Meet the Founders

EHS Founders

Lyn Patrick ND

Lyn Patrick ND graduated from Bastyr University in 1984 with a doctorate in naturopathic medicine and has been in private practice as a state licensed naturopathic physician in Arizona and Colorado for 30 years. 

She is a published author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed medical journals, a past Contributing Editor for Alternative Medicine Review, a Medline-indexed journal of complementary/alternative medical research and recently authored a chapter in the newly released textbook Clinical Environmental Medicine (Elsevier 2019). She speaks internationally on environmental medicine, fatty liver disease, endocrine disruption, metal toxicology and other topics. She is currently Faculty for the Metabolic Medicine Institute Fellowship. She is a current member of the Board of Directors of the American College for the Advancement of Medicine (ACAM) and a planner and faculty member for ACAM’s continuing medical education conferences, lecturing in the area of chelation and metal toxicology. She is also  Past President of the National Association Environmental Medicine.She is also a founding partner and presenter at the Environmental Health Symposium, an annual international environmental medicine conference based in the United States. 

In her spare time she enjoys biking, hiking and kayaking the mountains, lakes, and rivers of southwestern Colorado. 

Cheryl Gray RD

Cheryl Gray is a registered dietitian and a natural leader who inspires others with her passion for individualized nutrition, functional medicine, and wellness. She graduated at the top of her class from Colorado State University with a degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics and completed her clinical internship at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.  She went on to serve as Chief Clinical Dietitian for the Motion Picture Television Hospital in Los Angeles, CA, and consulted with several long-term care facilities in Southern California. With over 20 years experience, Cheryl has worked in the nutraceutical industry where she educated physicians on the value of nutrition, the clinical application of nutritional supplementation, environmental medicine, and functional medicine principles.  Her focus has been on teaching others to restore optimal health and wellness by correcting the underlying cause of disease.  

In 2001 Cheryl founded and worked as Executive Director on the highly successful Functional Medicine Forum (FMF), the first of its kind in Colorado, creating a series of monthly educational lectures teaching healthcare providers the science-based principles of functional medicine.  As a gifted visionary, Cheryl used the forum to bring these principles to the forefront and created a solid community of educated practitioners committed to attending this venue on a regular basis. The Colorado FMF served as a model for creating a strong practitioner community, teaching science based education, for close to 15 years.  In addition, Cheryl guided doctors and healthcare practitioners in helping build Functional Medicine Forums in several states nationwide.  

In 2014 Cheryl Co-chaired the “Right to Know Colorado–GMO” campaign, an initiative working to legislate genetically modified food labeling in the state of Colorado.  She also produced the internationally recognized Seeds of Doubt Conferences, a series of unique one-day conferences  examining the detrimental effects of GMOs and glyphosate on human health and the environment. This series of conferences presented the latest compelling research from leading experts around the world and brought to the forefront the importance of educating practitioners and their patients of the  growing concerns of pesticide toxicity worldwide. Based on the success of the Seed of Doubt Conference, Cheryl joined together with Walter Crinnion ND and Lyn Patrick ND in 2015 creating the Environmental Health Symposium.

Cheryl currently consults with corporations, physicians and healthcare providers to assist them in incorporating functional & environmental medicine into their practice.

In her spare time Cheryl enjoys hiking in the Colorado mountains, skiing, and fly fishing.  She loves cooking and is an avid traveler exploring unique places and cultures.

Walter Crinnion ND

Walter Crinnion ND graduated from Bastyr University in 1982. With over 30 years of medical practice, Walter Crinnion was considered one of the foremost experts in the field of environmental medicine. He created the environmental medicine curricula at Bastyr University, University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine, and the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (SCNM). At SCNM, he was endowed as Chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine from 2003 until 2013. He was also adjunct faculty at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences through the MMI post-graduate fellowship as well as faculty at University of Western States.

Since 1999,  he provided a 12 month Clinical Environmental Medicine Training for those who wish to become more proficient in environmental medicine and the Crinnion Opinion podcast to keep his global followers informed about the latest information and protocols in the environmental medicine field.  

With his passing on March 11, 2019, those projects will be continued by Lyn Patrick ND and Anne Marie Fine ND. Walter Crinnion also founded the Naturopathic Association of Environmental Medicine (now the National Association of Environmental Medicine), an international member organization for providers in this field that sets standards for care and offers continuing education and clinician resources.  NAEM is always present at EHS in the Exhibit Hall and on the ground- contributing education and resources for clinical application.  

Walter was also the editor of the Environmental Medicine section of the Alternative Medicine Review journal until 2014, and was appointed to the editorial review boards of the New England Journal of Medicine, Pharmaceutical Biology, Science of the Total Environment and the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health.  Dr. Crinnion authored multiple review articles in the area of environmental medicine which have been published in peer-reviewed journals. He has also helped to create laboratory panels that have become part of the standard of care for detecting environmental toxicant exposures. He recently authored, with Joe Pizzorno ND, the textbook Clinical Environmental Medicine published by Elsevier in 2019. 

The Environmental Health Symposium began as an annual meeting for the alumni of the Clinical Environmental Medicine Training Program in 2003. 

In 2015, Walter Crinnion ND, Lyn Patrick ND and Cheryl Gray RD came together to fulfill a lifelong goal for Dr. Crinnion, an environmental medicine conference to offer the most critical environmental medicine information to clinicians.