Jennifer Browning directs Pew’s project to protect nearshore ocean ecosystems and marine life in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean and to continue building sustainability in U.S. fisheries through management of forage fish and reduction of bycatch. The goal of the initiative is to safeguard and conserve rocky habitats and other nearshore ecosystems, including estuaries, salt marshes, and seagrass beds. An estimated 95 percent of all commercially important fish species and other wildlife find shelter and food, spawn, and grow in these habitats. The area also provides significant benefits to the people who live and visit there by filtering pollutants, serving as a carbon sink, buffering coastlines against sea level rise and flooding, and supporting coastal economies. Browning previously was a senior officer with Pew’s strategy department, where she oversaw strategic planning for projects within the organization’s environment portfolio.
Before joining Pew, Browning was executive director of Bluestem Communications, a nonprofit environmental communications organization that partners with other nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies to develop campaigns and create behavior-change strategies. She also served as president of Quercus Consulting, an environmental education, program development, and management consultancy.
Browning holds a bachelor’s degree in ecology from the University of Illinois at Chicago.