The Advocacy of Jacquelyn Bonomo

Episode 4 of “Environmental Voices: The PennFuture Podcast” celebrates the career and advocacy of Jacquelyn Bonomo, PennFuture's President and CEO who will retire in July after a brilliant 40-year career.

Bonomo, who first came to PennFuture as the organization’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in August 2016, has served as the organization’s President and Chief Executive Officer since October of 2017. Her work in environmental advocacy started as a volunteer with the Sierra Club, and concludes with her leading a period of sustained growth at one of Pennsylvania’s most influential environmental organizations, PennFuture. In between, Bonomo has had a front row seat to some of the most important conservation developments of the last four decades, working at the national level and in 24 states and U.S. territories.

In this episode, we tried to honor Bonomo's tremendous career by chatting with people who have worked closely with her over the last 40 years.

Our guests include:

· Charles Bier, who is the Senior Director for Conservation Science at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Before coming to PennFuture, Bonomo spent nearly a decade at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy as that organization’s vice president of conservation programs. From 1999 to 2008, Jacqui was responsible for budgeting, planning and administration of the largest natural resource conservation program in the region, with staff in eight locations. She also increased the organization’s operating budget from $1 million to $5.7 million and grew staff from eleven to over 80 through 2007.

· Cindy Adams Dunn, who has served as the Secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources since 2015. From 2013 to 2015, Dunn served as the president
and CEO of PennFuture. Like Bonomo, Dunn is one of the most noteworthy
environmental advocates in Pennsylvania over the last several decades.

· Tim Ference, with Friends of the Nescopeck, which is where Bonomo's environmental advocacy began.

For more information about PennFuture, visit pennfuture.org