Carole Koch of Naperville, former chairperson of The Green Earth Institute, joined the board of The Conservation Foundation when our merger became official.
Carole was involved in the Green Earth mission from the beginning, serving as a Board member and volunteer and also helping produce marketing materials for the Community Supported Agriculture program.
In her professional life, Carole has worked as director of human resources at the University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics, and as Chief HR Officer/Associate Hospital Director at the U of I Medical Center in Chicago. Carole was a volunteer docent for 10 years at the Robert McCormick Museum, Cantigny Park, in Wheaton, and served on the board of directors for the Naperville Chorus for three years.
Carole’s experience as a native Chicagoan who moved to the suburbs 38 years ago to escape the concrete has been a defining part of her conservation ethic.
“The local population was a mere 44,000 then, so I’ve seen first-hand how quickly open land can disappear and just how important it is to protect both our land and our rivers,” Carole said. “I’ve been very impressed with the smooth transition of the Green Earth Institute into The Conservation Foundation, and I find the new Nature Rx initiative of particular interest.”
Another recent addition to our Board of Trustees is Jeanette Press of Lisle. Jeanette is Vice President, Controller and Principal Accounting Officer for USG Corporation, leading the company’s internal and external financial accounting and reporting.
Prior to joining USG in 2011, Jeanette spent more than 13 years in the audit practice at KPMG, LLP serving both public and private, multinational corporations in the consumer and industrial markets. While at KPMG, she spent three years in the firm’s Department of Professional Practice in New York City, advising the firm’s audit and advisory professionals and clients on the application of accounting principles, Securities and Exchange Commission rules and regulations, risk management and independence matters.
Jeanette loves open space and feels it is an important area of pride for a community, and she has a special interest in getting younger constituents involved in preserving land and connecting them with The Conservation Foundation’s mission.
