Charlotte Brody

Charlotte Brody is a registered nurse and activist who has spent her life making the world a safer place for people around the globe. She is one of the founders of Health Care Without Harm, an international coalition of more than 400 member organizations in 52 countries that are working to make health care more environmentally responsible and sustainable. Brody and Health Care Without Harm have launched campaigns to rid hospitals of mercury thermometers and toxics- leaching IV bags and encouraged hospitals to buy ecologically sound medical supplies, cleaners, building materials and organic food. She has engaged many nursing organizations, physician groups, major pharmacy chains, and other health and environmental organizations in addressing these issues and encouraging safer alternatives.

Charlotte Brody currently serves as the executive director of Commonweal, a nonprofit health and environmental research institute in Bolinas, California that conducts programs that contribute to human and ecosystem health — to a safer world for people and for all life. She continues to serve on the Board of Directors of the Health Care Without Harm campaign, and over the years has served as Chair of the Environmental Working Group, Organizing Director for the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, executive director of North Carolina’s Planned Parenthood.

Throughout her life Charlotte has lent her energy to many causes, including the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, an underground newspaper in Boston; soldiers returning from Viet Nam in Clarksville, Tennessee; a free clinic in Nashville, Tennessee; striking coal mining families in Harlan County, Kentucky; and two groups of cotton textile workers. In addition to her work at Commonweal and Health Care Without Harm, Charlotte currently serves on the boards of Smith Farm and the Environmental Working Group, the Advisory Boards of the Environmental Health Strategy Center and the Environmental Stewardship Council of Kaiser Permanente, and the Steering Committee of the Safe Cosmetics Campaign.

Her years of organizing experience and public health background converged in her groundbreaking work within health care to reduce the sector’s reliance on hazardous materials and practices, and there’s little doubt that she is making a difference as she works to lighten our collective body burden of toxic chemicals. For Brody, it's about reaching ever further to make a difference, visioning the possible and strategically leveraging opportunities to create lasting change. As she puts it, "I just want to be part of a global community that keeps learning how to keep making bigger, smarter transformational change."

For more about Charlotte, visit her website: www.commonweal.org