Boards of Directors

Public Citizen’s Boards of Directors

Our boards of directors work in tandem to plan Public Citizen’s future and adjust to the ever-changing present. Public Citizen Foundation board members focus on research and public education, while Public Citizen Inc. board members focus on lobbying and organizing.

Public Citizen Foundation

   Robert Fellmeth, Chair

Robert Fellmeth is Price Professor of Public Interest Law University of San Diego School of Law and director of its Center for Public Interest Law. He joined the faculty in 1977 after a career in public interest law. Professor Fellmeth graduated from Stanford University (AB 1967) and Harvard University School of Law (J.D. 1970). From 1968 to 1973, he was an attorney with the Center for the Study of Responsive Law and was one of the original “Nader's Raiders.” He has also served as deputy district attorney for San Diego County and assistant U.S. attorney for the Department of Justice in San Diego, specializing in antitrust prosecutions. He is the co-author of the treatise “California White Collar Crime” (w/ Papageorge, Lexis, 2003).

Professor Fellmeth founded the Center for Public Interest Law (CPIL) in 1979. It teaches law students the skills of public interest law, offers clinics and publishes the California Regulatory Law Reporter. Professor Fellmeth served as the California State Bar Discipline Monitor from 1987 to 1991, helping to create an independent State Bar Court.   He founded the Children's Advocacy Institute (CAI) in 1990, which trains law students as child advocates and operates a clinic representing abused children in juvenile dependency court. It also functions as a statewide law firm on behalf of children. Both CPIL and CAI pursue litigation and legislative projects, and have sponsored over thirty enacted statutes relevant to public transparency, ethics, consumer rights, and child health, safety and welfare.   Professor Fellmeth has argued 40 published appellate cases in the consumer and child rights subject areas.  He is the author of the graduate text, “Child Rights and Remedies” (Clarity, 2003, 2006). He serves on the board of the Maternal and Child Health Access Foundation and the First Star Foundation; is Vice Chair of the Board of the National Association of Counsel for Children; and is counsel to the Board of Voices for America's Children.

   Jim Bildner

Jim Bildner is managing director of the Center for Applied Philanthropy and The Fund for Sustainability. He is chairman of the Literary Ventures Fund and general partner of New Horizons Partners, LLC. He is a trustee of The Kresge Foundation, Case Western Reserve University, Lesley University, The Non Profit Finance Fund, The National Public Radio Foundation and The Trustees of Reservations. He is on the board of The Lizard Island Research Foundation in Australia, The Good Deed Foundation and the McCue Corporation. He is an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a member of the executive council of WBUR (Boston Public Radio), chairman of WBUR’s Board of Overseers and an overseer of WGBH Public TV and Radio. He is also a member of the National Council of Environmental Defense, chairman of the Coral Reef Science Foundation and on the editorial board of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.

A frequent lecturer and speaker on venture philanthropy and literature, he is also an adjunct professor of law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and is the Humanities and Literature Departments’ entrepreneur in residence at Clark University. In his board service, Mr. Bildner serves on the investment committees of boards with aggregate endowments in excess of $6 billion and serves as chair or a member of the finance and audit committees of three boards.

Mr. Bildner earned his A.B. from Dartmouth College, his J.D. from Case Western Reserve School of Law and his M.F.A. from Lesley University. Mr. Bildner has written numerous articles, op-ed pieces and commentaries for newspapers, magazines and radio including National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition,” The Boston Globe, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Hampshire Daily Gazette and Inc.Magazine. His most recent book, “A Visual Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast,” was published by McGraw Hill in May of 2006.  He is a candidate for an M.S. in journalism at Boston University, a member of the Writers Room of Boston, Inc. and a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

   Mark A. Chavez 

Mark Chavez received his Juris Doctorate degree from Stanford Law School in 1979. During law school he served as a judicial extern for the Hon. Mathew O. Tobriner of the California Supreme Court, was a co-founder and the first managing editor of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and a founding member of the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation.

Mr. Chavez joined the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., after graduating from law school. He spent three years representing executive branch agencies and the U.S. in labor, employment, housing and national security cases filed in federal courts around the country. In 1983, Mr. Chavez entered private practice working first at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in San Francisco, Calif. and subsequently at Farrow, Bramson, Chavez & Baskin in Walnut Creek, Calif. In 1994, Mr. Chavez and Jonathan E. Gertler founded the law firm of Chavez & Gertler LLP. The firm's attorneys represent plaintiffs in consumer, employment, and civil rights class actions. Mr. Chavez is A-V rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer.

Mr. Chavez has represented plaintiffs in a wide variety of class actions, private attorney general cases and other complex civil litigation matters involving financial services, lending practices and insurance charges.

He has served or is currently serving as lead or co-lead counsel in over 100 class actions filed in federal and state courts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Washington. These cases have resulted in some of the largest recoveries ever achieved in consumer class actions.

Mr. Chavez was one of the eight founders of the National Association of Consumer

Advocates and is its former co-chair. He currently serves on the boards of the National Consumer Law Center, the Public Justice Foundation, Disability Rights Advocates, and the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation.

   Joan Claybrook 

Joan Claybrook was president of Public Citizen from 1982 to January 2009. During that time she oversaw many successful advocacy campaigns, including playing a key role in persuading Congress to mandate air bags, as well as pushing measures to improve fuel economy and truck safety. Prior to becoming president of Public Citizen, Ms. Claybrook was head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1981. Before serving as NHTSA administrator, Ms. Claybrook founded and ran Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division and worked for the Public Interest Research Group, the National Traffic Safety Bureau, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Among her many honors is honorary doctor of law, Goucher College, 1980; honorary doctor of public service, University of Maryland, 1981; Philip Hart Distinguished Consumer Service Award, Consumer Federation of America, 1986; Excellence in Public Service Award, Georgetown Law Center, 1990; honorary doctor of law, Georgetown University, 1993.

   Liz Figueroa

Liz Figueroa is a former California state senator and assemblywoman who wrote California’s original “Do Not Call” legislation. Ms. Figueroa’s powerful defense of consumer rights has kept telemarketers off the line and insurance companies out of hospital rooms. The daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, she was the first Latina from Northern California elected to the state legislature, where she was at the forefront of issues involving children, working families, privacy and healthcare.

While serving in California's Legislature from 1995 until 2006, she helped create the Healthy Families Program, which provided health care to more than 500,000 California children. She fought to reform the insurance industry and wrote landmark laws giving California patients the right to sue negligent HMOs, protect their private medical data and prevent HMOs from requiring privacy waivers as a condition of enrollment.  However, the legislation that won her the most ringing endorsements from anyone with a telephone is the law that created the “Do Not Call List" in 2002. Shortly thereafter - following Ms. Figueroa’s lead – the Bush administration adopted this law at the federal level and extended its protection to every citizen across the nation.

   Jim Hightower

Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, “Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow” who has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be -- consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.

Each month, he publishes a populist political newsletter, "The Hightower Lowdown," which has received both the Alternative Press Award and the Independent Press Association Award for best national newsletter.

He is a New York Times best-selling author, and has written seven books including, “Thieves In High Places: They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time To Take It Back;” “If the Gods Had Meant Us To Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates;” and “There's Nothing In the Middle Of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos.” His newspaper column is distributed nationally by Creators Syndicate.

Mr. Hightower has spent his life battling for the rights of consumers, working families, environmentalists and small businesses. A graduate of the University of North Texas, he worked in Washington, D.C., as legislative aide to Sen. Ralph Yarborough of Texas; he then co-founded the Agribusiness Accountability Project, a public interest project that focused on corporate power in the food economy; and he was national coordinator of the 1976 "Fred Harris for President" campaign. Mr. Hightower then returned to his home state, where he became editor of the feisty biweekly, The Texas Observer. He served as director of the Texas Consumer Association before running for statewide office and being elected to two terms as Texas Agriculture Commissioner (1983-1991).

   Steve Skrovan

Steve Skrovan grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Yale University in 1979 with a degree in English and began his career as a stand-up comedian. He wrote for television shows, including “Seinfeld,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Til Death.” Mr. Skrovan co-wrote, produced and directed “An Unreasonable Man,” the documentary about the life and career of Ralph Nader.

   Sidney M. Wolfe, MD 

Dr. Wolfe is the acting president of Public Citizen and founder and director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. Dr. Wolfe is an expert on issues of drug safety, health care policy, Food and Drug Administration and hospital oversight, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, medical devices, Medicare and Medicaid and doctor discipline. A longtime critic of the FDA’s tendency to become too cozy with the pharmaceutical industry and others it was set up to regulate, Dr. Wolfe now plays an active role at the agency. He sits on FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Committee.

Public Citizen Inc.

   Jason B. Adkins, Chair

Jason Adkins co-founded and is an attorney for the national litigation firm Adkins, Kelston & Zavez. A consumer attorney and alum of Public Citizen, Mr. Adkins has been litigating to rein in and reform the insurance industry. He also founded and served as executive director of the Center for Insurance Research, a leading non-profit organization that conducts research and advocates on behalf of insurance policyholders nationwide. He worked for Public Citizen from 1984 to 1988, when he directed Buyers Up, a grassroots consumer energy and advocacy program.

Among his accomplishments at Adkins, Kelston & Zavez was his successful leadership of a national effort to prevent unfair mutual-to-stock (demutualizations) of major life insurance companies employing regulatory, public policy, media and litigation strategies, which resulted in the preservation of and/or fair distribution of over $200 billion for policyholders.

He has actively investigated and litigated major class action cases on behalf of consumers around the country involving a broad array of alleged misconduct by insurers. He also has litigated on behalf of non-insurance classes of consumers against pharmaceutical companies, banks, and property owners harmed by a coastal oil spill.

Mr. Adkins has represented clients before the U.S. Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Massachusetts Board of Medicine, the Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection, numerous state insurance and other agencies, and professional groups.

A graduate of Harvard Law school, Mr. Adkins also worked against “tort reform” in the early 1980s for the Center for the Study of Responsive Law.

   Joan Claybrook 

Joan Claybrook also sits on the board of Public Citizen Inc.

   David Halperin

David Halperin is senior vice president at the Center for American Progress and the director of Campus Progress, the Center’s effort to help young people make their voices heard on critical issues. A former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and presidential candidate Howard Dean, Mr. Halperin has a history of advocacy that goes back to his days as a research analyst at the Arms Control Association in the mid 1980s. His work as an attorney and consultant includes providing policy and strategic advice to Public Citizen in the 1990s, where he worked on issues ranging from civil justice to homeland security.

Mr. Halperin’s has served as an advisor to groups such as Greenpeace and Democracy for America; counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee; a fellow of the Harvard Law School Berkman Center for Internet & Society; legal and policy advisor to Ralph Nader; founding executive director of the American Constitution Society; and co-founder of the Internet company Progressive Networks (now RealNetworks).

   Joy Howell

Joy Howell   is a managing partner of Cambridge Strategic Partners, a public affairs and public relations consulting firm. Prior to founding CSP, she directed the Office of Public Affairs of the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C. There, she served on the Chairman's senior management team and managed 70 employees. She also served as one of the communications directors on the Gore Lieberman Presidential Campaign in 2000.

Previously, she was communications director to U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) As president of Howell Communications Group, Washington, D.C./Los Angeles, she represented over 100 Fortune 1000 corporations and their trade associations. She developed public policy strategies in the 1980s for General Motors, Subaru and Dart/Kraft Industries. In the 1990s she implemented marketing plans for companies such as AT&T, Aetna, Frito Lay and Pacific Gas and Electric.

After completing her MBA at the University of Redlands, Ms. Howell studied public policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and business at Harvard Business School. She earned a Master in Public Administration (MPA) with a focus on international business and policy, including telecommunications convergence, corporate strategy, international marketing, corporate governance, and change management. Studies in international business at Cambridge University, England, inspired her MBA thesis on the European Monetary Union. She has been an instructor and guest lecturer at the Kennedy School at Harvard, George Washington University, and the University of Texas.

A partial list of awards, honors and elected positions includes: past board member, University of Texas at Austin, College of Communications; Chairman's Award, Federal Communications Commission, Outstanding Alumni Award, University of Redlands; Distinguished Service Award, Austin City Council; executive vice president, Student Government, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; president, Foggy Bottom Association.

   Adolph L. Reed, Jr.

Adolph Reed is a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses on American and Afro-American politics, urban politics and American political development. He has served on the board of directors of Coalition for New Priorities and the Public Health Institute and is national co-chair for the campaign for Free Higher Education.

His published work includes “Stirrings in the Jug: Black Politics in the Post-Segregation Era,” University of Minnesota Press, and “The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon: The Crisis of Purpose in Afro-American Politics,” Yale University Press. He has also served on the editorial boards of several publications, including Polity, Centennial Review and New Political Science.

   John Richard

John Richard   is president of Essential Information, a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging citizens to become active and engaged in their communities. He also supervises staff at The Center for Study of Responsive Law, the hub of Ralph Nader’s public interest activities in Washington.

   Sidney M. Wolfe, MD 

Dr. Wolfe also sits on the board of Public Citizen Inc.

more resources

Because Public Citizen does not accept funds from corporations, professional associations or government agencies, we can remain independent and follow the truth wherever it may lead. But that means we depend on the generosity of concerned citizens like you for the resources to fight on behalf of the public interest. If you would like to help us in our fight, click here.