Our Board

Mary Peveto is a mother of three who calls herself an “accidental activist.” She started organizing neighbors and parents when she stumbled upon a national study published in 2008 that showed her daughters’ school to be ranked among the worst 2% in the nation for schools at risk to toxic industrial air pollution. She co-founded Neighbors for Clean Air with friends and neighbors to work for stricter state standards to regulate air toxics in Oregon, and to continue to strengthen and galvanize the citizen action necessary to effect change in regulating toxic air pollution. Peveto formerly held product marketing, International marketing and communications roles at Nike and Adidas.

Nancy Jackson works for Multnomah County coordinating health care reform and Medicaid expansion efforts. Prior to that she worked as a consultant supporting non-profits with process improvement and grant writing. Nancy began her career in the international sector working for the United Nations refugee agency in Latin America, Africa, and the former Soviet Union where she focused on capacity building of local NGOs in their provision of assistance to refugees.  Nancy came to Neighbors for Clean Air as a concerned parent of two children when she learned that schools in PPS suffered from some of the worst air quality in the country.  She holds Master’s degrees in Public Affairs and Latin American Studies.

Nick Bouwes is retired from a career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where he served as Chief of the Economics and Environmental Assessment Branch in the Engineering Analysis Division of the Office of Science and Technology. This branch was responsible for providing economic and environmental analyses support for Office of Water regulatory initiatives. Previously he was an environmental economist in the Office of Toxic Substances where he worked on various rule makings, including those relating to asbestos and lead. He also led development of the Risk Screening Environmental Indictors model, which provides risk scores for all chemicals reported to the Toxic Release Inventory. This model was the assessment tool used to rank U.S. schools in a study featured in the USA Today story “The Smokestack Effect.” Prior to his EPA tenure, he was an economic analyst for the Economic Research Service of USDA and adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin. He has authored numerous journal articles, reports, and book chapters; his areas of specialty include environmental benefits methodology and environmental justice research. Along with serving on NCA’s board, Nick currently volunteers with several other organizations focused on improving air quality, Oregon DEQ’s Portland Air Toxics Solution Committee and the Multnomah County ASCI Air Toxics Taskforce subcommittee.

Brent Foster is a public-interest environmental attorney based in Hood River, Oregon who has worked on enforcing state and federal environmental laws for over 14 years. He has represented a diversity of local and national conservation groups on air and water pollution issues and litigates in state and federal courts. Brent has successfully stopped multiple natural gas-fired power plants based on air pollution concerns, helped initiate litigation against PGE’s Boardman coal power plant, and brought the precedent-setting case that required Clean Water permits for aerial pesticide spraying near rivers and streams. Brent first learned the value of clean air growing up in Los Angeles, where he experienced respiratory problems playing sports while breathing the toxic soup of the city’s air. He believes that toxic air pollution in Portland and in his home in the Columbia Gorge primarily results from a lack of both strong air pollution laws and rigorous state air pollution enforcement.

Stacey Schroeder became interested in air quality five years ago when she moved to North Portland to raise her new baby and started smelling industrial pollutants in her neighborhood. She soon learned that Portland has a serious city-wide problem with air pollution and that North Portland is one of several municipal hot spots. In response to multiple neighbors’ concerns about smelling paint on a daily basis, she organized and now leads North Portland Air Quality Group, which quickly partnered with Neighbors for Clean Air.  Stacey currently serves as a liason between the two groups. She is a registered nurse at OHSU, a mother of two, and a triathlete, and she believes that clean air is crucial to the success of all of these commitments.

Renee Hackenmiller-Paradis, MPH, PhD currently works within Nike’s Global Sourcing & Manufacturing (GSM) Department as the Global Chemistry Legislation and Regulation Manager, where she develops corporate policies and guidance to ensure Nike’s global production meets and exceeds chemical standards. Immediately before joining the private sector, she served as a public health policy specialist at the State of Oregon Public Health Division, Oregon Health Authority. In this position she worked at the local, state, and national level on public health related policy issues, with a focus on environmental health, cancer prevention, and health systems transformation.

Previously, as both a principal at SHARP Strategies Consultants, LLC and the Environmental Health Program Director at Oregon Environmental Council Renee managed successful coalitions and legislative campaigns at both the local and state level, working with a diverse array of interest groups including education, environment, children’s advocacy, health professionals, and public health. She has successfully led campaigns that reduced pesticide use at all Oregon schools, cleaned up Oregon’s dirty diesel school buses, and removed toxic bisphenol A in children’s products in Multnomah County, and passed Oregon’s Green Chemistry Executive Order to promote the use of safer products in government agencies.

Before joining OEC, Renee worked as a bio-medical researcher in cell and developmental genetics as a NIH fellow at Oregon Health & Science University and at the University of Chicago. Her scientific research has been published in top-tier academic journals and presented at conferences around the country.

Renee has a BS in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Washington, a MPH in Health Policy from Portland State University, and a PhD in Genetics from the University of Chicago.

Nakisha previously served NCA as our Community and Environmental Justice Organizer and current works for the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club as its Climate Justice Organizer. She has a bachelor’s degree in Bio-environmental Science from Texas A&M University and recently obtained her Master of Science in Educational Leadership and Policy, with specialization in Leadership for Sustainability Education.

Her love of the natural environment and commitment to social justice stem from numerous childhood experiences living and growing up in Panama, Canada, Texas and throughout the United States. Nakisha’s exposure to a variety of cultures, injustices, and ecological degradation also contributed to a desire to facilitate transformational leadership development and environmental justice organizing that honors and celebrates individuals, communities and the natural and built environments we inhabit.