Bruce H. Jennings

Bruce H. Jennings is a political scientist and former senior environmental policy advisor with the California Legislature. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Hawai’i. His academic work includes an appointment as a Fulbright Scholar at the Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo in Mexico and multiple appointments as a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley.

Jennings began his career researching the role of powerful philanthropic institutions — such as the Rockefeller Foundation — in reshaping agricultural systems across the Americas. His doctoral research examined the politics of science and agricultural transformation and was published by Westview Press. As co-chief of the California Senate Committee on Environmental Quality and chief of the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials, he helped shape legislation addressing environmental health, chemical regulation, and farmworker protections. Jennings’s writing and public speaking reflect decades of commitment to ecological sustainability and equity for rural communities across the hemisphere.