Our Leadership Team
The individuals featured here form the heart of the Fragrance Free Coalition.
While many dedicated volunteers contribute their time and insights, this core team leads our daily efforts—driving the mission forward with passion and purpose.
The Fragrance Free Coalition is currently in the process of filing for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.
Deidra Kragnes, Co-Founder
Bio
Deidra will serve as Chair of the Board. Deidra has been navigating reacting to fragrance chemicals since childhood. Her journey began at age 8, when a common dish soap caused severe rashes—prompting her mother to switch the household to safer, fragrance-free products. Over the years, Deidra transitioned fully to a fragrance-free lifestyle, swapping out everyday items like shampoo, lotions, and laundry detergent as better options became available. Raised in a home where both her mother and grandmother also reacted to fragrances, Deidra learned early how to reduce toxic exposures—long before she understood the broader health and environmental benefits. A pivotal moment came in high school, when sleeping in a garage-stored sleeping bag left her violently ill, likely from residual car exhaust. That experience marked the start of more intense reactions to petroleum-based and fragranced products, including debilitating migraines. Professionally, Deidra has a background in technical theater, with a degree in Technical Theater and a minor in Industrial Technology. She toured nationally as a prop master for Sesame Street Live and spent nearly two decades as a Local One stagehand in New York City, primarily at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater. As early as 1999, she was advocating for her health in the workplace, asking colleagues to avoid scented products when working in close proximity. In her pursuit of better health, Deidra became a certified Health Coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2005. She then spent over three years at Dr. Gabriel Cousens’ Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona, where she earned certification as a raw food chef, managed the Sprout House, and later oversaw the Supplement Department. In 2011, she became a certified Health Educator through the Hippocrates Health Institute. Deidra has long recognized that clean air and unprocessed food are essential to her well-being. But as chemical exposures in public and shared spaces intensified, everyday tasks—even doing laundry or visiting a doctor—became increasingly difficult. In 2015, she left NYC for good, she thought that moving back to Minnesota would make life easier, but as fragrances are getting stronger and stronger, she finds it incredibly difficult to find anywhere to go. It has even been difficult to find a chiropractor or a dentist that is fragrance-free in their practice. That is why, in 2022, Deidra co-founded the Fragrance Free Coalition to amplify awareness that fragrance-free living isn’t about personal preference—it’s about public health, accessibility, and environmental responsibility. Her mission is clear: to make fragrance-free living a recognized and respected norm, so everyone can breathe easier and participate fully in life.
Sherrie Truitt, Co-Founder
Bio
Sherrie will serve as Vice-Chair of the Board. She served in the US Army as a 63B H8 (Light Wheel Vehicle Mechanic-Recovery Specialist) after high school. Following her military service, she worked at a law firm for ten years while earning a degree in Legal Administration, which led to an administrative role at a biomechanics research lab. After many years working on laboratory research projects, she transitioned into Clinical Research Coordination at the same hospital. Leaving research for the corporate world proved disastrous when exposure to high levels of formaldehyde in her office suite caused a range of unexplained neurological symptoms and chronic health conditions. Her relocation from the North to the South worsened her condition, as a newly built home triggered severe environmental illness due to the off-gassing of formaldehyde. She eventually sought refuge in an older, unaltered home that had been left vacant by elderly owners. Since 2015, Sherrie has suffered from environmental illness. She now advocates for clean indoor air and works to reduce access barriers in medical facilities caused by toxic consumer products. She co-founded the Fragrance Free Coalition to raise awareness about the environmental links to illness and to promote the recognition of clean, unadulterated air as a fundamental human right that must be taken seriously. Sherrie has been living a fragrance-free lifestyle for over ten years to manage severe symptoms, together with her husband. This lifestyle change has also inadvertently helped alleviate several of his Gulf War Illness symptoms, including eczema, recurring jungle rot, and migraines.
Maureen Bonetti, Co-Founder
Bio
Maureen Bonetti will serve as Board Secretary of the Fragrance Free Coalition (FFC). She brings a unique combination of educational expertise, advocacy, and lived experience to her leadership role within the organization. Maureen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Syracuse University and a Mathematics Teacher Certification for Grades 7–12. Prior to her medical retirement in 2015, Maureen led a vibrant and active life. She dedicated herself to her community as a Girl Scout leader and an elementary through middle school athletics coach, guiding teams in soccer, basketball, and softball, as she raised her four children. After taking time to focus on her family, Maureen was eager to return to the workforce. However, she found herself facing unexpected health challenges. What began as mild symptoms was initially dismissed by medical professionals as anxiety. Over the course of five years, Maureen developed chemical sensitivities, eventually receiving a diagnosis after her condition progressed to include asthma and severe reactions to chemical exposures, including fragrances. These debilitating symptoms forced her into early retirement and significantly altered her ability to participate in everyday life. Activities like attending school events, medical appointments, or even basic public outings became extremely difficult or impossible. As a Lived Experience Expert in Chemical Sensitivities, Maureen has transformed her personal challenges into passionate advocacy. At FFC, she serves as the Lead Resource Researcher, playing a central role in curating the coalition’s library of scientific research and informational materials. One of her most notable contributions is her work on the interactive poster, “Do Fragrances Compromise Your Health?”, available at fragrancefreecoalition.com. Maureen is a tireless advocate for fragrance-free access in public spaces, especially in critical environments such as medical facilities and schools. Her mission is deeply personal: to raise awareness about the health impacts and accessibility barriers posed by synthetic fragrances, and to ensure that others facing similar challenges are heard, believed, and accommodated.
Lori DeMoss
Bio
Lori DeMoss will serve on the Fragrance Free Coalition (FFC) Board of Directors and as Treasurer. Lori received her undergraduate degree in Family and Consumer Sciences, minoring in Business Administration. She is currently attending graduate school pursuing a certificate in Nonprofit Administration. Lori’s prior nonprofit experience included managing administrative scheduling for about 7 years for a small nonprofit spay/neuter mobile veterinary clinic with locations across several counties. Her duties included independently determining the eligibility of clients for financial assistance based on established criteria and issuing vouchers and referrals to multiple veterinarians. She also assisted the Board of Directors by implementing a simple donation software program to help track fundraising efforts. Lori currently works for a law firm as an administrative coordinator, overseeing local and international billing, and interacting with other finance-related resources within the firm. She has worked in the legal field for over 25 years. Lori is passionate about FFC’s mission because she has personally experienced disabling symptoms from fragrance-related toxins. She is a Lived Experience Expert in Chemical Sensitivities and suffers from systemic fragrance allergies and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) triggered by fragrance, which makes her prone to many detrimental health reactions such as hypertensive crisis, asthma, bronchitis and reactive airway disease, migraines, hyperosmia, sinusitis and infections, airborne contact dermatitis, and more. She has made it her personal mission to educate herself and others about the legal “trade-secret” loopholes in fragrance labelling, and the dangers of such by disguising thousands of potentially harmful chemicals under the ingredient labeled “fragrance.” She has spent the last several years avidly advocating for fragrance-free healthcare and schools, due to the access barriers created by the ubiquitous use of fragrances in public spaces that can actually be deadly for certain groups of individuals like her.
Mary Patrick
Volunteer Advisor
Bio
Mary Patrick will serve on the Board of Directors. She was born and raised in New Jersey, raised three children in Wyoming, and now lives in Colorado. Mary received her Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Science and Mathematics from the University of Wyoming and studied Pastoral Ministry at St. John’s Graduate School of Theology in Collegeville, Minnesota. Mary’s nonprofit experience began in the 1980s when she started Wyoming Ours, Inc. to help families adopting children internationally and provide supplies to orphanages overseas. She helped found Mother Seton Housing, Inc., which provides transitional housing for homeless families and served as its first Executive Director. In the 1990’s, Mary created Life Steps Campus while serving as Executive Director of the Casper Housing Authority. The Life Steps Campus project rehabilitated the old Wyoming state orphanage campus to serve homeless families, domestic violence victims, people living with Aids, homeless youth, and people with special needs. Mary’s career was cut short when she became severely ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). The CFS used to be the most debilitating part, but now, 25 years later, the MCS is. Due to the increasing strength and pervasiveness of fragrances in the environment, Mary can no longer live a normal life. She is unable to go into schools, stores, or offices, or even have relatives come to visit. Having a technician come in to fix something in her home has severe health consequences: face burning and swelling, difficulty breathing, retching, migraines, and severe fatigue. When her daughter had cancer surgery, the pollution caused by fragrances from peoples’ laundry products, personal care products, air fresheners, and hand sanitizers was worse inside the hospital than outside by the street. Mary had to keep leaving the hospital to get fresh air. Mary used to take short walks or putter in her garden when she had the strength, but today neighborhood dryer fumes chase her inside. Unable to tolerate chemicals carried in on others, she now lives in isolation. She misses hugs the most. Mary is determined to use her remaining days to fight the global fragrance epidemic and its devastating impacts. She believes we must speak up for the truth, even if it is unpopular and we fear retribution. She wants to stop the advertising that brainwashes people into believing they are flawed or less if they don’t smell like something other than themselves. She will do everything she can to advocate for the right to breathe clean, naturally fresh, safe air. Mary supports the Fragrance Free Coalition’s work to stop fragrance pollution. She believes the Coalition’s goal to educate people about the dangers of fragrance chemicals and their work to encourage policies stopping the use of fragrance in public places is a first step to reclaiming a world free of fragrance pollution for the sake of the present generation and the survival of those to come.
