Making the World Better through Value-led Advocacy and Bridgebuilding. Member Spotlight: Jennifer Waterhouse Pietro

Jennifer Waterhouse Pietro was one of four children born to a “very unique and somewhat eccentric family” in Pasadena, California. One aspect of this uniqueness was that her family has maintained their ancestral home in Kauai, Hawaii for eight generations and another family presence in Pasadena, all involving “an inordinate” amount of time sailing the waters of California and the South Pacific. Due to this, Jennifer grew up with a deep connection to all things aquatic, including sailing, scuba diving and snorkeling and, as she notes “none of which involve wearing shoes.” Her mother was a classical and jazz musician,and her father was a Los Angeles Times writer and teacher who also played and loved music. She grew up surrounded by music and culture, with her family having friends ranging from Walt Disney’s the Firehouse Five to prominent academics, artists, and other figures. While her family had many privileges, Pietro described them as heavily emphasizing the principle of ‘noblesse oblige’ (nobility obligates), meaning those with privilege should use what they have to act with generosity, honor, and care towards others who may have less. They taught her that “humanity should be more kind to those who have suffered injustice” and both parents were involved in the American Civil Rights movement and various political campaigns. Her great-great-uncle, Herbert Nicholson, was a Quaker missionary known as “Father Goat,” who lived and traveled in rural Japan.  After he was called back to the United States during World War II, Dr. Nicholson later returned after the atomic bombings in Nagasaki and Hiroshima to apologize on behalf of the American people, further inspiring a new generation of descendants who honored the protection of culture, education, advocacy, and humanism even in times of war and international conflict.

Pietro began her early education in Southern California, but in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis her family moved to New Zealand, hoping that they might find a more peaceful place to live, hopefully a place that did not have their political fingers poised on the nuclear trigger. Though they didn’t intend to return to America, they missed their life and friends, and did not find the New Zealand of the 1960’s to be as fitting with their personal beliefs and values as they had hoped. They returned to Southern California and Pietro later continued her studies after high school at UC Berkeley. Not knowing which academic discipline she wanted to focus on focused on a trio of undergraduate studies in Criminology, Sociology, and African American Literature.

After graduating, she went to work for her uncle’s court reporting firm to “see if I like what goes on in law”, finding the effort “a complete failure, because I realized court reporters had little impact other than recording and transcribing court proceedings”: clearly too passive a role for Jennifer.  During that time period she began applying to graduate schools and “met and married my first husband.” They moved to Martha’s Vineyard and Cambridge; and as a couple they founded Energy and Environmental Engineering, an environmental and engineering research and development company. Her husband held a PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT, as well as experience in contracting with government agencies like the EPA, DOE, DOT, DOD, and the SBA. They used his knowledge and contacts with her Management acumen to support public and private energy contracts to develop cleaner, cost effective energy technologies for developing nations as well as developing patented technologies that would conform to the provisions of the Clean Air Act, the Clear Water Act and Hazardous Waste disposal.  During this period she obtained a Master’s Degree in Management from the Lesley College University, and completed her Masters project as an intern at Harvard Business School, leading her to writing their school campaign case statement. These educational experiences gave her more official credentials and improved her managerial skills for the work she continued doing in energy and environmental consulting.  Some of the work included spending extensive time in Washington D.C., and the Martha’s Vineyard circuit introduced her to many lifetime friends, including activists John Lewis, Vernon Jordan, Andy Young and others who loved the Vineyard and participated in the “Eddie Brooke Invitational” tennis tournament in Oak Bluffs every summer.  

Returning to Los Angeles in the 1980’s, she began working at UCLA as the director of their International Studies and Overseas Programs, directing the international component of their $250 million dollar campaign fund. In her thirteen and a half years there, the overall UCLA Campaign had so far exceeded its goals that it was compelled to relaunch the campaign, declaring a new total goal of $2.1 billion dollars, to be raised from corporate, foundation and individual donors as well as from alumni donors. Her work at UCLA was focused on building relationships with domestic and international sources of funding, including governments, and non-profit organizations. Many of UCLA’s international programs were of great interest to entertainment industry donors and volunteers, specifically to expand and widen the impact of the Center for International and Strategic Affairs (now the Burkle Forum), the UCLA-Rand Center for the Study Of Soviet International Behavior, the Center for Pacific Rim Studies and a variety of area studies Organized Research Units: her work with the fund involved figures ranging from Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to CEO of Sony Pictures Mike Medavoy, businessman and investor Ronald Burkle, and multiple political actors including Presidents Carter and Clinton. 

Through the network that she has developed, Pietro has built a consulting practice, focusing her efforts on various forms of conflict resolution and assisting clients with estate and legacy planning.  Most of her clients have already achieved most if not all of their business and professional goals and objectives, and many see philanthropy as a highly effective tools for as a tool for achieving a personal legacy that both provides for their children and family, but also leaves the world a better place through their strategic investment of a portion of their own net worth. Jennie Waterhouse Consulting has evolved over the past three decades as she has expanded its scope to include both formal mediation and other conflict resolution services, such as Ho’opono’pono, a traditional Hawaiian practice focusing on love and forgiveness as a necessary part of resolving interpersonal and family conflicts. Pietro views mediation as very complementary to the bridge-building work she has done her entire career, and she is grateful to the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law for providing her with a powerful skill set, particularly in the realm of entertainment industry, intercultural and international conflicts.  She joined Mediators Beyond Borders upon completion of her studies at Pepperdine after becoming acquainted with several of its founding members, and she is especially interested in the role that mediation has played and can continue to play in post apartheid South Africa and in Rwanda as well as in the emergent efforts in Hawaii to create Huis that bring stewardship and resources to lands that need protection by native and lineal descendants alike.  

Aside from her long list of professional accomplishments, Pietro finds her deepest sense of bond and connection with her daughter and son, whom she gave birth to “later in life than most, but soon enough.”  She said: “I had an extraordinary moment in time when I realized that what I aspire to be as long as I am here on Earth is to be as good an ancestor that I can be. I try to think, as I have been taught, seven generations ahead, keeping in front of mind my sense of justice and what is right and true… I want my children to find out for themselves how they want to be in this world, so that when I’m gone they will continue forward, headed towards ‘True North’, wherever they find that to be as they journey through their own beautiful lives.”

Article by Hunter Siegel, MBBI Writer