IPEN Welcomes Dr. Tadesse Amera as New Co-Chair of the Organization
(Göteborg, Sweden) Dr. Tadesse Amera, the distinguished environmental scientist and Director of Pesticide Action Nexus (PAN)-Ethiopia, has been elected as IPEN Co-Chair, the highest level in the global network. Dr. Amera will share chairing responsibilities with Co-Chair Pamela Miller of Alaska Community Action on Toxics. The network of over 500 public interest environmental health NGOs in more than 125 countries is united to eradicate the world’s most harmful substances for a toxics-free future for all.
Best known for a pioneering agro-ecology initiative that models organic alternatives to eliminate highly hazardous pesticide use in cotton cultivation, Dr. Amera has advanced numerous environmental health initiatives at local, national and regional levels and leads health and environmental engagements in high-level international policy making fora.
Dr. Amera served for seven years in the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia as District Environmental Health and Health Education Coordinator on a wide range of public health issues. His work in Ethiopia on electronics-waste issues has resulted in a regulation that includes the first national product Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) provision ratified last June by the Council of Ministers of Ethiopia. Similarly, his work with PAN Ethiopia and IPEN’s Lead-Safe Paint Campaign to protect children’s health from the ravages of lead exposure through household and decorative paints has come to fruition with a strong new regulation limiting lead in paint in Ethiopia.
Dr. Amera’s extensive experience in working with grassroots communities, government officials and high-level national policy makers and academia, as well as international fellows and donors, is reflected in the wide range of impacts in Ethiopia and in the global chemical policy fora such as the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Minamata Conventions, and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).
Dr. Amera commented, “I am honored to accept the nomination and to serve as the Co-Chair for IPEN’s effective, twenty-year old network, which is globalizing local health and environmental issues towards sound chemicals policy and sustainable alternatives for the protection of people, our planet and our future.”
“Tadesse brings a wealth of experience, passion, and vision to his new role. I am privileged to serve as Co-Chair with him and to work together with IPEN’s vibrant effective network to achieve our mission of a toxics-free future with health and justice for all,” said Pamela Miller, IPEN Co-Chair.
IPEN’s departing Co-Chair, Dr. Olga Speranskaya, guided the network from 2010-2018 towards important achievements in the global mercury treaty, successful international lead paint elimination campaigns and vital listings of harmful chemicals in the Stockholm Convention. Dr. Speranskaya also heads IPEN’s involvement in the Chemicals in Products Programme of the SAICM framework to control and manage harmful substances. Recipient of the Champion of the Earth Award by the UN Environment Program in 2011, the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2009, and named by Time Magazine as an “Environmental Hero” in 2009, she continues her work as an environmental change maker and leading international voice on women and chemicals as an IPEN Senior Advisor, Director of Eco Accord’s Chemical Safety Program, and Co-Director of Hej-Support.
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To contact Dr. Amera or other IPEN leaders for interview or for additional information, please contact Laura Vyda, IPEN Communications Director, LauraVyda@ipen.org.
