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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING THE CAREER AND RETIREMENT OF CATHY GERAGHTY
WHEREAS, Ms. Cathy Geraghty will be retiring from her position at the Forest Preserves of Cook County as the Director of External and Strategic Initiatives in the Office of the General Superintendent on December 31, 2024. Cathy has held this position for the last 14 years and previously served as the Forest Preserves' Director of Grant Development for 11 years; and
WHEREAS, as a Ph.D. candidate in Biological Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Cathy has been trained as an ecologist and evolutionary biologist, and she also studied land use law, public policy, and environmental economics; and
WHEREAS, Cathy's career path included 14 years at a variety of conservation organizations including Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, Curtis & Edith Munson Foundation, Committee for the National Institute of the Environment, and as a researcher and instructor at multiple organizations, giving her a unique cross-disciplinary approach to conservation; and
WHEREAS, she has always urged the Forest Preserves to be ambitious and to do all it can to protect and sustain the lands and waters in its care and has been integral in creating and leading the Forest Preserves' most ambitious and visionary plans and initiatives. These include the Forest Preserves' first Sustainability Principles in 2010, the Forest Preserves' first Science & Research Symposium in 2012, the 2013 Centennial Campaign Plan, developed to celebrate the Forest Preserves 100-year anniversary, and creating the 2014 Next Century Conservation Plan, the visionary strategy for protecting and caring for people and nature for the next 100 years; and
WHEREAS, Cathy has influenced and guided, together with partners and volunteers, several restoration and leadership initiatives that have positioned the Forest Preserves as a local, regional and national leader, among them the Conservation Corps, Centennial Volunteers, the Conservat...
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