Beauty Salon Alliance, and serves on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics national steering committee and legislative subcommittee.

Jamie is also a state steering committee member of Montana Women Vote, a coalition dedicated to educating and mobilizing low-income women to participate in the democratic process.  She has a Masters degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.  While attending the University of Montana, Jamie was named a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (2005-2006).

Cassidy Randall

Campaign and Outreach Manager

Cassidy oversees WVE’s market-based campaigns and coordinates efforts to mobilize and engage women in WVE’s work. She developed the Detox Your Home Kit, Disinfectants Horror Show, and other engagement tools, and organizes WVE’s Green Cleaning Party campaign and Actionista team.

Cassidy brings organizing experience as an Outreach Coordinator with the Surfrider Foundation Malibu Chapter, co-founder of Students for Economic and Social Justice at the University of Montana, and as a campaign organizer and subsequently a board member with Montana Conservation Voters.  Cassidy has also served on the board of Community Action for Justice in the Americas, on the steering committee for the Fair Trade City Missoula campaign, and as Advisor to Eduquemos a La Nina at Ak’Tenamit, a Maya cooperative in Guatemala.

Cassidy has an M.S. from the University of Montana in Environmental Studies, and a B.A. in American Literature from UCLA.  She is the author of Fighting for the Dream: Voices from a New Generation of Maya Women.  In her free time, Cassidy likes snowy slopes, fast rivers, and pulling weeds out of her garden.

Britta Bloedorn

Program and Administrative Associate

Britta joined WVE in spring 2011 as a program and administrative assistant to help support WVE’s communications, membership, organizing, office and database management efforts.  As a clinical herbalist, health practitioner and educator, she is committed to healthy, sustainable connections of people and the natural world and to finding holistic, respectful and supportive approaches to personal, community and environmental health and to social and environmental justice.

Most recently she worked in watershed restoration, environmental and community-based conservation efforts in Western Montana, as a school community garden coordinator and educator, and as sales manager and consultant for a local natural health business.  She holds a B.S. in Resource Conservation and a B.A. in Geography from the University of Montana, has studied midwifery and women’s health in Oakland, CA, and western botanical medicine at the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine and the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine.  Britta is an avid gardener, plant and nature lover, enjoys her close friends, family and animal companions, baking delicious bread and cakes, and loves swimming in rivers.

Key Consultants

Maria Gonzalez Mabbutt, Bilingual Outreach Advisor, brings many years of experience organizing women on environmental health and justice issues as well as civic engagement. Maria works on contract with WVE to translate materials into Spanish and represents WVE in the Spanish-speaking media.

Sian Wu, Project Director, Resource Media, coordinates media outreach and strategy efforts across almost all of Resource Media’s program areas. Her current post is with the Oceans and Public Health teams. Prior to joining RM, Sian was a translator, editor and reporter for local ethnic newspapers and magazines.

Ann Blake, Ph.D., Consultant, is an independent consultant working with governments, occupational health, public health and environmental advocates to find viable alternatives to toxic chemicals in manufacturing and consumer products. Dr. Blake’s work covers toxics reduction strategies from product content screening and environmentally preferable purchasing to drafting local, national and international legislation and chemicals policies. Dr. Blake has a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics and neural development from the University of Oregon.