The Scientist
Dr. Ann Blake is an independent consultant with over 30 years of experience finding safer alternatives to industrial chemicals and materials in global manufacturing. Her work has included creating criteria for environmentally preferable purchasing, ecolabels and product rating systems as well as local, national and international chemicals policy reform. Clients have included the Garfield Foundation’s Cancer-Free Economy Network, the Colusa BioInnovation Center, NewGen Surgical and Wellness Within Your Walls. In 2018, Dr. Blake worked with the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry advising Costco Wholesale, the second largest global retailer, on their chemicals management. Dr. Blake conducted a follow-up to this work for Costco Wholesale in 2020 with Sally Edwards of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production. Past clients have included San Francisco’s Department of Environment, the Blue-Green Alliance, a US national strategic partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations and IPEN (the International Pollution Elimination Network), a global network of public interest NGOs. Dr. Blake’s current work focuses on the intersection between climate adaptation, safer materials, and economic equity.
Dr. Blake is a member of the Green Ribbon Science Panel created by the California legislature to advise California EPA on the implementation of California’s Safer Consumer Product regulations. Dr. Blake has created curriculum on green chemistry and alternatives assessment for the University of California Berkeley Extension Program and for the University of Washington Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. She is a co-author of the BizNGO 2014 Plastics Scorecard, and of Perennial Industrial Crops: Green Chemistry and Carbon Sequestration, in the 2019 Springer Handbook of Ecomaterials.
Prior to consulting, Dr. Blake worked for the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Toxic Substances Control as a hazardous waste inspector and Pollution Prevention Coordinator.
Dr. Blake has a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics and neural development from the University of Oregon.
Behind the Scenes
Ann’s global perspective was shaped by her upbringing as a Third Culture Kid. Born in Singapore, she spent her childhood across various countries, including Thailand (Bangkok), Malaysia (Penang), Australia (Sydney), and Indonesia (Jakarta). Her parents, both academics, worked for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
Ann’s mother, Dr. Myrna Braga-Blake, made significant contributions to the field of sociology. In the 1970s and 1980s, she conducted pioneering analyses of women industrial workers in Southeast Asia. In 1992, Dr. Braga-Blake edited the seminal work Singapore Eurasians: Memories and Hopes, which chronicled Eurasian history and culture in Singapore.
Since 1991, Ann has resided in Alameda, California, with her husband Greg and a succession of cats, currently including Kameko and Shinju. Her interests are diverse, encompassing vegetable gardening, quilt-making, stuffed animal creation, paddle boarding in the Bay, and playing jazz upright electric bass at local jam sessions.
