Rebecca Meuninck, PhD

Rebecca is the Deputy Director for the Ecology Center, a Michigan-based non-profit working to protect human health and the environment. She has worked on environmental health and environmental justice issues for more than 17 years. Rebecca coordinates the environmental health work for the Ecology Center and the Michigan Network for Children’s Environmental Health and serves on the steering committees of several state and national environmental health coalitions. In the wake of the Flint Water Crisis, Rebecca was appointed by Governor Snyder to the state’s Child Lead Exposure Elimination Commission. Rebecca’s work centers around her passion for protecting children’s health. Rebecca holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology, with a graduate specialization in Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change from Michigan State University, and a BS from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan.

Rebecca and Jennifer Canvasser, the NEC Society’s Founder and Executive Director, worked together at the Ecology Center from 2010 to 2015.

When Jenn’s twin boys, Zachary and Micah, were born prematurely, Rebecca supported Jenn beyond the workplace. She visited Jenn and her boys in the NICU, and when Micah was in the PICU with complications of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). When Micah tragically passed away just before his first birthday from complications of NEC, Rebecca was there to support Jenn and help plan Micah’s life celebration. 

Since then, Rebecca has been committed to helping the NEC Society build a world without this cruel disease in honor of Micah and all babies impacted by NEC.