fluoridealert.
org
Fluoride Action Network
[Link]/about/team/
January 28, 2012
We are in the process of updating these profiles.
Stuart Cooper, Director.
Stuart Cooper was appointed Director of the Fluoride
Action Network in June 2022. Before that, since
2010, he was FAN’s Campaign Director. Before
joining FAN he had 15 years of experience working
in government relations, campaign management,
and direct lobbying for industry associations,
nonprofits, and corporate clients. He has a B.A.
from Saint Anselm College in Political Science, and
resides in New Hampshire.
Jay Sanders, Education & Outreach Director
Jay Sanders graduated from San Francisco State University
with a B.A. in Political Science. Jay has decades of
experience in the creative fields of music, digital media,
photography, and videography and has been been working in
the environmental sciences since 2013.
1/5
Chris Neurath, Science Research Director
Chris has been with the Fluoride Action Network for the last 15 years. He is an invaluable
member of the FAN team.
Michael Dolan, Editor, The Fluoridation Weekly Review
Michael joined the Fluoride Action Network in October 2021. He edits the new
Fluoridation Weekly Review that includes the important developments that are simply not
being reported by the press. Michael was instrumental in the formation of the fluoridation
archives at the University of Massachuset’s W. E. B. Du Bois Library in Amherst. Michael
has been involved as a fluoridation activist for the last 25 years.
Paul Connett, PhD, Science Advisor
Paul was the Director of the Fluoride Action
Network since its inception in 2000, with the
exception of 3 years between 2013-2016. He
ended his role as Director in May 2022 and is
now a Science Adviser to the group. Paul is a
graduate of Cambridge University and holds a
PhD in chemistry from Dartmouth College.
From 1983 -2006 Paul taught chemistry at St.
Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he
specialized in Environmental Chemistry and
Toxicology.
Over the past 36 years his research on waste
management has taken him to 49 states in the
US, 7 provinces in Canada and 64 other countries, where he has given over 2500 pro
bono public presentations.
In 1996, Paul was persuaded by his wife Ellen to investigate the controversial practice of
water fluoridation. In 2000, he was one of the founders of the Fluoride Action Network
which he directed for 15 years (2000 -2015). In 2003, he gave an invited presentation to
a panel appointed by the US National Research Council, which published a landmark
review of fluoride’s toxicity in 2006.
In 2010, with two other authors, James Beck, MD, PhD and Spedding Micklem, DPhil
(Oxon), he published The Case Against Fluoride (Chelsea Green 2010).
Currently, Paul is the Senior Adviser to FAN and specializes in international liaison among
groups in other fluoridating countries.
2/5
Bill Osmunson, DDS, MPH, Senior Advisor
Bill Osmunson graduated from Loma Linda University
with Masters in Public Health in 1974 and Doctor of
Dental Surgery in 1977. For over 40 years, Dr.
Osmunson has been a General, Family, Cosmetic,
and Neuromuscular TMD comprehensive dentist. He
is an author, researcher, teacher, and grandfather.
For about 25 years after graduation, Dr. Osmunson
promoted water fluoridation or fluoride supplements.
Evaluating the research on both sides of the
fluoridation controversy, convinced him that many are
ingesting too much fluoride which is causing harm to
teeth, bones, brains, thyroid and all cells. The most
logical and least expensive place to reduce the
excess exposure is fluoride cessation which will also
give individual freedom to choose. We can and must
reduce fluoride exposure and give each person the freedom to choose.
Ellen Connett, former Managing Director & Acting Media Director.
Ellen has been with the Fluoride Action Network since
it’s inception in 2000, first as Director of Pesticides,
and then as Managing Director. She has been
Treasurer of the group since 2009. She resigned from
FAN in August 2022 and will continue to be Treasurer
up to the end of 2022.
Ellen has a long history of environmental and social
activism having been highly involved with the
American Committee to Keep Biafra Alive (a war that
caused the death of an estimated one million people
in eastern Nigeria), Operation Omega (co-founder of
group to help Bengali refugees that were too weak to
cross the border into India during the brutal war that
created Bangladesh in 1972), Work on Waste St.
Lawrence County, NY (a five-year effort battling a
proposed municipal waste incinerator), and Waste Not (editor of weekly newsletter that
tracked the waste industry’s efforts to build waste incinerators from 1986-2000).
Bill Hirzy, PhD, Consultant
3/5
Bill received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in
chemistry from the University of Missouri, then
worked 19 years as a research and
development chemist. He joined EPA in 1981 as
a senior scientist in the Risk Assessment
Division of the Toxics Office at Headquarters.
Bill’s interest in fluoride toxicity began in 1986
as a Union official at EPA headquarters in 1986,
following the lead of Dr. Robert Carton. Both Bill
and Bob are charter members of the
professionals’ labor Union at EPA HQ and
served several terms as Union president. They
were responsible for establishment of EPA’s
Principles of Scientific Integrity, and they have
published articles on fluoride toxicity and the
ethical problems with water fluoridation. Bill has also taught chemistry and environmental
science and ethics at the university level in Missouri and Washington, D.C.
Michael Connett, JD, Consultant
Michael earned his bachelor’s degree,
magna cum laude, from St. Lawrence
University, where he was elected to Phi
Beta Kappa. He was awarded a Juris
Doctor degree, magna cum laude, from
Temple University Beasley School of Law.
While in law school, Michael served as
Editor in Chief of the Temple Law Review.
He also received the Faculty Award for
Academic Achievement, the Jerry Zaslow
Memorial Award, the Kranzel Award, and
was recognized for Outstanding Oral
Argument in Trial Advocacy. After
graduating from law school, Michael served
as a law clerk to the Honorable Franklin
Van Antwerpen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Easton, PA and the
Honorable Michael M. Baylson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Michael is a member of the American Association for
Justice, Public Justice, and he is licensed to practice law by the State Bars of California
and Pennsylvania.
Michael has extensive background and expertise in the area of fluoride toxicology, and
has filed several federal administrative petitions on behalf of various consumer,
environmental, and medical health organizations.
4/5
Worldwide Alliance to End Fluoridation
(Contact us if you want to add your group)
Board of directors:
The Fluoride Action Network is a project of the American Environmental Health Studies
Project, Inc., a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. The Board of Directors is the same for
both.
(Chair) Paul Connett, PhD
Binghamton NY
Neil Carman, PhD
Austin TX
Dawna Gallagher
Cotati CA
William (Bill) Hirzy, PhD
Washington DC
David Kennedy, DDS
San Diego CA
Katie LaJoie, RN
Charlestown NH
Rick North
Wellesley MA
Willard (Bill) Osmunson, DDS, MPH
Newcastle WA
5/5