Episode 23

​Mindi Messmer is an environmental and public health scientist (Clinical and Translational Science, MS) so other parents reached out to her when local families began experiencing a tragic pediatric cancer cluster in Rye, NH 2014. Her empathy for their terribly scary situations led her to become involved as a local activist, leader, and public servant.

Mindi Messmer was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives (2016-2018) where she worked to protect public health through bills on PFAS, arsenic and lead poisoning prevention. She remains committed to cancer prevention and environmental and drinking water protection.

Mindi is the author of Female Disruptors, Stories of Mighty Female Scientists (2022), which she discusses in this interview. 

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Episode 10

Lori Gramlich represents Old Orchard Beach in the Maine Legislature, where she has introduced numerous bills to support the health of children and clean drinking water.  

Lori uses her skills as a social worker and advocate to protect Mainers from toxic harms that come from PFAS in firefighting foam and household products, arsenic in our residential well water, and keeping glyphosate away from developing children.  

Lori Gramlich shines as a champion of the environment on the Environment and Natural Resources committee. Her reverence for the natural world, and the health of the people who live here, is what motivates her actions and leadership.  
Some of Rep. Gramlich's sponsored bills have become laws, making Maine a national leader in the control of the spreading of PFAS products and holding corporate polluters responsible. 

Bonus: Before the Deluge -- A favorite Jackson Browne song that underscores the relationship between earth health and "the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power." 

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