The Team

Thomas O’Donnell

Position :Sustainability and Environmental Professional
Experience:45 Years
Dr. O’Donnell is a geologist, environmental scientist, entrepreneur, teacher and also a sustainability coordinator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (NAHE) in its Sustainable Management of Food Program.
Tom is the primary architect of the Urban Surplus Food Recovery Model, which was acknowledged through a 2014 Public Service Excellence in Government award and, with his colleagues, through a 2019 USEPA National Achievement award. He is also the inaugural Engagements with the Common Good Fellow at Cabrini University, Pa where he teaches classes in food insecurity and hunger.
Current interests include supporting predictive analytic tools and earned-revenue models for farm food loss and helping others find new ways to process and distribute nutritious surplus food into communities with access challenges. He also advocates for expanding business opportunities and jobs to reduce food waste in the United States.
Tom earned a Doctorate in environmental science from the University of Virginia and holds both Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in geology from Franklin & Marshall College and the University of Texas at Dallas, respectively.
His research has been broadly published in peer-reviewed, international scientific journals, trade association publications, and blog posts on food insecurity. As a past-time, Tom, an ultramarathoner, trains adults to run half-marathons and full-marathons. He and his wife Margie have two sons and two grandchildren.