Distinguished Alumni Award: Jennifer Morris MIA ’97

Jennifer Morris is CEO of The Nature Conservancy where she leads a team of over 6,000 staff in more than 80 countries and territories to address the climate and biodiversity crises. 

With 25+ years in conservation, her leadership emphasizes proven management, innovative finance solutions, and science-based approaches centered on communities. Prior to joining TNC, she held key roles at Conservation International, including COO and President. Jennifer has been named to TIME’s inaugural Climate 100 list of leaders and Forbes’ 50 over 50 for Impact. She serves on the Climate Advisory Board for NBIM, Nestlé’s CSV Council, and chairs the board of Enduring Earth. Based in Washington, DC, Jennifer has a passion for storytelling, mentoring future leaders and spending time outdoors.

TRANSCRIPT:

JENNIFER MORRIS: Throughout my career, I've focused on a couple of things. One is scale and impact. And I would say as CEO of the Nature Conservancy, that's exactly what we're all about. We, as one of the largest environmental organizations in the world, know that we have an opportunity to really influence policy and to influence business, which we know will achieve the biggest scale.

I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. When I was 15, I moved to Southern California. And I had always dreamed of traveling abroad. I really wanted to live in other countries. So after I graduated from college, I spent two years living in Northern Namibia. I went there really thinking that I would study public health, and then I would go back to graduate school, and go into public health.

I quickly learned that so many health problems were really based on really environmental issues. I decided that my focus should be more upstream, really addressing the drivers of that health. And so I wanted to go to a grad school that would provide me with background in economics, background in business, background in policy, and SIPA provided that opportunity.

When I finished SIPA, I went to work for Women's World Banking. And then I had a 23-year career at Conservation International, from being the chief operating officer, and then finally, the president to join the Nature Conservancy.

One of the things that I'm using my SIPA degree for is to bring the economics of nature and the importance of what we call natural capital into mainstream business. For so long, we haven't embedded nature into the solutions of the planetary crisis. And I've seen many examples in my career and worked hard to bring different people who often disagree and often compete together in a radically collaborative way to ensure that we achieve bigger things as a result.

I'm truly blessed to be in a position as CEO of the Nature Conservancy, where I get to support our 6,000 staff, to be out there with the teams in the field and continue to work really hard on practical, durable solutions that will help this planet. I feel like every day, no matter the bad news, I wake up, and I'm doing something that's making the world a little bit better. And I really do credit SIPA for launching me into a position and a career that has taken me to do things that I had only dreamed of.

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