January 28 webinar on how to preserve local control over health and safety issues 

There’s one week left to register for our January 28 webinar, “Preemption in 2016 and Beyond: Emerging Issues and Best Practices,” sponsored by Grassroots Change and Prevention Institute. Register today and join us on Twitter at #Preemption2016: 

Preemption in 2016 and Beyond: Emerging Issues and Best Practices

Thursday, January 28, 2016

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM PT

Register now!

Public health agencies, community partners, and activists at the local and state level play a critical role in advancing public health. Cities and states are testing grounds for innovative and progressive policies that protect health and safety —like New York City’s law on smoke-free spaces, Berkeley’s soda tax, and Seattle’s paid sick days ordinance. When these policies work, they reshape our shared understanding of how to address problems like economic injustice, chronic disease, and environmental hazards, and generate momentum for broader changes. 

While preemption is appropriate under some circumstances—for example, federal laws that set a floor for clean air standards ‘preempt’ less protective state and local laws—it’s often a tool used to stop progress in its tracks. Preemption refers to legislation typically introduced by industry groups to shield profits and practices from regulation—and strip law-making authority from local (or state) governments. In recent years, industry groups have successfully lobbied for laws to limit communities’ ability to designate smoke-free spaces, regulate fracking, require paid sick days, and protect kids from junk food marketing. 

Get to know the panel of experts who will be joining us next Thursday: 

	Ellen Bravo directs Family Values @ Work, a network of coalitions in 21 states working for policies such as paid sick days and family and medical leave insurance. Before helping start FV@W, Ellen was the director of 9to5. She has written several non-fiction books, most recently Taking on the Big Boys, or Why Feminism is Good for Families, Business and the Nation.  Ellen has served on several state and federal commissions, including the bi-partisan Commission on Leave appointed by Congress to study the impact of the Family and Medical Leave Act.
	Bronson Frick is Associate Director of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights and the ANR Foundation where he provides technical assistance and training for coalitions and public health advocates working throughout the country on tobacco policy issues, particularly smokefree indoor air. Bronson has hands-on experience spearheading successful smokefree air campaigns as well as providing technical assistance and strategic guidance in support of public health policy efforts.
	Carter Headrick is Director of State and Local Obesity Policy for the Voices for Healthy Kids Project of the American Heart Association. In this role, Carter and his team work with public health coalitions in all 50 states to pass and implement state and local policies to promote healthy eating and physical activity. Prior to joining the American Heart Association, Carter spent eleven years working at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, where he built a national group of over 400,000 grassroots volunteers across 36 states to advocate for policy change at the federal, state and local levels.
	Mark Pertschuk is the Director of Grassroots Change. He is the former President and Executive Director of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) and the ANR Foundation, where he managed the campaigns for the federal Airline Smoking Ban and numerous local and state smokefree laws. In 1995, Mark co-founded Californians for Responsible Gun Laws.  As its Executive Director, he managed a grassroots movement for more than 40 local gun violence prevention ordinances and three major statewide gun laws.  From 1999 to 2002, he served as Legislative Director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence in Washington, DC, and a senior advisor to the Million Mom March.
	Michael Bare is Program Manager and Policy Analyst for Preemption Watch, a project of Grassroots Change, which monitors, tracks and analyzes public health preemption. Michael's prior work in public health focused on the social and political determinants of health, included work on community and international health programs, communications, operations, policy and advocacy.

Moderated by PI’s Juliet Sims

 

If you have any questions, please email Casey Tran, Grassroots Change Communications Associate, at casey@grassrootschange.net.