Project TENDR (Targeting Environmental Neuro-Development Risks) is directed by an executive team of Maureen Swanson, The Arc; Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, UC Davis; and Dr. Tanya Taiwo, Bastyr University.

Maureen Swanson, MPA, is Director of Environmental Risk Reduction & Project TENDR for The Arc, with expertise in facilitating and crafting scientific consensus as a basis for collective action. She was on the Steering Committee of the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Coalition which led reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act. She has worked for 23 years in environmental health/policy for non-profit organizations and for state government. Maureen co-founded Project TENDR with Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto in 2015.

Irva Hertz-Picciotto, PhD, is Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, and Director, Environmental Health Sciences Center, UC Davis, representing over a dozen disciplines. A renowned epidemiologist, her 300+ publications have examined environmental chemicals, social factors, and gene-environment interactions associated with effects on pregnancy and child neurodevelopment, and most recently, the health effects of climate change. She co-founded Project TENDR with Maureen Swanson in 2015.

Tanya Khemet Taiwo, PhD, CPM, MPH, is Assistant Professor of Midwifery, Bastyr University. Dr. Taiwo is an epidemiologist focused on how socioeconomic and psychological stress in moms-to-be affects their babies’ health. She is also a licensed midwife who co-founded a network of women’s health clinics in medically underserved areas of Sacramento, and designed a home health visitation program for Black infants in Sacramento, as well as a clinical gestational diabetes program. Dr. Taiwo is also on the Project TENDR Advisory Board (TAB).

The TENDR Advisory Board (TAB) is comprised of TENDR members and meets monthly. The current TAB members are:

  • Laura Anderko, PhD, RN, M. Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, Villanova University
  • Aimin Chen, MD, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology, Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
  • Eve Gartner, JD, Managing Attorney, Toxic Exposure and Health Program, Earthjustice
  • Deborah Hirtz, MD, Professor, Neurological Sciences and Pediatrics, University of Vermont Medical School
  • Arthur Lavin, MD, FAAP, Pediatrician
  • Pamela Miller, MS, Executive Director, Alaska Community Action on Toxics; Co-Chair, International Pollutants Elimination Network
  • Mark Mitchell, MD, MPH, FACPM, Associate Professor, Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Health Equity, George Mason University; Co-Chair, Commission on Environmental Health, National Medical Association
  • Jennifer Sass, PhD, Senior Scientist, Natural Resources Defense Council
  • Tanya Khemet Taiwo, PhD, CPM, MPH, Assistant Professor of Midwifery, Bastyr University