Herb Simmens has had a varied and distinguished career planning for the future of our communities and society. He was the county administrator in Atlantic County, New Jersey when casinos were first legalized, a town manager of two New Jersey communities, and served as Executive Director of the New Jersey State Planning Commission for a decade. In that role, he led the effort to create New Jersey’s award-winning long-term smart growth plan.
Herb has also taught at two universities and served as executive director of two environmental nonprofits.
He helped secure the passage of the first declaration of a climate emergency in any American community in 2017 and created the philanthropic platform Planetphilia. He authored the first edition of A Climate Vocabulary of the Future in 2017.
He serves on the steering committee of the Healthy Planet Action Coalition healthyplanetaction.org.
He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University and also studied at the London School of Economics. He currently lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. His website is www.herbsimmens.com.