ANH’s founder, Robert Verkerk, PhD, takes the helm of ANH-USA as threats to natural health multiply across the world.
This week, we’re proud to announce that multi-disciplinary scientist Dr. Verkerk has been appointed Executive Director of ANH-USA. Dr. Verkerk, who founded ANH International in 2002 in the United Kingdom, and has acted as its executive and scientific director ever since, brings decades of experience and passion as a pioneer of the natural health movement, ultimately aimed at changing the current healthcare paradigm to embrace the principles of regenerative health.
He succeeds Gretchen DuBeau, Esq, who, after overseeing remarkable growth and expanded reach at ANH-USA for 15 years, has decided to transition to the Board of Directors, where the organization can continue to benefit from her unique and wide-ranging experience.
ANH-USA would not be the organization that it is without Gretchen’s tireless leadership. The ANH teams on both sides of the Atlantic are all so grateful for her impact on the important work of protecting natural health for all Americans. ANH-USA is strongly positioned for continued success because of what she has built and accomplished.
In accepting the new position, while retaining his existing position heading up ANH International, Dr. Verkerk said, “I’m thrilled to take the reins at this critical time when governments and big corporations are attempting to negatively influence public perceptions of natural health while, with no adequate justification, tightening the noose on its regulation.”
“Perversely,” added Dr. Verkerk, “this is happening at the very time when all the evidence says natural health should be put front and center of healthcare. This is based on its enviable track record of effectiveness and safety, coupled with its public popularity for self-care which is crucial if we’re to see the chronic disease burden reduced.”
Apart from the well-known attacks on dietary supplements and compounded hormones, the gamut of threats to natural health continues to grow. These include the risks associated with pharmaceutical over-dependence, mandatory vaccination programs, unpredictable risks associated with mRNA vaccine and drug platforms, the erosion of long-standing principles of medical ethics, the suppression of free speech on science, the lack of safety studies on technologies associated with the Internet of Things (IoT), and the growing toxicity burden from new-to-nature chemicals, from glyphosate to PFAS.
The ANH-USA Board’s decision to appoint Dr. Verkerk as its new leader took into account Dr. Verkerk’s extensive experience dealing with some of the most draconian threats originating within the European Union. These, if not extinguished, are increasingly likely to land on US shores given the ever more authoritarian, globalized and coordinated function of national and international agencies and institutions. Such concerns have also motivated the decision to closely integrate the operation and function of ANH-USA and its international counterpart.
In reflecting on her time as ANH-USA’s Executive Director, Gretchen said, “Looking back over the last fifteen years, I’m so proud of all that ANH-USA and the natural health community were able to achieve. There have been many victories: last year alone we stopped Durbin’s supplement attack, saved compounded glutathione, and stopped anti-supplement bills on the state level, to name just a few.”
Ms. DuBeau also stressed the tectonic shifts that have occurred during her tenure. “The landscape has completely changed,” she said. “I have seen a significant shift in the level of consciousness and awareness around natural health and health freedom. Most people didn’t even know what genetically modified organisms were when I started at ANH-USA back in 2008. This movement is building momentum and growing, and our wins are multiplying.”
“It brings me great joy to have been a part of the grassroots movement fighting for our freedom to live freely and naturally, locked arm in arm with our fellow freedom fighters over the past 15 years,” she continued, “and I’m honored now to pass the baton to Rob Verkerk for the next, exciting era of the organization’s growth and development.”
Under Dr. Verkerk’s leadership and in response to the scale of the challenges ahead, ANH-USA will be diversifying its strategic approach in 2023 and 2024, expanding the scope of its lobbying work in Congress, and is planning to initiate or support targeted legal actions.
ANH-USA is excited to enter this new chapter with Dr. Verkerk at the helm. The challenges before us are many, but we greatly look forward to working alongside you, our grassroots activists.
History tells us freedom isn’t something we should take for granted. Typically, it must be won. With that in mind, we so look forward to working alongside you to help win back a world where we can choose to stay healthy, naturally, free from suppression, coercion, and the diktats of conflicted regulatory authorities.
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Look out in the coming weeks for additional information on the RESTRICT Act, the latest threat to free speech and open expression.