Board Members

Paula Dinerstein, President
Paula Dinerstein is general counsel for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), an environmental whistleblower group, and an attorney with over 30 years of experience. With PEER she has litigated environmental, whistleblower and Freedom of Information Act cases and worked on various environmental issues, including some involving pesticides. Prior to joining PEER, she clerked for a federal district court judge in Washington DC and then practiced with small public-interest oriented law firms. Included in her work was representing Beyond Pesticides in challenges to EPA pesticide registrations and challenges to regulations that weakened the federal organic food standards.
She has served on the Board of Beyond Pesticides since 2006 and became the Board President in 2022.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) | 2000 P St NW, Suite 240 | Washington, DC 20036

Chip Osborne, Vice President
Charles E. (“Chip”) Osborne Jr. is a nationally renowned organic turfgrass expert and a professional horticulturist with 50 years of experience as a professional horticulturist. He has 25 years of experience in creating safe, sustainable, and healthy athletic fields and landscapes. He is the former owner and operator of Osborne Florist & Greenhouse in Marblehead, MA. As a wholesale and retail nurseryman, he has first-hand experience with the pesticides routinely used in the landscape industry. Personal experience led him to believe there must be a safer way to grow plants. His personal investigation, study of conventional and organic soil science practices, and hands-on experimentation led him to become one of the country's leading experts on growing organic turf. He is the Founder and President of Osborne Organics (Cape Neddick, ME) and the Founder of the Organic Landscape Association. One of the main focus areas for Chip is developing education surrounding organic land care so that people in both the public and private sectors can understand what it takes to make it successful. He is a retired 20-year elected public official with an extensive understanding of the public process and what it takes to manage organic transitions in the public sector.
Chip is a Beyond Pesticides board member.
Osborne Organics | 11 Laurel Street | Marblehead, MA 01945

Terry Shistar, Ph.D., Secretary
Terry Shistar, PhD, holds a Ph.D. in Systematics and Ecology from the University of Kansas, where she also taught seminars in hazardous materials policy, risk assessment, and environmental ethics, and challenged students to find new paradigms for environmental policies. She is a hands-on board member, getting involved in project work, in addition to the “normal” board activities. She is a regular contributor to Pesticides and You and Beyond Pesticides’ reports, such as Ending Toxic Dependency (2007), and comments on regulatory issues, with an emphasis on issues before the National Organic Standards Board. Terry has been a member of the Beyond Pesticides board of directors since 1984; board president from 1988 to 1993; and serves as board secretary.
Lawrence, KS

Caroline Cox, Treasurer
Caroline Cox was research director at the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, CA until her retirement in 2020. Previously, she served as staff scientist at the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides. Prior to working at NCAP, she had nearly ten years experience as a senior research assistant at Oregon State University where she conducted research on the biological control of agricultural weeds. From 2006 - 2012, Caroline served as a public interest representative to the U.S. EPA's Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Beyond Pesticides. She writes and speaks regularly as a national expert on the toxicity of and alternatives to pesticides.
Eugene, OR 94612

Routt Reigart, M.D., At-Large
Routt Reigart, M.D. is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at Medical University of South Carolina and has conducted university affiliated clinical trials since 1971. Routt is one of the nation’s top pediatric expert on pesticides. His research interests include children's environmental health issues, general pediatrics, and toxicology. Routt has been Chair of the EPA’s Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, a member of EPA/USDA/Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee and the FIFRA Science Advisory Panel, and CDC Chair for the Childhood Lead Poisoning Advisory Committee. He is also co-editor of EPA's Recognition and Management of Pesticide Poisonings.
Medical University of South Carolina | Charleston, SC 29425

Colehour Bondera
Colehour Bondera is a farmer on his five-acre farm in Honaunau, Hawaii. He grows certified organic 100% Kona coffee and cacao. He focuses on building healthy soil and developing ground-cover as part of this steep hillside agriculture on the edge of the Mauna Loa volcano. He is President emeritus of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association (KCFA), with nearly ten years of work with coffee farmers groups. He has focused on farmer educational workshops and legislative protection for the Origin Identity of 100% Kona coffee. To that end, he serves as Chair of the KCFA Geographical Identity Committee; as a Board member of American Origin Products at the national level; and as North American Vice President of oriGIn which is based in Geneva, Switzerland. He served on the National Organic Standards Board from January 2011 until January 2016.
Kanalani Ohana Farm | Honaunau, HI

Jay Feldman
Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, is a co-founder of the organization and has served as its director since 1981. Jay dedicated himself to finding solutions to pesticide problems after working with farmworkers and small farmers through an EPA grant in 1978 to the organization Rural America (1977-1981). Since that time, Jay has helped to build Beyond Pesticides' capacity to assist local groups and impact national pesticide policy. He has tracked specific chemical effects, regulatory actions, and pesticide law. In September 2009, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack appointed Jay to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), where he completed a 5 year term in January 2015.
Beyond Pesticides | 701 E Street, SE | Washington, DC 20003

Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D.
Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D. is a Registered Dietitian, "investigative" nutritionist and advocate for social and environmental justice in the food system. She believes in using the power of art and media to influence public opinion, change public policy, and improve quality of life. She is a freelance writer, speaker, and host of nationally syndicated Food Sleuth Radio. Her mission: Help people "think beyond their plates;" connect the dots between food, health and agriculture; and, promote critical thinking and "food system literacy."
Food Sleuth, LLC| Columbia, MO

Warren Porter, Ph.D.
Warren Porter, PhD., is an emeritus Professor of Integrative Biology and an Ardath and Robert Rodale Professor of Environmental Toxicology. Dr. Porter's research has shown that combinations of commonly used agricultural chemicals in concentrations that mirror levels found in groundwater can significantly influence immune, endocrine and neurological health in animals. His research links pesticide exposure in utero to impaired learning, changes in brain function and altered thyroid levels. His laboratory has also shown that lawn chemical mixtures at concentrations below what EPA documents report as safe can increase fetal losses in laboratory animals. Warren is a Beyond Pesticides board member.
University of Wisconsin | Madison, WI