Eagleton Faculty, Staff and Visiting Associates
Jane Kenny is a founder and the Managing Partner of The Whitman Strategy Group, LLC. Her background in the energy and environment field includes work in sustainability issues, water quality, land use, clean energy, and green technologies.
She serves on the Board of Directors for New Jersey Resources, a Fortune 1000 energy services company and chairs its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. She co-chairs the steering committee for Jersey Water Works, a collaborative that is working to transform New Jersey’s inadequate water infrastructure through sustainable, cost-effective solutions. She also serves as a trustee for NJ Future.
The recipient of numerous national awards for her work in revitalizing cities, Kenny’s experience includes high-level management positions in the private sector and in several complex government agencies. As regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), she oversaw the federal agency’s work in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
During her EPA tenure, Kenny managed a billion-dollar budget and nearly 1,000 EPA engineers, lawyers, chemists, biologists, and public outreach specialists. She signed the historic decision to remediate the Hudson River, negotiated an agreement with GE to design the river’s clean up, and directed a highly successful community outreach plan involving key stakeholders of the Hudson River community. Kenny also managed the EPA’s response to the indoor air quality crisis in Lower Manhattan following 9-11.
Prior to leading EPA, Kenny was New Jersey’s Commissioner for the Department of Community Affairs. She is credited with devising and implementing key urban economic and neighborhood development programs. Her initiatives included creating new urban redevelopment programs, encouraging sensible state planning, establishing the nation’s first building rehabilitation code, broadening neighborhood revitalization programs, promoting shared local services to benefit taxpayers, and financing a record number of affordable housing units.
Good Housekeeping and the Ford Foundation featured her work in Good Housekeeping Magazine and presented her with their Women in Government Award, calling her a “city saver.” She is also a recipient of Governing Magazine’s “Public Official of the Year” award and The National Public Service award for Excellence in Public Service.
Kenny is married to Gregory Myer. They have three adult children and three granddaughters.