House Warming Podcast, Episode 018: Lobbying for Change: The Veto Session Explained with Jen Walling, Executive Director of Illinois Environmental Council

In this episode, Sarah talks with Jen about the veto session, the lame duck session and her expectation for environmental legislation in those sessions.

Jen Walling has served as the Executive Director for the Illinois Environmental Council since January of 2011, where she oversees the strategic direction and management of the organization and lobbies decision makers on environmental issues. Jen is dedicated to building the power of Illinois’ environmental community to secure policy outcomes that protect the environment.

Over the last decade, Jen has worked to grow IEC staffing five fold, increase the budget and member affiliates, all with a focus on serving and representing IEC’s over 90 affiliated organizations. With the board of directors, Jen worked to secure IEC’s partnership with the League of Conservation Voters, a national organization which has helped IEC network and build on a national level.

Jen has drafted, negotiated, lobbied and passed hundreds of bills in Springfield while working to build the power, expertise and relationships of the entire environmental community. On energy issues, she worked to fix the renewable energy portfolio standards and increase energy efficiency through the Future Energy Jobs Act, and as a steering committee member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, she is working to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act. Jen has been a statewide leader in composting policy since 2009, when she worked to pass the first commercial composting law in Illinois. She has fought to protect state parks and natural areas through increasing funding to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, increasing recreation liability protections and funding stewardship through the Natural Areas Stewardship Act. Through Jen’s leadership, Illinois was the first state to ban microbeads in personal care products in 2013.

Jen holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also received a juris doctorate from the University of Illinois College of Law and is an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois.

Jen loves to spend her free time with her rescued standard poodle, Sally. She enjoys baking and in 2015, she and Rep. Kelly Cassidy baked fifty different blondie recipes during May in legislative session. She is a compost enthusiast and loves running, yoga and sewing.

The Illinois Environmental Council works to safeguard Illinois—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

Since our founding in 1975 by a group of dedicated grassroots environmentalists, IEC has led issue advocacy campaigns by allowing environmental organizations to pool their resources and create a higher profile for environmental issues.

Today, IEC represents more than 100 environmental and community organizations and nearly 500 individual members from throughout Illinois.

Website: https://ilenviro.org/
Facebook: @ilenviro
Twitter: @ilenviro
Instagram: @ilenviro
Youtube: @ilenviro

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