Jim attended St. Francis High School, Benedictine University, and then earned an MBA in Marketing from National University. Anyone that knows Jim knows of his passion for the environment.

Jim began his relationship with The Conservation Foundation as a volunteer. In his volunteer efforts, Jim helped organize the annual DuPage River Sweep since its inception in 1991. In fact, he was organizing DuPage river clean ups in Warrenville prior to the Foundation’s involvement. Since then, he has worked on prairie and wetland restoration projects at Warrenville’s Johnson School and on several educational endeavors of the Foundation. Jim is also the recipient of the 1999 Paul Butler Memorial Award presented by The Conservation Foundation for outstanding volunteer service.

In 2004, Jim joined the staff becoming the new Land Preservation Specialist for The Conservation Foundation. Jim now works to preserve land as open space. In that duty, Jim works with government agencies and private landowners to negotiate open space purchases, facilitate land donations and conservation easements. He lectures all over the region on local environmental issues, and actively works with homeowners and business property owners to improve the environmental conditions of their sites. The Conservation@Home program was his idea, teaching about sustainable landscaping practices, he currently manages the program.