Jennifer Stefanick, a new addition to the AOR Board as Membership Chair, comes from a background of recycling and waste prevention, particularly food waste prevention.

Her recent efforts in these areas included managing the Portland Event Recycling program with Community Environmental Services (CES) and the City of Portland working with community members to assist in making their events as sustainable as possible.

Jennifer also contributed to the Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) Oregon Food Study with CES where she conducted interviews with business participants and wasted food audits, compiled tons of data and recruited households to participate in the study. She is a recent undergrad from PSU earning her degree in environmental studies with a minor in sustainability. 

Her previous work as a pastry chef and sustainability coordinator for a Portland food production kitchen for 10 years earned her the Individual Recycler of the Year award at the AOR conference in 2008 for her actions in reducing waste. She facilitated the adoption of organics within the business early on, coordinated food donation and got her fellow coworkers excited about not only recycling at work but within their homes and communities as well. Ever since that conference in 2008, she's been hooked on AOR and is thrilled to now be an addition to AOR's Board in 2018.

Jennifer is also on the Board as the volunteer liaison for the original Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls, a Portland based non-profit that teaches young girls and women to empower themselves through music. She engages with the volunteer community regularly by coordinating events and developing workshops that contribute to the overall mission of the Camp.

Jennifer grew up in the Bay Area self hauling materials to recycling depots with her family. That was the norm back then so when she moved on her own to Portland in 1992 and started seeing the curbside program around town, she was even that much more excited about her decision to make Portland her home.

Jennifer looks forward to connecting with AOR members, past, present and future, and being a part of an energetic and engaging group of people passionate about protecting our environment.