Stuart Cooper, Executive Director

Stuart Cooper was appointed Director of the Fluoride Action Network in June 2022. From 2010 to 2022, he was FAN’s Campaign Director, working closely with medical experts, researchers, and local organizers from around the world to help educate communities and decision makers.

Not long after joining FAN, he led a successful campaign to pass the nation’s first statewide infant fluoridation warning law. It was passed by the NH Legislature by a vote of 253-23, passed unanimously by the Senate, and signed by the Governor.

Prior to joining FAN he spent 10 years working in nonprofit management, public health advocacy and education, campaign management, and government relations for medical associations, nonprofits, and family-owned businesses. 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.

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.

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 from 2009 to 2023. She retired from FAN in August 2022 and is now the Secretary.

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 

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.

Worldwide Alliance to End Fluoridation
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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.

Bill Osmunson, DDS, MPH
Issaquah WA

Neil Carman, PhD
Austin TX

(Chair) Dawna Gallagher
Cotati CA

David Kennedy, DDS
San Diego CA

Katie LaJoie, RN
Charlestown NH

Ellen Connett
Exeter, NH

Rick North
Wellesley MA

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