PPI Adds Two Experts to Its Board of Directors
Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt, D.P.A., from Ramsey County, Minn., and Carolyn Raffensperger, M.A., J.D., from Ames, Iowa, will serve on the Product Policy Institute's board and help the organization achieve its mission of waste prevention and sustainable production and consumption practices through public policy and good governance.
PPI advocates public policies that protect public health and safety and address climate change by encouraging waste prevention and clean production. Founded in 2003, PPI's strategy is to organize communities and their local governments to press for state-by-state Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework policies that hold producers responsible for ensuring their products and packaging do not become public liabilities.
Reinhardt has worked on environmental policy at the local, state, and regional level for over 20 years. She holds leadership positions with the National Association of Counties where she secured adoption of four product stewardship resolutions, including one supporting the framework approach to product stewardship.
In Minnesota, she chairs the Environment and Natural Resources Committee of the Association of Minnesota Counties. She currently serves as chair of the Ramsey/Washington Resource Recovery Board, vice-chair of the Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board for the Twin Cities region, and is a member of the National Paint Product Stewardship Initiative.
Raffensperger is the founding executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, where she has guided the organization since December 1994. As an environmental lawyer, she specializes in the fundamental changes in law and policy necessary for the protection and restoration of public health and the environment. She is co-editor of Precautionary Tools for Reshaping Environmental Policy published by M.I.T. Press (2006) and Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle, published by Island Press (1999).