Nena Baker is the author of The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being, an “eye-opening expose” (Seattle Post Intelligencer) that sifts through the latest findings about the hazards of everyday chemicals in consumer products. The Washington Post heralded the book as “illuminating and consumer-oriented,” and Baker pulls no punches in her analysis of the corporate irresponsibility and regulatory failures that have created an environmental and public health crisis no less sweeping than global climate change. Baker speaks frequently about the topic of her book as a keynoter and panelist.

Formerly an investigative reporter at The Arizona Republic and The (Portland) Oregonian, Baker is known for hard-hitting stories. Her reports about factories in Indonesia where Nike sneakers are made helped spur the shoe giant to reconsider its responsibilities and led to numerous improvements for workers in the 1990's. Earlier in her career, Baker was a financial reporter and editor for United Press International in New York. She was a Davenport Business Journalism Fellow at the University of Missouri and was recipient of a Pew Center grant for a series of stories about non-voters. She is a graduate of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where she currently makes her home.