Kenneth A. Cook, President and Founder Environmental Working Group (EWG) Kenneth A. Cook is president and founder of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a computer-based, environmental watchdog group with offices in Washington, D.C., Oakland, Calif., and Seattle, Wash. Founded in 1993, EWG specializes in computer investigations into a wide range of environmental problems, including air and water pollution, pesticides, transportation, enforcement of environmental laws, and the risks toxic chemicals pose to women's health, to infants and to children. Cook has extensive experience representing EWG in the media. In recent years he has appeared on CBS News' 60 Minutes, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN's Inside Politics and Reliable Sources, NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, ABC News' Good Morning America, and many other broadcast outlets. Cook is regularly cited each year as a spokesman for EWG in major national newspapers and dozens of regional outlets, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. EWG's policy expertise includes air and water pollution, toxics, pesticides, farm policy and farm subsidies and campaign finance reform. Cook earned B.A., B.S., and M.S. degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and has authored dozens of articles, opinion pieces and reports on environmental, public health and agricultural issues. He has been an active participant in U.S. domestic agriculture policy and environmental policy debates since 1977. Before founding EWG, Cook worked as vice president for policy at the Center for Resource Economics (CRE), and as the director of congressional affairs and director of press relations at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Conservation Foundation. EWG's award-winning web site, ewg.org, makes the results of its investigations available to citizens, public officials, and the media. EWG also coordinates its effort with national and grassroots environmental groups to help bring about change in local communities. The Chronicle of Philanthropy (Jan. 11, 2001) had this to say about EWG: "Since the group's founding in 1993, it has acquired a reputation for producing reports that often combine extensive research and sophisticated data analysis with a flair for finding the human-interest element that can animate their presentation of a particular environmental policy issue. The group's influence in and out of Washington is greatly out of proportion to its size: 17 staff members with some powerful Macintosh G4 computers and a $1.6-million budget, working in a modest office, where the walls are hung with spare mouse cords and bicycle helmets."