Who We Are

gormley

James J. Gormley

President and Senior Policy Advisor

President and Senior Policy Advisor of Citizens for Health and a principal of Gormley NPI Consulting, Gormley served as the Editor-in-Chief of Better Nutrition magazine and Editorial Director of the Vitamin Retailer Magazine group.

He also served as the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs officer for Nutrition 21 and attended Codex Alimentarius meetings in Paris and Rome. An award-winning blogger and author of six books, including Health at Gunpoint: The FDA’s Silent War Against Health Freedom, Gormley has been a leading consumer health advocate for more than 20 years.

Betsy Lehrfeld

Betsy E. Lehrfeld

Secretary and Treasurer

Betsy E. Lehrfeld is a principal in the Washington, DC law firm Swankin & Turner, which advises and represents individuals, businesses, nonprofit organizations and consumer groups in a wide variety of regulatory matters concerning food, drugs, dietary supplements, medical devices, integrative health, environmental hazards, and product safety. She has appeared before the Food and Drug Administration and has served as general counsel to numerous nonprofits. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law), she currently serves as President of the National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy (NISLAPP).

Jim Turner sitting in front of bookcase, smiling

In Memoriam and Gratitude James S. Turner, Esq.

Founding Member and Former Chairman

A principal in the firm Swankin & Turner,  Jim Turner represented businesses as well as individuals and consumer groups in a wide variety of regulatory matters concerning food, drug, health, environmental and product-safety matters. He served as special counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Food, Nutrition, and Health and to the Senate Government Operations Subcommittee on Government Research.

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. An attorney and consumer advocate who was an original “Nader’s Raider,” Jim Turner passed away suddenly at his Washington, D.C. home on January 25, 2022.

In Memoriam and Gratitude Joe Bassett

Founding Member & Former Chairman

A certified Touch for Health Instructor and massage therapist trained in Reiki., Joe was a founding member of the NINE and Citizens for Health, the former president of the NNFA and the Mid-American Health Association. He served on the boards of Citizens for Health as one its Chairman, Dr. Jensen’s Iridology Board, the National Food Merchandiser Advisory Board and the National Health Federation. Joe passed away on June 6, 2012. His legacy is indisputable, and the void he leaves behind, incalculable. He is sorely missed.

In Memoriam and Gratitude Janice C. Lipsen

Past Board Member

Janice served as President of Counselors for Management, a privately held government relations firm. She also served as assistant to the former Speaker of the House of Representatives during Watergate, Carl Albert, and was a registered lobbyist for the National Association of Naturopathic Physicians. She was also the Director of the Governor of Samoa’s Washington office and worked closely with the governor’s representatives in Washington. Janice passed away on April 17, 2017, but we at CFH are eternally grateful for the impact she has had on our organization, and we work hard to honor her legacy every day.

 

rustum roy b&w

In Memoriam and Gratitude Rustum Roy

Former Board of Advisors

Roy was Founder and Chairman of Friends of Health – an association of world-class scientists who believe strongly, on the basis of their own research, that the biological orthodoxies that dominate current medical and health thinking are significantly limited in their scope and promise. Friends of Health see significant promise for improved individual and social well being in the breaking down of artificial barriers between body, mind and spirit and point to powerful scientific research that supports this view. Citizens has joined with Friends to promote the findings and insights of scientists establishing the health implication of body, mind and spirit integration. In this collaboration the two groups have co-sponsored three scientific conferences that presented and reviewed new, frontier expanding, research. This research highlights the significant promise that body, mind spirit, integration offers as an approach to public policy about health promotion, disease prevention, wellness and social improvement. The Citizens/Friends collaboration has given both groups an opportunity to create a broadened local, national and global dialogue about expanded, integrated wellness and its impact on effective and cost-saving health policy.

The Citizens/Friends collaboration has given both groups an opportunity to create an broadened local, national and global dialogue about expanded, integrated wellness and its impact on effective cost saving health policy.
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