Carolyn Bell

Carolyn Bell is the Chief Executive Officer of Community Health Resources, Inc., a community based organization in Memphis, Tennessee. She is a health planner and developer of health resources and has over twenty years of experience in both occupational/environmental health and primary health care services. As an industrial hygienist for the United Rubber Workers International Union, it was her primary responsibility to conduct inspections of work places and to convey findings to local union health and safety committees; to help administer research studies designed to identify health effects associated with workplace exposures; and to make recommendations to Congress and OSHA on Occupational Health Legislation. At the University of Tennessee, along with labor organizations and the Urban Environment Conference, she was the primary organizer of one of the first minority conferences on Occupational Health. Her book entitled, The Environment in Small Doses: A Lay Person's Guide to Understanding Toxic Substances, was chosen as a member of the OCAW Occupational Health Bookset, a list of books recommended by the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Union to be a part of the library collection for all local union health and safety committees. Presently she serves as the National Program Coordinator for the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists Community Action and Response Against Toxics Team. The primary mission of the CBTU CARAT Team is to establish Labor-Community Environmental Health Alliances in urban and rural minority communities. For her work as a member of the EPA Common Sense Initiative Council, Ms. Bell is a recent recipient of Vice President Al Gore's Hammer Award for Reinventing America. She has Masters' of Science Degrees in Biology from Purdue University and Environmental Health Sciences from Harvard University.