Elizabeth Grossman is the author of "Chasing Molecules" and "High Tech Trash." Karen Peabody O'Brien (right) is the executive director of Advancing Green Chemistry.
Lizzie also is the author of "Watershed: The Undamming of America" (Counterpoint Press, 2002), and "Adventuring Along the Lewis and Clark Trail" (Sierra Club Books, 2003), and she co-edited "Shadow Cat: Encountering the American Mountain Lion" (Sasquatch Books, 1999).
Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including Amicus Journal, Audubon, California Wild, Cascadia Times, Chicago Tribune, Environmental News Network, Grist, The Nation, New York Times Book Review, Newsday, the Oregonian, Orion, the Patagonia catalogue, Salon.com, Seattle Times, Washington Post and Yes!
A native of New York City, she has a BA in literature from Yale University. She now lives a minute’s walk from the Willamette River in Portland, Ore. When not at her desk writing she's out exploring -- hiking, camping, paddling, sketching and watching birds.
From 2004 to 2007, Karen was program manager at American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute, where she identified new opportunities to connect the science of green chemistry to a broader movement for sustainability.
Prior to that, she co-founded The Ingenuity Project (TIP) at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. TIP is an effort to focus business education on the competitive advantages inherent in heightened environmental awareness.
Previously Karen was program officer for new ventures at the W. Alton Jones Foundation, a private grant-making organization focused on environmental issues and nuclear non-proliferation. At Jones, she managed grants on cross-disciplinary issues including environmental health, sustainable urban development, and renewable energy. She also initiated and oversaw the foundation’s ‘Megacities and Sustainable Transportation’ initiative, an international project spanning cities in the U.S., Asia and Latin America.
Karen’s background is in interdisciplinary approaches to political and economic development; she holds a BA in Development Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, an MA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. Karen is an urban beekeeper and maintains a blog called "My Own Beeswax."
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