Linda F. Golodner
President, National Consumers League

Linda Golodner has dedicated her professional career advocating for consumer rights in healthcare, food and product safety. She has also focused her work on corporate social responsibility and ethical behavior in the marketplace. She was President and CEO of the National Consumers League from 1985 to 2007, is now President emeritus and represents NCL on several Boards and advisory groups. Golodner is the principal of Consumer Initiatives, advising and consulting with government, nonprofit, and for profit organizations on consumer issues.

While at NCL, President Clinton appointed her to the White House Apparel Industry Partnership, which she co-chaired and now serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of its successor organization, the Fair Labor Association, a multi-stakeholder nonprofit organization dedicated to ending sweatshop conditions in factories worldwide and building innovative and sustainable solutions to abusive labor conditions. She is a founding member and on the Board of the International Cocoa Initiative.

Golodner is a member of the Board of Directors of the American National Standards Institute and serves on its Consumer Interest Forum. In addition, she represents ANSI on the International Standards Organization Consumer Policy Committee, where she is head of the U. S. delegation to COPOLCO. She is the U. S. consumer expert on the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility. Golodner is a member of the Consumer Advisory Council of Underwriters Laboratories and the technical advisory committee of the Toy Industry Association Initiative regarding product safety in the manufacture of toys. Golodner is Vice Chair of the Water Quality and Health Council.

Golodner received the American Pharmacists Association’s Hugo H. Schaefer Award; the American Council on Consumer Interests recognized her for outstanding contributions to policies that promote consumer interests nationally and internationally. The Food and Drug Administration gave her its highest public honor, the FDA Commissioners Special Citation. She was also honored by the United Nations Association/NCA for her work in human rights. ANSI gave her its meritorious service award and the National Consumers League presented her with the Trumpeter Award for her years of consumer advocacy and education of consumers in the United States and abroad.

Golodner also worked for the U. S. House of Representatives for former Congressman James G. O’Hara of Michigan. Golodner was commissioner and chair of the Fairfax County (VA) Commission for Women. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland in 1975.