Six months after Jeff Tittel retired following two decades as one of the top sources for environmental information and as the ecology movement’s most influential state government lobbyist, the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club finally came up with a replacement.
Anjuli Ramos-Busot will be the chapter’s new director, taking the position Tittel once held after working more than five years for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection as a climate change research scientist and air quality specialist.
“I am honored to be appointed to lead the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club,” said Ramos-Busot. “New Jersey is a small state, but one with so much environmental beauty. We are also very unique because of our densely populated nature, which puts us in a very susceptible position when dealing with pollution.”
“Even ‘small pollution’ is ‘big pollution’ for New Jersey,” said Ramos-Busot. “There is a lot of work to do, and I am excited to work and fight to protect our environment and people, particularly those communities most impacted by pollution and climate change.”
“I am proud to have this opportunity and to continue the great work of my predecessor,” said Ramos-Busot.
Ramos-Busot is a highly-skilled environmental scientist and advocate, with substantial knowledge in air quality and climate change.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico before getting her M.S. in environmental chemistry and air pollution science and technology from Rutgers University. Ramos-Busothas also volunteered with the Sierra Club as the New Jersey chapte’s Air Quality Issues Coordinator.
“I am really excited to have Anjuli join us. Out of the scores of applicants we had, including some amazing people, Anjuli stood out. She’s really well-qualified, an environmentalist down to her core, and she understands what’s at stake,” said Rich Isaac, chair of the Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter. “I know that Anjuli is going to do an amazing job, and that she will help us build and grow our collaborative work with many different organizations.”
The green movement has recognized New Jersey as a pioneer in environmental protection, hazardous contamination remediation, and investing to protect public health.
New Jersey was the third state in the nation to consolidate existing programs into a single state agency to administer aggressive environmental and conservation efforts. Established by law on the first Earth Day, in 1970, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) immediately began managing natural resources and solving pollution problems.
The Garden State established many groundbreaking laws such as the precursor to the federal Superfund, designed to clean up toxic waste, and heavily invested in environmental infrastructure projects.
New Jersey was the first state to enact a mandatory recycling law; an original member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative; established maximum contaminant levels for PFA ‘forever’ chemicals in drinking water; preserved more than 700,000 acres of land through our Green Acres Program; and continues to hold polluters accountable when they contaminate our communities.
At the same time, Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District led a group of nine House Democrats who threatened to halt progress on the most important climate legislation in U.S. history.
The state also continues funding the environmental and economic failures of beach replenishment projects that pump sand on beaches rather than take a smarter approach to deal with climate change and storm surges.
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