Our Team
Jay Feldman, Executive Director
Jay is a cofounder of the organization and has served as its director since 1981. Jay dedicated himself to finding solutions to pesticide problems after working with farmworkers and small farmers through an EPA grant in 1978 to the national advocacy organization Rural America (1977-1981). Since that time, Jay has helped to build Beyond Pesticides' capacity to assist local groups and impact national pesticide policy. He has tracked specific chemical effects, regulatory actions, and pesticide law. He is very familiar with local groups working on pesticides and has helped develop successful strategies for reform in local communities. His work with media has helped to bring broader public understanding of the hazards of pesticides. Jay has a Masters in urban and regional planning with a focus on health policy from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1977), and a B.A. from Grinnell College (1975) in political science. In September 2009, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack appointed Jay to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), where he completed a 5-year term in January 2015.
Autumn Ness, Director of Hawai'i Organic Land Management Program
Based in Maui, Autumn was instrumental in generating broad political support to begin the process of converting four Maui pilot sites (playing fields and parks) to organic land management, generating an invitation by vote of the Maui County Council to Beyond Pesticides that enabled site evaluations and the development of organic land management plans for the pilots, training the county landscaping staff, and holding community meetings. She is a grassroots community organizer and has been a policy consultant to state and county legislators on agriculture, pesticide, and housing policy. Specific projects include: expanding organic land management practices in the public and private sector, better regulation of pesticide-heavy industrial agriculture and the chemical companies conducting outdoor genetic engineering (GE) crop testing, and the promotion of small scale sustainable agriculture that produces food for the Hawaiian Islands. Autumn was a leader in the historic citizens’ initiative for a moratorium on GE crops in Maui County, which won at the ballot box in 2014, but lost in courts when the chemical industry sued the County of Maui. She works with a statewide coalition of environmental groups, to engage average people in the political process, amplify their voices in government, and drive policy.
Akayla Bracey, Science and Regulatory Manager
Akayla is a recent graduate of Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Sustainability Sciences (concentration: Environmental Biology and Applied Ecology) with a minor in Animal Science. Her love for the environment stems from a passion for helping animals. Akayla was a teaching assistant for two years at Cornell, gaining sustainable development and planning skills, as well as ecological knowledge on the North American woody plant species. She also worked very closely with arachnids, participating in a study comparing various Australian huntsman spiders’ running speed. Before heading to college, Akayla volunteered at Little Rascals (a local Washington, DC dog day-care) for four years. In her spare time, Akayla likes to write, cook, swim, and sketch realistic portraits and landscapes.
Jocelyn Cordell, Operations Manager
Jocelyn joined the Beyond Pesticides team in October 2022. Working closely with the Executive Director and staff, her position ensures that the organization functions to support programing as well as meet the informational and strategic needs of partner advocates and organizations by collaborating on improvements to systems or processes to advance our mission. Jocelyn is well prepared for this role, bringing 5+ years of international programming experience and an interdisciplinary background that includes public policy, education, gender initiatives, and nonprofit governance; she recently transitioned from the National Peace Corps Association where she collaborated with executive leadership and the Board of Directors. Fluent in French, Jocelyn completed a graduate semester at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. In addition to her capstone with the Global Engagement Center, U.S. State Department, in Washington, D.C. and Rabat, Morocco, Jocelyn also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Romance Languages: French/Italian from Merrimack College, taught English as a Foreign Language in France and South Korea, and performed internationally as a classical vocalist.
Jeff France, Office Manager
Jeff joined Beyond Pesticides in 2019 and assists in administrative support and office management for the Washington DC office and the annual National Pesticide Forum. He comes with many years of experience in the non-profit sector with New York land conservation. Jeff brings his administrative skills as well as his enthusiasm in continued support and assistance to work protecting the environment, and the all more urgent work of protecting public health with Beyond Pesticides. Jeff is also a lover of the outdoors and hiking, as well as yoga, meditation and music production.
Cassandra Worthington, Community and Policy Manager
Cassandra joined Beyond Pesticides in June 2023 after graduating with a master's degree from the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy. Before graduate school, Cassandra was a community organizer and educator. She taught high school science in Hawaii for Teach for America. After returning to the mainland, Cassandra was a grassroots organizer in New Jersey, where she worked with six schools to stop the permitting of a polluter in an environmental justice community. This work afforded her a position at Food & Water Watch's national office in DC, where Cassandra learned about membership management. While earning a Master of Public Policy, Cassandra was a graduate assistant and worked on projects with the Global Environment Facility and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Kawther Said, Policy and Practice Fellow
Kawther Said joined Beyond Pesticides as a fall intern in September 2023. She is currently a junior at Stanford University, pursuing a major in Earth Systems with a specialization in land and sustainable food systems. Kawther is dedicated to mitigating the environmental impacts of industrial agriculture through her expertise in data science, geospatial technology, and soil science. She has previously contributed to research projects at the Stanford Center on Food, Security, and Environment and the Humane and Sustainable Food Lab. Outside of her academic and professional pursuits, Kawther enjoys cycling and cooking.
Terry Shistar, PhD, Science Advisor
Terry has a Ph.D. in ecology (University of Kansas), is a trusted science and policy advisor with a 30-year affiliation with the organization and an expert in organic policy. She works closely with National Organic Standards Board members in reviewing materials that are on or petitioned to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, and evaluates chemicals for their toxic effects on all species that comprise the natural world.
Valerie Brown, MA, Contributing Writer
Valerie contributes writing to the website's Daily News Blog and the Beyond Pesticides journal, Pesticides and You. Her writing focuses mostly on science and the environment, including climate change, chemical exposures, radiation health effects, fracking, microbiology, evolutionary biology, legacy nuclear weapons waste, and more. Also an accomplished musician and an artist, Valerie has published a historical analysis of the popular music scene in Portland, Oregon in the late 1960s.