Barbara Struthers has fond memories of growing up in a Republican family in the Pacific Northwest. Her father was a forester—and a true “conservative conservationist”—so they lived mostly in rural communities. She received her B.S. in biology and education from Washington State and her M.S. in biochemistry and Ph.D. in food science from Oregon State. She is a board certified toxicologist who has worked on product safety in the food and pharmaceutical industries for over thirty years.

She has published 50+ scientific papers and book chapters, holds a couple of patents for Arthrotec (a drug that’s been on the market for 15 years), and has her own pharmaceutical consulting business, B.J. Struthers, Ltd.

An enthusiastic outdoorswoman, Barbara has done a lot of hiking and camping in her beloved Oregon Cascades, in Idaho’s Bitterroot Mountains, and in the Rockies... from Colorado to Canada. She’s also an avid canoeist who appreciates the fact that northern Illinois, where she makes her home, has many preserved wetlands. She is a firm proponent of open space and controlled development.

Barbara is known locally for supporting like-minded moderate Republicans. For a decade, she was a vocal and generous backer of REP President Martha Marks, when Martha was a Lake County commissioner. She has worked on three campaigns for Representative Mark Kirk (a member of REP’s Honorary Board) and is now so engaged with GOP nominee Judy Baar Topinka’s campaign for Governor of Illinois that she drafted the candidate’s environmental policy statement.

She’s also known for backing bipartisan initiatives, such as an effort to reduce environmental mercury that was led by her Democratic state representative, Karen May. Not a blind partisan, Barbara supports political candidates who are “good on her issues,” rather than mindlessly following a party slate.

Barbara joined REP in 1996 and has been an enthusiastic booster ever since. In 2004, she was elected to the national board. Soon after, she wrote the first draft of REP’s new mercury position paper. She has attended two national conferences, two board retreats, and two Illinois chapter meetings.

She is a trustee of both the Village of Deerfield and the Southlake Mosquito Abatement District. As a village trustee, one of her accomplishments was passing ordinances that encourage developers to preserve trees and green space when existing houses are torn down to build new ones. She’s the president-elect of the Deerfield Rotary Club and has served as both secretary and president of the Midwest Regional Chapter of the Society of Toxicology. She was a volunteer for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic for 15 years, and served on its Chicago area board for four years. She also sings in her church choir and in the North Shore Choral Society. Busy lady!