Imagine the following people as your dinner guests: a writer who has chronicled centuries of New Jersey lore, a veteran administrator of the state's largest hospital, a leading conservationist fighting to preserve New Jersey's vanishing open space, an executive who introduces city kids to the opportunities of the business world, the inventors of a revolutionary artificial knee, the athletic director of the state's largest university, and the chairman of the board of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. They are just some of this year’s winners of the New Jersey Pride Award.
Each year since 1985, New Jersey Monthly has honored the state's leading figures in the arts, health, education, social services, science and technology, and a host of other fields so critical to our collective quality of life. In their respective fields, this years crop of winners — selected by a panel of distinguished judges — have helped shaped the mosaic of human experience and accomplishment that defines New Jersey. They represent, quite simply, the best that the state has to offer. You'd be hard-pressed to assemble a more noteworthy group at your table.

In the movement to preserve open space in New Jersey, Michael Catania has made a name for himself by bringing together conservationists and corporations — an achievement roughly akin to persuading Donald Trump and Steve Wynn to confab over milk and cookies. Working in the nation's most densely populated state, where every available patch of land comes under intense scrutiny, Catania has mastered the art of the preservation deal.
A prime example of his deft maneuvering is the Stockton Alliance, begun in 1993 as a cooperative of nine corporations and nine environmental groups, including Mobil Oil and the Sierra Club. "We start from the assumption that corporate America is not our enemy," says Catania, the executive director of the New Jersey Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
Such deals typically focus on endangered species habitats in the Pinelands, the Delaware Bayshores, and the Great Limestone Valley in northwestern New Jersey. In his seven years at the conservancy, Catania has helped deposit more than 25,000 acres into the state's bank of untouchable property.
Jerrold Jacobs, the chairman and CEO of Atlantic Energy, describes Catania as "a bridge between two communities." Jacobs shared the original chairmanship of the Stockton Alliance with Catania, and he came to admire his ability to work both sides of the environmental debate.
A graduate of the Rutgers School of Law in Camden, the 45-year-old Catania formerly served as deputy commissioner for the state Department of Environmental Protection. His colleagues expected him to hook up with a law firm when he left the agency in 1990, but when the Nature Conservancy called, he knew that the fit was right. The chapter's headquarters sits in a wooded section of Chester Township, and Catania lives nearby with his wife, Jan Rosenfeld, and their children, 6-year-old Taran (named after the national park in Tanzania where the couple honeymooned) and 3-year-old Leif (named for Eriksson, the explorer).
Although New Jersey voters consistently endorse bond measures designed to preserve open space, Catania remains skeptical over permanent funding. He worries that the next bond might be "the straw that breaks the camel's back."
"We just don't know when that might be," he says.

— Christopher Hang

See also our Interview with Michael Catania.

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