Papers of Ellen K. Silbergeld, 1968-1994

Environmental toxicologist and research scientist Ellen (Kovner) Silbergeld was born in Washington, D.C., in 1945 and has degrees in history from Vassar College (A.B. 1967) and in environmental engineering sciences from Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D. 1972). Her professional interests include neuropharmacology and toxicology, and environmental risk assessment. In particular, Silbergeld has studied the effects of dioxins and PCBs on humans, and an interest in lead poisoning has spanned her career. The character "Hester Silver" in Janice Kaplan's A Morning Affair (New York: New American Library, 1989) was based on Silbergeld.

Silbergeld has been an activist from the late 1960s. She was an intern--one of "Nader's Raiders"--at the Center for the Study of Responsive Law, and joined the Center for Christian Renewal, a group of disaffected Catholics protesting racism in the church, "oppressive" teachings (re: birth control, divorce, etc.) incompatible with modern life, and the war in Vietnam. She was detained for attempting to pass out leaflets at a mass in 1969, but charges were dropped. That same year, as secretary and program officer at the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, she helped organize a meeting for staff to observe the nationwide moratorium called by the Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. In 1971, Silbergeld was arrested twice as a result of her participation in "Mayday" protests on May 3rd and 5th following the Federal Employees for Peace rally in Lafayette Square. Settlements from this action were reached, only in 1980, as a result of a class-action suit brought by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union ).

After a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins in environmental medicine and neurosciences beginning in 1972, Silbergeld's career closely followed her scientific interests. She worked at the National Institutes of Health (1975-1984) as a staff fellow, as chief of the Section on Neurotoxicology, and as guest scientist in the Reproductive Toxicology Section. Bringing together her skills as scientist and lobbyist, Silbergeld became director of the Toxic Chemicals Program and chief toxics scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in Washington in 1982, leading EDF's scientific effort to end human exposure to lead and dioxins; she is still part of the permanent program staff, since 1992 holding the Environmental Health Chair at the Environmental Defense Fund. She is concurrently professor of toxicology in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the University of Maryland Medical School in Baltimore, and also teaches in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University's School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Because of her expertise and her position with the Environmental Defense Fund, Silbergeld has advised both national and international organizations and advocacy groups, and has been influential in determining policies relating to environmental hazards. She has worked with the Chemicals Program of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) since 1982, and has served on the Science Advisory Board (SAB) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1983-1989, 1994- ). She sat on the Lead Poisoning Advisory Council for the state of Maryland, 1990-1993, is currently an active member of many professional and scientific organizations, and is on the editorial and advisory boards of journals in her fields of expertise.

Silbergeld received a MacArthur Foundation grant in 1993, was nominated for a Living on Earth Award, and received the Edward K. Barsky Award of The Physicians Forum of the American Public Health Association. Her husband, Alan Mark Silbergeld, is director of the Washington D.C. office of the Consumers Union. They have two children, Sophia and Nicholas.