Gregory Jaffe is the Director of the Project on Biotechnology for CSPI. Jaffe came to CSPI after serving as a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice's Environmental and Natural Resources Division and as Senior Counsel with the U.S. EPA, Air Enforcement Division. He is a recognized international expert on agricultural biotechnology and biosafety and works on biosafety regulatory issues in the U.S. and throughout the world. He was a member of the Secretary of Agriculture's Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture from 2003-2008 and was reappointed to a new term in 2011. He was also a member of FDA’s Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee from 2004-2008. In addition, he provides biosafety expertise to the International Food Policy Research Institute and Cornell University’s Alliance for Science. Jaffe earned his BA with High Honors from Wesleyan University in Biology and Government and then received a law degree from Harvard Law School.
Joelle Johnson
Joelle Johnson is a Campaign Manager with a specific focus on the retail environment, working on policy and advocacy efforts that support healthy eating. Prior to joining CSPI she was a program manager for the Food Literacy Project, a farm-based food system education organization in Louisville, KY, and a local food procurement coordinator for DC Central Kitchen. Joelle is a graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health where she earned her Master in Public Health with a concentration in food and nutrition.
Jensen Jose
As Regulatory Counsel, Jensen Jose focuses on supporting CSPI’s efforts to strengthen the oversight of food additives and dietary supplements. Jensen served as regulatory policy specialist and staff liaison for the American Optometric Association. He also served as associate counsel for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and a research associate for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Jensen earned his JD from the University of Maryland law school, and a BS in Biology and BA in Political Science from the University of Washington.
James Kincheloe
As the Food Safety Campaign Manager, James Kincheloe looks for opportunities to advocate for science driven food safety reform from farm to fork. His work prior to joining CSPI spanned the spectrum of the food production system and included production animal medicine as a dairy veterinarian, international agriculture development, and infectious disease research and response system analysis. He earned a BS in Animal Science and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, and a Master of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. He also completed a residency in public health at the University of Minnesota.
Lea Kriesberg
Lea Kriesberg is a Community Organizer for the Policy team. She previously served as an organizer for a youth-centered health policy campaign program for more than 600 students across Virginia. As an intern with CSPI in 2019, she assisted with research and outreach for the Healthy Retail initiative. She received her B.A. in Public Health from American University.
Rachel Leader
Rachel Leader is a Community Organizer at CSPI. Previously, she received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Changhua, Taiwan. Rachel has worked for the National Alliance on Mental Illness – Central Texas as a public policy intern, tracking pertinent policies and building relations with advocacy groups. She received her B.A. in Sociology from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas.
Lisa Lefferts
Lisa Y. Lefferts is Senior Scientist at CSPI and focuses primarily on food additives. Prior to CSPI, her work consulting for non-profit organizations took her around the world, conducting trainings, representing Consumers International at Codex Alimentarius, and participating in FAO/WHO expert consultations. She has done extensive work assessing "green" label claims on various products. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College in Biology and Environmental Studies, and a Masters of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Bonnie Liebman
Bonnie Liebman, CSPI's Director of Nutrition, has been with the organization since 1977. She holds an M.S. in nutritional sciences from Cornell University. Liebman has been the key link in formulating CSPI's policies on diet and health. She provides the scientific input on many of the organization's administrative petitions and legislative proposals. Liebman is the author of numerous articles on diet and cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other illnesses for Nutrition Action Healthletter and a co-author of Salt: The Brand Name Guide to Sodium. She also served on the advisory committees that issued the American Cancer Society's 2001 and 1996 Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention.
Peter Lurie
Peter Lurie, M.D., M.P.H. is President of CSPI. Previously, Lurie was the Associate Commissioner for Public Health Strategy and Analysis at the Food and Drug Administration, where he worked on antimicrobial resistance, transparency, caffeinated beverages, arsenic in rice, fish consumption by pregnant and nursing women, expanded access to investigational drugs, and prescription drug abuse. Prior to that, he was Deputy Director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, where he addressed drug and device issues, coauthored the organization’s Worst Pills, Best Pills consumer guide to medications, and led efforts to reduce worker exposure to hexavalent chromium and beryllium. Earlier, as a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Michigan, he studied needle exchange programs, ethical aspects of mother-to-infant HIV transmission studies, and other HIV policy issues domestically and abroad.
Laura MacCleery
Laura MacCleery is a passionate and skilled advocate for public health and has worked to advance transparency, fairness and democracy for twenty years. She is Policy Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and has been at CSPI since 2014. A graduate of Stanford Law School, she spent nine years at Public Citizen, including serving as Director of Congress Watch. She was Deputy Director for Democracy Programs at the Brennan Center for Justice for three years, followed by Director of Legislative Affairs at the Center for Reproductive Rights, leading the development of their D.C. office. She was also Vice President for Policy and Mobilization at Consumer Reports/Consumers Union. She is the author or editor of more than 100 comments to regulatory dockets and 30 major research-based reports, and has testified in state legislatures, the U.S. Congress, and Brussels. She has appeared on national and local television and radio, published dozens of opinion editorials and blog posts, spoken at numerous conferences, rallies and other events, and been quoted frequently in the press.
