Celebrating our Colleagues, April 2023: Martha Dina Argüello

Martha Dina Argüello

Executive Director at Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles

This month we celebrate a colleague with whom we at SEHN have been honored to collaborate for at least two decades: Martha Dina Argüello.

SEHN’s Carolyn Raffensperger says,

One of the immense pleasures in working with Martha is her kaleidoscopic mind: she takes a set of ideas, then turns the lens and all of a sudden we see something entirely new. I first met Martha through a phone call to Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles (PSR-LA) in the very early 2000s. I called her office, she answered and when I said my name she exclaimed that she was reading my book on the precautionary principle at that very moment. Synchronicity at its finest. Martha became a key player in advancing the precautionary principle in policy, particularly within California and applying it to environmental justice. As the now longtime executive director of PSR-LA, she shares her exquisite set of skills with a wide audience.

Martha Dina joined the SEHN board in the early 2000s, so we got to work with her quite closely. While she is no longer on our board, we continue to work together. If I need a dose of inspiration, or to test a new idea, or to express outrage at some particularly bad industry proposal, I call her. Team Earth, Team Justice is far better off because Martha is one of the captains.

She says in turn, “Carolyn has mentored me over the years, and I continue to learn from her and the work of the Science and Environmental Health Network.”

Martha recently took a sabbatical from her work and wrote eloquently about the contours of her recharge period, wholeheartedly endorsing the right to rest. It is to all of our benefit that she is re-energized and once again at the helm of PSR-LA. “Now, back in the swing of things, I am still asking how we can move closer to a restorative, health-affirming economy while simultaneously being forced to fight off damaging oil industry-driven false promises of a carbon-free future powered by more carbon and their ability to control our political system.” This challenge resonates deeply with us, and we look forward to continuing to move through it together.