Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter to chair CSPI Board of Directors

New chair of CSPI board of directors: former Philadelphia mayor Michael A. Nutter

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Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter has been elected to serve as chair of the board of directors of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Nutter, who has served on the nonprofit nutrition and food safety watchdog’s board since 2018, succeeds nonprofit development consultant and former CSPI Director of Development Robin Caiola, who has served on the board for 12 years, including six years as vice chair and nearly two years as chair.

Nutter was elected as the 98th mayor of Philadelphia in 2007 and was reelected for a second term in 2011. Under Mayor Nutter’s leadership, Philadelphia enacted—with CSPI’s active support—one of the earliest local laws requiring calorie counts on chain restaurant menus, laying the groundwork for a national menu-labeling law. And in 2012, Nutter signed legislation to improve nutrition standards for all city-funded food services. Previously, Nutter served on the Philadelphia City Council for nearly 15 years.

Nutter presently sits on a number of nonprofit boards, including those of the Council on Criminal Justice and the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation, and on several corporate and academic advisory committees.

“Mayor Nutter’s experience at the intersection of politics, public policy, and business makes him the ideal person to help lead CSPI into its next 50 years,” said CSPI president Dr. Peter G. Lurie. “And on behalf of the rest of the board, the staff, and the membership of CSPI, I thank Mayor Nutter for his willingness to serve.”

Lurie also thanked outgoing chair Robin Caiola for her service.

“Thanks to Robin’s leadership in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, and her contributions as chair, as a board member, and as a senior CSPI staff member, CSPI is bigger, stronger, and more effective than at any point in its history,” Lurie said. “We thank her for generously exceeding the one year she agreed to chair our board.”

“I consider it a great honor to serve as chair of CSPI and look forward to working with the board, Peter, and the rest of CSPI’s dedicated team,” Nutter said.

“Working with Mayor Nutter has been a professional highlight for me,” said Caiola. “CSPI has already benefited from Mayor Nutter’s leadership and commitment as vice chair of the board. He brings wisdom, fairness, decisiveness, and is always uplifting. With Mayor Nutter at the helm, I have never been more excited about the future of CSPI.”

CSPI also announced the election of three new board members. Dr. Giridhar Mallya is a public health physician and health policy expert who serves as Senior Policy Officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Mallya was previously Director of Policy and Planning for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. He is a board-certified family physician and an adjunct assistant professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jane Schmitz has also been elected to the CSPI board. Schmitz is currently an advisor to the From Now On Fund, and is an experienced public health instructor and researcher. The From Now On Fund seeks to eliminate systemic inequities in health and well-being outcomes in the United States. Schmitz served as Adjunct Professor at Occidental College, Clinical Assistant Professor, and curriculum advisor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. She was an Emerson National Hunger Fellow at the Congressional Hunger Center, a Program Officer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services in the Western Region and a US Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, West Africa. She holds a PhD in International Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Also elected to the CSPI board is David Rousseau, Vice President and Executive Director of Health Policy Media and Technology and Publisher of Kaiser Health News. He oversees KFF’s health policy media programs, including Kaiser Health News and all journalism programs, and directs the Foundation’s technology and online activities. Previously, Rousseau was Director of KFF’s statehealthfacts.org project and was Associate Director of KFF’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Rousseau currently serves as the Chair of the Media Impact Funders Board, is a member of the boards of Grantmakers in Health and the National Academy of State Health Policy, and advises Crisis Text Line on data ethics issues.