2007 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE’S DAVID AWARD HONOREE.

HON. PAUL JUDE TONNA
Executive Director, Energeia Partnership, Molloy College;
CEO, Professional Evaluation Medical Group

BY MAUREEN TRAXLER

When Paul Tonna was an undergraduate student
at New York University, he began lifeguarding
during the summer months at Jones Beach, an avocation he continued for the next 20 summers. Each year, he’d return to Robert Moses Field 3, meet friends, and enjoy the beautiful beaches, and so it is not unusual to hear this longtime Suffolk County resident speak about commitment to place.

His commitment to place was recognized by Molloy
College President Drew Bogner, when he recruited
Tonna in 2005 as Executive Director of a new initiative,
called The Energeia Partnership. Under Molloy’s
aegis, Energeia was inspired by findings from the
Long Island Index. As a former Suffolk County legislator,
Tonna saw Energeia as “an opportunity to get
involved in Long Island leadership.”

“ Looking at Long Island as a region,” continues
Tonna, “we see that we have a lot of challenges: housing,
transportation, energy, the plight of the poor,
hunger, institutional racism, and the black-versuswhite
experience. Energeia is designed to give ethical,
action-oriented leaders from a vast array of professions
a critical understanding of the people and issues that
affect Long Island. Over time, we hope to build a large
cadre of people who understand Long Island as a
region and are committed to the place.” Last February,
Energeia’s inaugural class of 27 individuals from the
public, private and nonprofit worlds embarked on
their two-year journey. Tonna says this “who’s who in
future leadership” meets bimonthly at sites across
Nassau and Suffolk. “We want to be as local as possible
to get the experience of Long Island.”

Tonna is well qualified to lead Energeia, having
experienced his own training ground in leadership
during his 12 years of government service. Elected
to the Suffolk Legislature in 1994, he says he had an
opportunity at the time that many don’t usually
have “a good working rapport with the opposite
party. Through leadership, we were able to work in
bipartisan fashion with clear vision about what our
constituency wanted, and we compromised as we
worked through the process.”

Tonna sponsored, co-sponsored, and passed
numerous laws and initiatives, including groundbreaking
non-smoking legislation, which became
the standard for New York City, Nassau County and
New York State. During his tenure, he adds, he and
his fellow legislators provided the incentive for economic
development in the Melville corridor,
improved infrastructure that allowed for economic
growth in Suffolk County, and made huge strides in
environmental protection, providing the funding for
purchase of open space in western Suffolk. He
served as chairman of several committees, including
Finance and Technology, Greenways, Budget, Social
Services, and Health and Human Services.
Honored to be selected by his peers, Tonna
served as Presiding Officer from 2000 to 2002.
During that time, he focused on poverty, hunger
and housing, and advocated for the Long Island
Housing Partnership. He says, “I felt we broke new
ground by successfully bringing the words ‘affordable
housing’ into the lexicon of government officials.”
Recognizing that children need to be protected,
Tonna worked for children’s rights, passing a measure
that allowed children in welfare motels to be
placed in Head Start programs so they could get hot
meals and insisting on additional child protection
workers.

“ I started in government as a minimalist,” says
Tonna, “believing that government couldn’t do anything
right, and I thought taxes should be cut.” But
when he left government, he realized that a vast
majority of incidences in government don’t get publicity.
He remarks, “Government employees are dedicated
to doing what the private sector never would
want to do, especially in the areas of taking care of
the poor, the roadway system, and protecting the
public health and the integrity of the governmental
process so tax dollars are not wasted.”

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in philosophy,
with a minor in political science, Tonna attended
Immaculate Conception Seminary as a layman,
receiving a master’s degree in Theology. During
Doctoral Studies in Systematic Theology at Fordham
University, he started a nonprofit group to help
Catholic high school-aged students become more
involved in their church. His first job was as a youth
minister and he taught courses in religious studies,
philosophy and literature at St. Anthony’s High
School. Following two years as personnel director
and director of education and training at St. Francis
Hospital, he took his current position as Chief
Executive Officer at Professional Evaluation Medical
Group, serving as managing partner of the preventive
health care firm.

Since 2003, Tonna continues to work with young
people in his position as adjunct professor in St.
John’s University’s Theology and Religious Studies
Department. He serves as a trustee of the Long Island
State Parks and Recreation Commission, and a board
member of the Long Island Regional Planning Board
and the South Huntington Water Commission. As a
board member of The Nature Conservancy-Long
Island Chapter, he sees the organization as “on the
forefront of some of the smartest thinking about land
preservation on Long Island.” He was a former board
member of The Life Center, which supports unwed
mothers by providing medical and psychological
resources, and currently serves as a board member of
the Tomorrow’s Hope Foundation, which promotes
Catholic parochial school education and provides
scholarships for underprivileged families to send
their children to Catholic schools.

Tonna has received many honors including Molloy
College’s Caritas Medal, St. John’s University St.
Vincent De Paul Medal, Suffolk County Human
Rights Commission Legislator of the Year, National
Association of Social Workers Public Citizen of the
Year, Habitat for Humanity Man of the Year and the
Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Award, among
others.

Huntington residents, Tonna and his wife Carol
have eight children, Peter, Paul, John, Grace, Mary,
Carolann, Joseph and Lucy. An avid golfer, backpacker
and swimmer, Tonna says, “Carol is a woman of
incredible vision. She’s a health care provider, educator,
event planner, cook and dreamer.” He continues,
“ She gives our children her heart,” and it shows, “for
they are compassionate, other-oriented, and they
share and empathize. I can’t tell you how much I
miss them during my workday.”

NETWORKING® January 2007