Meet our Staff and Board of Directors

Michael McCormack (President), has been practicing law as a commercial litigation attorney for over 20 years, and for several years has been a holistic legal and organizational counselor focusing on emerging health law matters, including regulation and advocacy. In addition to his experience with the legal system, Michael is an experienced mediator, seminar presenter and organizational consultant.

He graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. in 1984, where he was also a high school "street law" teacher. As a shareholder and part of the management team for one of the western United States' largest law firms, Michael was co-chair of the firm's Recruiting and Professional Development Program. He was awarded Martindale Hubbell's highest rating of "AV" for practice excellence and ethical integrity.

 Michael is a student and practitioner of numerous complementary health and "self-organization" modalities. He is an ordained minister, as well as founder and president of the Tahoma Youth Basketball Association in his hometown of Maple Valley, Washington, where he lives with his wife, Melissa and their five children.

James J. Gormley (Senior Policy Advisor), a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), Gormley has 20 years of experience in health-related media communications. He is a senior policy advisor for Citizens for Health, an advisory board member of the National Health Research Institute (NHRI) and a member of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). Today, Gormley is the editor of H2O, a health and fitness magazine for women. From 2006 to 2008, Gormley directed three leading health-food trade magazines for VRM Inc. He previously served as the longtime editor-in-chief of Better Nutrition magazine (1995 to 2002) and founded Remedies magazine in 2005. A consumer health advocate and industry champion, Gormley has also been a frequent guest on television and national radio where he has spoken out on a variety of health and regulatory issues. His five published books include the User's Guide to Natural Treatments for Lyme Disease and his blogs include The Gormley Files.

Janice C. Lipsen is president of Counselors for Management, a privately held government relations firm. She works with both private and government clients in the development and management of their public policy objectives particularly in the areas or health and wellness. She has served as assistant to the former Speaker of the House of Representatives Carl Albert and currently is a registered lobbyist for the National Association of Naturopathic Physicians. She is also the Director of the Governor of Samoa's Washington office and works closely with the governor's representatives in Washington.

Elissa Parker has been an environmental lawyer since 1970, serving in various roles, including state Special Assistant Attorney General for environmental protection, Director of a state enforcement office, and most recently, manager of a $3 million per year independent environmental research and policy effort in the District of Columbia. At the Environmental Law Institute, where she has served since 1984, she is Vice President of Research and Policy, a division of the Institute which seeks to improve environmental protection through the strengthening of law, policy and management in the United States and worldwide. Her division has had active programs and partners in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India.

Elwood Richard. The founder of NOW Foods, Elwood Richard has been actively involved in the natural products industry since 1960. As a founding member of both the NNFA's Standards Committee as well as the Natural Health Research Institute, Elwood has made it his life's work to improve the integrity of nutritional science, manufacturing standards, and product awareness to both retailers and consumers alike. Elwood has always fought for the rights of consumers to freely purchase and use safe supplements. In 2004, he received the NNFA's prestigious Crusader Award. Just one year earlier, his company, NOW Foods, was voted 2003 Manufacturer of the Year. In January of 2005, Elwood retired as NOW's President, though he remains active on the company's Board of Directors, and is heavily involved in a number of advocacy issues.

James S. Turner, Esq. (Chair), a principal in the firm Swankin & Turner, represents businesses as well as individuals and consumer groups in a wide variety of regulatory matters concerning food, drug, health, environmental and product-safety matters. Turner has appeared before every major consumer regulatory agency, including the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Product Safety Commission and Federal Trade Commission, as well as the Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health. Mr. Turner has served as special counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Food, Nutrition, and Health and to the Senate Government Operations Subcommittee on Government Research. He has also been a policy consultant to major corporations in the food, pharmaceutical and telecommunications industries, including such companies as Kraft Foods, The Quaker Oats Company, Hoffmann-LaRoche and AT&T. Recently Mr. Turner was the lead attorney on a successful petition to the FDA to reclassify acupuncture needles from Class III to Class II medical devices, permitting their legal importation and distribution. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University School of Law.

Frank Herd, Jr. (Policy Advisor), was born in Edison, New Jersey. He graduated from St. Joseph’s High School as a National Merit Scholar and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Rutgers University. Frank has worked as an activist and consumer advocate for 16 years, first with NJPIRG and then for 14 years with the Progressive Action Network (PAN), a canvass-based coalition of progressive political organizations. In his career with PAN Frank’s talents were sought by several state and national consumer advocacy organizations in 5 states and in Washington, D.C. He has conducted hundreds of trainings on citizen activism and member development, and has personally raised over $1 million for consumer justice campaigns. In the 8 years prior to joining the Citizens for Health team, he was responsible for PAN’s largest office, a staff of 22 and an annual budget of over $850,000, and provided consistent funding and campaign support for 8 different consumer justice organizations. Frank is an avid pool player and reader of science fiction, especially the fiction of Philip K. Dick. His favorite hobby, however, is spending quiet time with his wife and their pet cockatiel, Camus.