Lisa Finaldi

Lisa began her Greenpeace career working on international campaigns in Amsterdam in 1991 as the International Toxics Campaign Director. She is proud of her work with the Greenpeace Science Unit. It tested PVC toys from around the world and showed that they contained toxic chemicals that had not been adequately tested to determine their safety.

"This was something that hadn't been looked into before, especially across countries," Lisa says. From this original research, a campaign was built to educate families and to ban these harmful chemicals from children’s toys all over the world.

"It was amazing to see the European Union, Canada, and countries in Latin America and Asia ban these dangerous chemicals so quickly," commented Lisa. "But, what was frustrating, was that the United States only acted to ban these toxic chemicals early in 2009—15 years after the data was released."

Lisa's work on toxics has spanned from the US to Asia. She successfully led Greenpeace’s global campaign to stop the siting of land-based incinerators, based on a successful campaign that had been run from the United States.

Lisa is currently the National Campaigns Director with Greenpeace USA. She admires her colleagues who have been with the movement through thick and thin. "I have worked with so many courageous and principled people at Greenpeace and in communities all over the world," Lisa recalls. "The sacrifices that activists make to protect our planet is truly what inspires me to get up and go to work everyday."

As global warming legislation is enacted in Congress, Lisa sees Greenpeace’s role to make sure companies adhere to the law and cut global warming pollution.

Lisa is optimistic that a major shift in the paper industry is on the horizon. Greenpeace has been campaigning for Kimberly-Clark (maker of Kleenex and Cottonelle) to stop cutting down ancient forests and start making products in an environmentally sustainable way.

"If Kimberly-Clark makes the changes we are pushing for, the rest of the paper industry will be transformed," Lisa says. “If this can occur, the future looks bright for forest conservation worldwide.

Lisa Finaldi holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Journalism from West Virginia University and a non Profit Management Certificate from Duke University.