Public Health

Senior Counsel

Jeff serves as Senior Counsel to PEER, where he specializes in civil service, scientific integrity, and whistleblower protection issues. Jeff was PEER’s Executive Director from 1997 to 2019 and its Pacific Director from 2019 to 2025. Previously, he was the Policy Director and a staff attorney at the Government Accountability Project, representing whistleblowers from both the public and private sectors. Before coming to DC, Jeff worked in California state government for 17 years, mostly in the State Legislature as counsel to various committees where he drafted hundreds of laws on topics ranging from energy conservation to the rights of employed inventors. Jeff served stints as a deputy district attorney and an appellate court clerk. He is a graduate of the California Correctional Officers Academy.

Rooting PFAS Out of Our Food Chain

by Jeff Ruch | January 22, 2024
Culminating three years of legal and advocacy work, the EPA issued an order prohibiting Inhance Technologies from producing PFAS during fluorination ...

PEERMail | A Surprising Victory on Toxic Plastics

by Elizabeth Duan | December 14, 2023
In a surprise victory on toxic plastics containing PFAS, EPA ordered a company named Inhance to stop producing PFAS in its fluorination process of plastics ...

Santa Susana Slated to Remain Major Ecological Hazard

by PEER | November 21, 2023
Post Cleanup Toxics Will Subject Wildlife to “Observable Adverse Effects ...

One Woman’s War Against ‘Forever Chemicals’

by PEER | November 16, 2023
Dr. Kyla Bennett is featured in the short documentary from Bloomberg Originals on the dangerous conundrum of the useful, ubiquitous and highly toxic PFAS ...

PEERMail | Is the Turf Tide Turning?

by PEER | November 14, 2023
Communities have growing concerns about the use of this toxic, plastic grass on playing fields, playgrounds, parks, and backyards ...