The Gund Foundation's environmental program officer Jon Jensen will soon be leaving Cleveland to become executive director of the Park Foundation in Ithaca, NY. At the August 21, 2007 Entrepreneurs for Sustainability networking event, the region's sustainability community will gather to celebrate Jon's many years of grant making.
Prior to the meeting, we're inviting people to share their memories about Jon. Click on the 'add new comment' link above to add yours. (If you are not a registered user of the site, you will first have to sign up for a user account here.)
Jon Jensen - Transportation Policy Hero!
CityWheels Says:I owe Jon an enormous debt of gratitude -- he is single-handedly responsible for my career to date in Cleveland.
1. Before I had met Jon, he was funding the national "transportation-for-livable-communities" reform work of the Surface Transportation Policy Project in Washington DC (where I had an internship in my final semester of undergrad in 1994). Because of his funding for STPP's research work, they were able to send me home to Cleveland with a year of paid work.
2. With financial stability provided by that job, I also began to do local advocacy work for transit, bicycling, and sustainable urban land use. Jon funded my "bike racks on buses/ bike-on-rail" campaign via Earth Day Coalition, and provided funding for my "Transit-Oriented Development" committee via CNDC.
3. A few years later, after a year of overseas travels, I returned to Cleveland and was feeling lost and disillusioned with the City. Jon offered me a paid internship at the Gund Foundation and gave me the freedom to pursue whatever interested me for more than six months. If not for this, I would have likely given up and moved permanently to the west coast.
4. Jon connected me to his fellow board member from a national wildlife nonprofit - a photographer who hired me to lug his gear through Cuba, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Martinique, etc. A once-in-a-lifetime experience!
5. In 1999, Jon provided a grant via EcoCity Cleveland to support my idea of creating a "Car-Free in Cleveland guidebook".
6. From 2000-2006 I did transportation advocacy work at EcoCity Cleveland. Jon's grantmaking to EcoCity provided the annual core of that budget. Throughout these years he continued to support my work, as well as the sustainable transportation work of many others in the midwest and nationally.
7. Most recently I have started a car-sharing company with the aim of helping people to live in the city without owning a car. Jon has expressed enthusiasm for getting the Gund Foundation to sign up as a customer, and for spreading the word among other tenants in their building. (Wait! Don't go yet, Jon!)
I couldn't have followed my passion for improving city living and the quality of Cleveland's transportation choices without Jon's enthusiastic longtime support.
Thank you Jon! Best of luck in your new adventure.
Ryan McKenzie, founder
CityWheels car-sharing
www.myCityWheels.com
216.795.2345
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