Kimberly Eyer is a researcher and auditing director at Heavy Metal Facts, contributing to evidence-based reporting on heavy metal contamination in food, water, and consumer products. She brings over 30 years of clinical, regulatory, and standards enforcement experience to her investigative work on toxic metal exposure and public health risk.
Background
Kimberly holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is a certified perioperative nurse (CNOR) and Registered Nurse First Assistant (RNFA). Her clinical career spanned more than two decades in high-acuity surgical settings, including pediatric cardiac surgery at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, cardiothoracic and neurovascular surgery at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and ambulatory surgery center leadership at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
During her tenure at Children's Mercy Hospital, she served as an RNFA in the Ward Family Center for Congenital Heart Disease, where her work contributed to published research on decellularized allograft patches and pulmonary valves in pediatric cardiac applications.
Certification & Standards Work
In 2010, Kimberly co-founded The Paleo Foundation alongside her daughter, Karen Pendergrass. She has served as Chief Operating Officer and head of the organization's Auditing and Standards division, overseeing procedural enforcement for national and state certification programs including Certified Paleo, Keto Certified, and Grain-Free Certified.
Her auditing background — rooted in decades of procedural compliance in surgical and clinical settings — informs her systematic approach to food safety certification and heavy metal testing protocols.
Research Interests
Kimberly's research interests bridge clinical medicine and environmental toxicology, with a particular focus on:
- Heavy metal contamination in food and consumer products
- Analytical testing methods for toxic metals (lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium)
- Toxicological risk assessment and bioavailability
- The intersection of metal exposure and neurodegenerative disease
- Congenital heart defects and environmental risk factors
She has co-authored peer-reviewed work on melanin-metal interactions and Parkinson's disease risk, as well as earlier clinical research published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
Publications
- Eyer, K. & Pendergrass, K. "Pheomelanin, Eumelanin, and Neuromelanin: A Metal-Linked Hypothesis for Parkinson's Risk in Redheads." Zenodo, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17976306
- Pendergrass, K. & Eyer, K. "Melanotan Peptides as Potential Therapeutics in Parkinson's Disease." Microbiome Medicine, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17996461
- "Initial Pediatric Cardiac Experience With Decellularized Allograft Patches." The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 2012. DOI: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2011.09.039
- "Performance and Morphology of Decellularized Pulmonary Valves Implanted in Juvenile Sheep." The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 2011. DOI: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2011.03.039
Professional Service
Kimberly has volunteered as an RNFA and scrub nurse with Medical Aid for Children of Latin America (MACLA), providing pro bono pediatric surgical care in underserved communities. She received the highest-ranked Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey score in California during her time directing ambulatory services at Providence Saint John's Health Center.