Our People

Dr. Barbara Brummer

State Director, New Jersey

Chester, NJ

Dr. Barbara Brummer.

Areas of Expertise

Conservation Partnerships, Science, Organizational Effectiveness, Campaign Engagement

Biography

As State Director of The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey, Barbara Brummer heads a team of scientists, conservation practitioners, policy experts and fundraisers addressing the key challenges facing nature and people in the nation’s most densely populated state. As we move rapidly towards a world with nine billion people, she has focused the Chapter on demonstrating the critical role that nature plays in the health of both people and nature—through the forested lands and great rivers that provide freshwater, marshes that protect the state’s extraordinary coast and support a bounty of marine life, and natural expanses that help mitigate the impacts of climate change.

With an academic background in science, a long and successful career in the consumer products industry, and a passion for the natural world, Barbara’s strength in organizational management has been central to the Chapter’s success in taking on increasingly ambitious goals to forward work on the ground and to influence conservation statewide and beyond New Jersey’s borders.

Barbara has created, promotes and maintains strong relationships with local, state and regional partners, including state and federal agencies, non-profit organizations, individuals, and other Conservancy chapters and programs. She currently represents the Conservancy as a member of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Endangered and Non-Game Species Advisory Council. She was instrumental in the formation of a new statewide dam removal working group, modeled on one she brought together to guide the successful removal of the Columbia Dam near the juncture of Paulins Kill, a river in northwestern New Jersey, with the Delaware River. And she teamed with philanthropy thought leaders in New Jersey to teach a course on Globalization & Philanthropy at New York University.

Barbara has a long record of community service and commitment to educating scientists in New Jersey, where she was born and raised. She chairs the Advisory Board of the Montclair State University College of Mathematics & Science, and for many years, while working full time and raising a family, was an adjunct professor of Field Herpetology at NYU. She served for 17 years on the Board of the New Jersey Audubon Society and for more than 25 years has been a trustee of the Pocono Environmental Education Center, which educates more than 20,000 students and educators in New Jersey every year.

Barbara holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from New York University (1980); MS from New York University (1976) and undergraduate degree from Montclair State University in Biology, Chemistry and Physics (1968). She also completed the Advanced Manager Program at Harvard University (1997).

Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy, Barbara held the position of Worldwide Vice President of Women’s Health & Wellness for the Consumer Group at Johnson & Johnson, retiring at the end of 2002. This worldwide franchise position was created to globalize various Women’s Health leadership brands. Prior to this assignment she was the President and Managing Director of Johnson & Johnson Inc., Canada from January 1998 until July of 2000. Canada markets most of the brands of the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies. During her tenure in Canada she more than doubled the consumer sales for the company. Barbara joined Johnson & Johnson at the Advanced Care Products Company in November of 1990 and, including her career at Johnson & Johnson, she worked in the Consumer Products industry for more than 30 years. Barbara has two daughters and four grandchildren and lives in Sussex County.

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