About the Chemicals Policy Initiative
The Chemicals Policy Initiative is a project of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production (LCSP) at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
For more information on the Lowell Center, see www.sustainableproduction.org
The objectives of the Chemicals Policy Initiative are:
- Significantly advance policy debate on reforming chemicals policy in the United States, proposing model solutions and new collaborations, all with a positive focus on sustainable chemicals management
- Assist in the development of sustainable chemicals management outside the US, in both developed and developing world.
- Encourage the development and use of safer alternatives by creating and promoting a comprehensive framework for alternatives assessment.
- Identify tools and appropriate ways of assisting green chemistry innovation and safer supply chain management of chemicals.
The Chemicals policy initiative closely collaborates with the Toxics Use Reduction Institute, which is also based at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
Who we are
Ken Geiser, PhD, LCSP Co-Director
Kenneth Geiser, PhD, is an internationally recognized specialist on pollution prevention, clean production and industrial chemicals policy. He is a Professor of Work Environment at the University of Massachusetts Lowell where he is also the Co-Director of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, a center that promotes sustainable solutions in chemical management and product design. Dr. Geiser
is one of the authors of the 1989 Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act. He has served as a policy advisor to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the United Nations Environment Program and has participated on several boards of non-profit environmental organizations. He is the author of many articles on pollution prevention, toxic chemical policy and sustainable development and a book, Materials Matter: Toward a Sustainable Materials Policy. He holds graduate and doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Joel Tickner, ScD, Project Director
Dr. Joel Tickner is Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts Lowell where he is also a Principal Investigator at the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production. His training is in toxics chemicals policy, epidemiology, risk assessment, and pollution prevention. He has served as an advisor and researcher for several government agencies, non-profit environmental groups and trade unions both in the U.S. and abroad during the past ten years. He was co-coordinator of the Wingspread Conference on the Precautionary Principle, co-editor of the book Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle and editor of the book Precaution, Environmental Science, and Preventive Public Policy. He has lectured, spoken at conferences, and published for several years on the topics of pollution prevention, risk assessment, toxic chemicals policy, and uncertainty and the precautionary principle. He holds a Masters of Science degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and a Doctor of Science Degree from the Department of Work Environment at University of Massachusetts Lowell and for three years was an Environmental Protection Agency STAR Fellow.
Yve Torrie, MA, Project Manager
With a background in non profit marketing and communication, Yve Torrie graduated from the Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Graduate Program at Tufts University in 2006. She specialized in environmental health issues, interned with the Office of Technical Assistance for Toxics Use Reduction and wrote her thesis on Alternatives to Perchloroethylene in the Drycleaning Industry in Massachusetts. She is a project manager for the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, managing all projects in the Chemicals Science and Policy Program.
Melissa Coffin, Project Associate
Ms. Coffin earned her A.A.S. in Ecology and Environmental Technology from Paul Smith's College in 2001, and her B.A. in Environmental Studies with a minor in Political Science from Northeastern University in 2003. She is currently Project Associate for the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production and working with Dr. Joel Tickner on projects surrounding the Precautionary Principle and Chemicals Policy.
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