03 / ABOUT
Named authority, explicit boundaries
An institution is
who can decide what.
ICS publishes its people by authority rather than prestige. The record shows who holds executive, methodological, licensing, and auditing responsibility, and distinguishes those operating roles from independent oversight.
THE INSTITUTION
ICS governs the system around a standard.
The Institute of Contaminant Standards is a trade name of Paleo Certified, Inc. It governs the architecture shared by contaminant evidence indexes and certification programs: separation of data, standards-method rules, mark governance, verification, and enforcement.
Current thresholds, effective dates, and applications remain on each certification program’s own site. Literature findings remain on each independent index. ICS names who holds authority across those boundaries.
02 / NAMED PEOPLE
Operating authority has a public record.
Profiles state current institutional responsibility. External identifiers are linked where they exist; the absence of an identifier is not replaced with a decorative credential.
ICS / KPExecutive leadership · Standards Architect · Research lead
Karen Pendergrass
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Karen holds the Institute’s executive, standards, and research responsibilities. Across more than fifteen years of standards architecture, she developed certification frameworks and now leads ICS work in heavy metals, food metallomics, and microbial metallomics. She is the architect of the Heavy Metal Index evidence system and Heavy Metal Tested & Certified methodology.
ICS / KE
Executive leadership · Published standards co-author
Kimberly Eyer
Co-Founder · Executive Leadership
Kimberly is a co-founder of the organization and serves in executive leadership. She is a named co-author on the organization’s published certification standards, providing a public scholarly record alongside her institutional role.
ICS / JP
Licensing · Mark administration · Enforcement operations
Jonathan D. Pendergrass
Chief Licensing Operator
Jonathan leads licensing operations, including trademark licensing, certification compliance administration, and infringement enforcement. His function is operational: maintaining the agreements and controls through which certification marks remain governed in use.
ICS / JE
Audit operations · Product review · Compliance records
Jennifer Eyer
Chief of Auditing
Jennifer leads the auditing function responsible for reviewing products against the applicable certification requirements and maintaining the compliance record that supports certification decisions and ongoing status.
Institutional role record
03 / OVERSIGHT BOUNDARY
Operating leadership is not presented as independent oversight.
Independent oversight
Committee members will be named after formal appointment, conflict review, and acceptance of documented review and override authority. Until then, the function is shown without implying that a committee is seated.
External contributors & advisers
Contributors and advisers are identified with the specific work or scope they support. ICS does not maintain an honorary masthead that implies decision authority where none exists.
THE ACCOUNTABILITY RULE