Staff
Martha Dina Argüello, Executive Director | bio | contact
Denise Duffield, Associate Director| bio | contact
Patty Ochoa, Environment and Health Coordinator | bio |contact
Ana Mascareñas, Policy and Communications Coordinator | bio | contact
Martha Dina Argüello, Executive Director
Contact Martha: marguello@psr-la.org
Martha speaking at PSR-LA's 2008 gala dinner as the new executive director and first Latina to lead a California nonprofit addressing threats to environmental health.
For the past 32 years, Martha has served in the non-profit sector as an advocate, community organizer, and coalition builder. She joined PSR-LA in 1998 to launch the environmental health programs, and became Executive Director in November 2007. She is committed to making the credible voice of physicians a powerful instrument for transforming California and our planet into a more peaceful and healthy place.
Martha grew up in the Pico-Union area of Los Angeles. At the young age of 14, she made a lifelong commitment to effect social change after seeing her friend killed by a school security guard. While working as a health educator in the 1990s, Martha had an epiphany — she realized that although early detection can prevent death from breast cancer, it does not prevent breast cancer, which has been increasingly linked to the exposure of environmental toxicants. Since that realization, Martha has dedicated her career to the environmental justice movement, and has lectured nationwide on the use of precautionary principle policies.
As a coalition builder, Martha has emphasized the need for local grassroots advocacy working in partnership with statewide policy actions. She is an active board member of numerous organizations, including Californians for Pesticide Reform, the California Environmental Rights Alliance, and Californians for a Healthy and Green Economy. She also co-founded the Los Angeles County Asthma Coalition and the Coalition for Environmental Health and Justice, and was appointed to Cal/EPA’s Environmental Justice Committee and the California Air Resources Board’s Global Warming Environmental Justice Advisory Committee.
Denise Duffield, Associate Director
Contact Denise: dduffield@psr-la.org
Denise at the 64th Commemoration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple.
Denise Duffield, Associate Director, has over 15 years of development and non-profit administration experience as well as many years of social justice and peace activism. Denise directs PSR-LA’s peace and security program, which works to protect public health from the threat of nuclear weapons. She developed and coordinates PSR-LA’s physician peace and security ambassador program, which provides nuclear policy issue education and advocacy skills to physicians and health care professionals. Denise holds a BA in psychology from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in theatre arts from California State University Los Angeles.
Kathy Attar, Environment and Health Researcher
Patty Ochoa, Environment and Health Coordinator
Contact Patty: pochoa@psr-la.org
Patricia comes to PSR-LA from Pacoima Beautiful where she coordinated and directed the “Safer Homes for a Healthier Community” program. She was instrumental in expanding the organization’s health promoter program to collaborate with local health clinics and address in-home health environmental hazards, as well as asthma triggers. Patricia has expertise in community assets mapping, community organizing and development of educational and policy advocacy campaigns. While at Pacoima Beautiful her work resulted in the passage of AB 805, the development and implementation of a diesel-task force, and a collaborative comprised of local businesses, community leaders, local elected officials and community members that work to reduce environmental contamination. She has expertise in a wide range of health, social and economic issues including the impact of housing conditions on health and the connection between chemicals in consumer products and reproductive issues.
Ana Mascareñas, Policy and Communications Coordinator
Contact Ana: amascarenas@psr-la.org
Ana co-organizing a 2008 lecture at UCLA featuring Iranian physicians and chemical exposure survivors.
Ana Mascareñas joined PSR-LA in 2008. She directs training opportunities to share emerging science and policy data with members, as well as trainings to develop effective advocacy skills and engage in PSR-LA’s policy change work.
After earning a B.A. in Human Biology and a B.A. in Sociology at Brown University in 2006, Ana worked in Washington DC as a fellow with Representative Rep. Xavier Becerra (CA-31) and subsequently served in the Los Angeles District Office as a caseworker. Ana is a resident of City Terrace, a neighborhood in unincorporated East Los Angeles. She is a board member with the East Los Angeles Residents Association (ELARA), a community organization leading the Cityhood for East LA effort. She is also a local advisory board member of New Leaders Council-Los Angeles, which provides training, skills building, and support to young progressives.
Ana’s commitment to policy advocacy within the progressive movement began in her hometown, Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2004 — she worked with the Albuquerque City Council to pass a set of development impact fee ordinances that promote responsible urban development and sustainable growth. Since then, she has worked on local, state, and federal issues as an advocate for environmental health, peace, and social and economic justice.