Jad Daley

About Jad

Since being named by the Board of Directors to lead American Forests as President and
CEO in July 2018, Jad Daley has catapulted the oldest national conservation
organization in the country into a dynamic new era.

With paired goals of using landscape-scale forests as a climate change solution and
urban forests as a means to bring about equity, diversity and inclusion in communities
across the nation, Daley is positioning American Forests as a leader in the movement to
mitigate the biggest existential threat to life on our planet.

Daley served as VP of Programs at American Forests for a year before being appointed
CEO. Immediately prior he was at The Trust for Public Land for nine years, serving as
Vice President for Program Development and holding the endowed Martha Wyckoff
Fellow. Among his accomplishments with the Trust, Daley created a groundbreaking
Climate-Smart Cities program that has integrated science, spatial planning, policy, and
on-the-ground implementation to help 19 U.S. cities advance green infrastructure for
carbon reductions and climate resilience.

Daley’s leadership has also included co-founding the Forest-Climate Working Group,
which he continues to co-chair, and serving as the founding director for the Eastern
Forest Partnership, which he led from 2000 through 2008. Daley has also played a lead
role in authoring multiple pieces of federal legislation for forests, including the enabling
language for the U.S. Forest Service Community Forest Program and Community Wood
Energy Program that were enacted as part of the 2008 Farm Bill.

Daley is currently serving a second term on the federal Landscape Conservation
Cooperative National Council. Past associations include serving as a technical expert for
the Rockefeller Foundation’s Design Advisory Group in support of the HUD National
Disaster Resilience Competition. Daley’s writing has been featured in media outlets
such as the Washington Post, New York Times, Huffington Post, U.S. EPA
Environmental Justice blog, GreenBiz.com, and the American Planning Association’s
Recovery News blog.

Daley is a graduate of Peddie School, Brown University, and Vermont Law School
where he earned an M.S.E.L. degree summa cum laude. He also has a long history as a
competitive athlete, having represented the United States on four occasions in
international duathlon competitions and twice earning top-150 finishes in the New York
City Marathon.