Arlene Blum Ph.D., biophysical chemist, author, and mountaineer is Executive Director of the Green Science Policy Institute and a Research Associate at UC Berkeley.  Her science and policy work with government and business has contributed to preventing the use of PFAS, flame retardants and other classes of harmful chemicals in products world-wide.  Arlene also led the first American—and all-women’s—ascent of Annapurna I and the first women’s climb of Denali.  She is the author of Annapurna: A Woman’s Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life.