Jennifer Ryan serves as CRWAs Deputy Director for Advocacy, where she leads the advocacy team in ensuring a healthy Charles River for all.  Working at the local, state, and federal levels, Jennifer leads CRWA in building coalitions, partnering with traditional and nontraditional allies, advancing legislative priorities, strengthening environmental laws and regulations, and holding polluters and government agencies accountable. Prior to CRWA, Jennifer was Director of Policy at The Trustees of Reservations. There she focused on natural resource protection, coastal conservation, and climate policy. Prior to The Trustees, Jennifer was Director of Legislative Affairs at Mass Audubon, where she led efforts to protect endangered species and advocated for nation leading climate change and ocean protection laws. Jennifer’s background is in wildlife conservation, with a MSc from the University of Maine and an undergraduate degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut, Storrs.  She was zoologist with the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, where she was responsible for aquatic invertebrate conservation and regulatory review under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act, with a focus on riverine and wetland species.