Bill Wolfe

Bill Wolfe has been Director of the NJ Chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) since June 2005.

PEER is a national non-profit alliance of local, state and federal scientists, law enforcement officers, land managers and other professionals dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values.

From 1985-2005, Mr Wolfe served as a Policy Analyst and Planner with the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (1985-1995; 2002-2004).

From 1995-2002, Mr Wolfe was Policy Director of Sierra Club, NJ Chapter.

In 1994, Mr Wolfe became a whistleblower when he disclosed a memoranda between Governor Whitman and the NJDEP Commissioner. The Whitman memo sought to downplay the public health significance of scientific research by the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences that found high levels - statewide - of mercury in freshwater fish. Whitman made false and misleading remarks to the press regarding mercury risks. Wolfe then learned that these were not inadveted errors, but were designed as a strategy to suppress, distort, fail-to-warn the public, and avoid aggressively responding to scientific research documenting high levels of mercury in NJ freshwater fish. As a result of this unauthorized disclosure, Wolfe was forced out of the Agency and later formed NJ PEER to protect consientious public employees.

In 2002, Governor McGreevey's NJDEP Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell invited Wolfe to rejoin DEP and serve as the "conscience of the Agency".

Mr. Wolfe has a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science and Public Policy from SUNY Binghamton (1983) and attended Cornell University's Graduate School of City and Regional Planning (1983-1985).

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