Dr. Ann Blake is an independent consultant with nearly 30 years of experience finding safer alternatives to industrial chemicals and materials in global manufacturing. Her work has included creating criteria for environmentally preferable purchasing, ecolabels and product rating systems as well as local, national and international chemicals policy reform. Clients include the Garfield Foundation’s Cancer-Free Economy Network, In 2018, Dr. Blake worked with the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry advising Costco Wholesale, the second largest global retailer, on their chemicals management. Past clients have included San Francisco’s Department of Environment, the Blue-Green Alliance, a US national strategic partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations and IPEN (the International POPS Elimination Network), a global network of public interest NGOs. Dr. Blake’s current work focuses on the intersection between climate adaptation, safer materials, and economic equity.
Dr. Blake is a member of the Green Ribbon Science Panel created by the California legislature to advise California EPA on the implementation of California’s Safer Consumer Product regulations. Dr. Blake has created curriculum on green chemistry and alternatives assessment for the University of California Berkeley Extension Program and for the University of Washington Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. She is a co-author of the BizNGO 2014 Plastics Scorecard, and of Perennial Industrial Crops: Green Chemistry and Carbon Sequestration, in the 2019 Springer Handbook of Ecomaterials. Prior to consulting, Dr. Blake worked for the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Toxic Substances Control as a hazardous waste inspector and Pollution Prevention Coordinator. Dr. Blake has a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics and neural development from the University of Oregon.