Mark Blaxill - Chairman
Mark Blaxill is the father of a daughter diagnosed with autism, Editor-at-Large for Age of Autism, a former director of SafeMinds and a frequent speaker at autism conferences. He writes often on autism, science and public policy issues for Age of Autism and has published a number of articles, letters and commentaries on autism in journals such as Public Health Reports, the International Journal of Toxicology, the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Neurotoxicology and Medical Hypotheses. He has also been invited to peer review articles in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Journal of Epidemiology, Pediatrics and the International Journal of Toxicology. As part of his advocacy work, he has testified before the Immunization Safety Review of the Institute of Medicine (2001), served on a Blue Ribbon Panel on Vaccine Safety (2004), initiated a symposium sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences entitled “Environmental Factors in Neurodevelopmental Disorders” (2005) and a workshop sponsored by the Institute of Medicine entitled “Autism and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities for Research” (2007). He was a panelist at a “Meeting on Evaluating Reasons for ASD Trends” co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Autism Speaks (2011).
He received a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. In his professional career, he spent 25 years at The Boston Consulting Group, where he was a Senior Vice President. Recently, he co-founded 3LP Advisors, an advisory firm focused on intellectual property transactions, where he is a Managing Partner. He has published a business book, The Invisible Edge: Taking Your Strategy to the Next Level Using Intellectual Property (Portfolio, March 2009) and has recently co-authored a book on autism, called The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine and a Man-made Epidemic, (Thomas Dunne, September 2010).
Jennifer Larson - President
Jennifer Larson is the mother of 16 year old with regressive autism and President of the Canary Party. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with degrees in marketing, psychology and speech communication and a graduate of the OPM program of Harvard Business School. Jennifer is the owner and CEO Vibrant Technologies, incorporated 1998. She is also the owner, founder and CEO of the Holland Autism Center and Clinic, the Founding Board Chair of Children with Autism Deserve Education (CADE), a co-founder of the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, and a member of the Minnesota Autism Advocacy Coalition and founder and Director of the 501c3 Health Choice. As a very active republican, Jennifer was a Ron Paul delegate for MN to the 2012 RNC, is on the MN Congressional District 3 executive committee, was a 2014 & 2015 State Central Delegate, is on the MN Senate District 33 executive committee. Jennifer has been honored with several business and media awards during her career.
Patti Carroll - Executive Director
Patti Carroll is a parent of two beautiful children, one of whom was permanently brain-damaged by his "Well Baby" vaccines. She is an outspoken advocate for vaccine safety and informed consent, and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Canary Party. In addition, Patti is a Consumer Safety Advocate and board member of the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, and a Rescue Angel (parent mentor) for Generation Rescue. Her son's vaccine injury claim has been languishing in the so-called "swift" National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for nearly a decade, and she has interviewed over two dozen families that were compensated through the NVICP for their childrens' lifelong vaccine-induced brain damage.
Katie Weisman - Senior Executive Board Member
Katie Weisman is the mother of 15 year-old identical triplet boys, who all have autism as a result of thimerosal poisoning. They are fantastic kids and she is very proud of them. She has spent the last 12 years, since their diagnosis, working to help them recover and to prevent other children from being affected.
Katie is socially liberal but fiscally conservative, with Midwestern roots. She is libertarian on all issues related to health – the most basic human right is the right to decide what happens to your own body or that of your child. She started off co-chairing a parent support group and a SEPTO, doing disability awareness workshops in elementary schools, and developing a safety program for autism with local police. More recently, she has been involved in New York State’s autism insurance bill and the reauthorization of the Combating Autism Act. Katie’s passions these days include autism, mercury, Alzheimer’s disease, and literacy. She believes that our vaccine program and other aggressive medical treatments are poisoning our children and the damage is showing up in our country’s dismal literacy rates and our children’s poor health. Every child in America is being affected – not just those with autism.
Currently, Katie serves as an Executive Board Member for the Canary Party. She is also on the Board of Directors of SafeMinds and serves on their communications, environmental and government affairs committees. She is also an 18 year member of the PEO Sisterhood.
Katie has an International Baccalaureate from Pearson College in Victoria, British Columbia and a BFA with highest honors from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She worked as a technical designer in the fashion industry before having her children. She lives in Mount Kisco, New York with her husband, Doug, and their three sons.