Announcement from Margaret Brennan-Tonetta, Senior Associate Director, NJAES; Director, Office of Administration and Strategic Development; and Director, Resource and Economic Development at Rutgers NJAES
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Jeffrey C. Everett as Associate Director for Agricultural Retention, Development and Conservation at NJAES. In this capacity, Jeff will advance new and/or existing applied research, demonstration, and outreach programs centered on farm conservation practices and technologies, resource stewardship, and climate-friendly agriculture at experiment station research farms. He will play a key facilitative role in evaluating the efficacy and impacts of state and local agricultural development and retention strategies and innovating new strategies to support farm economic viability, resource stewardship, and climate adaptation.
Jeff has 25 years of experience in managing public lands and administering conservation easement programs, working for agencies such as the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, and Carroll County, Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Program. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director of the NJ State Agriculture Development Committee, where he devised and funded numerous innovative initiatives that include the deer fencing, soil and water conservation cost-share, and rural microenterprises programs. He holds a B.A. in History from Mary Washington College and an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Delaware, where he was a research assistant in support of the Delaware Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation.
Jeff is a recognized expert in farmland protection, cultural landscape preservation, conservation finance, and incentive-based “whole systems” conservation. He co-authored a book on the geography and landscape history of his native Shenandoah Valley, published by the University of Virginia Press, and was awarded The Conservation Fund’s National Green Infrastructure Award in Conservation Finance and the Alice Mildred Shipley Land Preservation Award.
Please join me in welcoming Jeff to the NJAES!
