Name: Jennie Romer
Previous title: Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pollution Prevention, U.S. EPA
New Title: Director of Policy, North America, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Romer joins the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to help the organization promote circular economy-related policies across the U.S. and Canada. Her focus will include policy related to e-waste, textiles and the recovery of critical raw materials.
The foundation is known for its work promoting circular economy principles, particularly by encouraging businesses to commit to plastic and packaging reduction targets through country-specific plastics pacts.
Romer has more than 15 years of experience in the plastics, packaging and recycling sector. She was appointed to the EPA in 2021, where she worked in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. There, she managed numerous pollution prevention and sustainability initiatives, led the agency's sustainable procurement process and wrote the EPA’s public comments to the Federal Trade Commission on potential updates to the Green Guides’ guidelines on recycling claims. She also served as a delegate to the United Nations’ global plastic pollution prevention negotiations in 2024.
Prior to her role at the EPA, she worked to introduce and pass numerous plastic pollution laws, including the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. She served as a legal associate at the Surfrider Foundation, where she led the organization’s plastic pollution initiative and tracked thousands of plastic reduction laws around the country.
She is also the author of “Can I Recycle This?: A Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics.”
At the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Romer will expand her work beyond plastics to also encompass “thoughtful policies” related to electronics and critical materials, which she said is a priority in North America due to a focus on domestic manufacturing. Circular economy approaches to e-waste can help strengthen national security because it helps stabilize local supply chains as demand for critical minerals increases, she added.
Romer also plans to work on corporate sustainability topics and work with foundation member corporations on circular economy policies, she said.
“I think people think of plastics a lot of the time when they think of me, and that's still part of it,” Romer said. “After EPA, I spent some time thinking about my next move, and decided I really wanted to broaden my experience and tackle new challenges and really leverage my plastic experience as well as my other circular economy experience.”
