Jane Houlihan, MSCE
As research director and science communications expert for national non-profit organizations, Jane Houlihan focuses on transforming science into resources that empower people to make healthy, sustainable choices. She directs research operations at Healthy Babies Bright Futures (hbbf.org), a non-profit organization working to measurably reduce exposures to toxic chemicals in the first 1000 days of life. As long-time senior vice president for research at Washington-DC based Environmental Working Group (ewg.org), she led the creation of data-driven online guides covering chemicals in tap water, sunscreen, cosmetics, bottled water, and other consumer products. She conceived of and directed EWG’s Skin Deep online cosmetics safety guide. She led “Pollution in Newborns,” an initiative measuring industrial chemicals in umbilical cord blood, and a related stream of biomonitoring studies uncovering the health risks of people’s everyday exposures to pollutants and pesticides. Her research areas span risk assessment, chemicals policy, and green product evaluation. Houlihan is an original co-founder of the national Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, and a recipient of the Breast Cancer Fund’s Science Hero Award. She holds bachelors and masters degrees in civil engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
