He loves a zoo
CEO never forgot his childhood affection for elephants and other animals
Avery young child’s visit to a New Jersey zoo charted the trajectory of his entire life. Jeremy Goodman was a preschooler when he excitedly told his parents he wanted to run a zoo.
The kid from Parsippany, N.J., never wavered from that goal, and last fall he became president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.
His parents suggested he become a veterinarian so he could work every day with the animals he loved.
In 1992, he earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Rutgers University and four years later, a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in Worchester, Mass.
Though he worked for a time as a private-practice veterinarian, Dr. Goodman soon moved back to the zoos he loved as a child.
At the Potawtomi Zoo in South Bend, Ind., he was assistant director and veterinarian from 2000-04, and director of the Turtle Back Zoo in Essex County, N.J., from 2004-13. In his last job, he was executive director and CEO of the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, R.I., from 2013-21.
Dr. Goodman and his wife, Marina, live in Squirrel Hills with their three children and a pet cockatiel.
Veterinarians love animals, but the animals don’t always love them back. Early in his career, Dr. Goodman took his parents to the zoo where he worked.
“The lions growled and lunged at me, and the monkeys threw things at me,” he said with a chuckle.
Nothing like that happened during a recent walking tour he took with a PostGazette reporter and photographer through the 77-acre zoo in Highland Park.
Dr. Goodman doesn’t work hands-on with the 10,000 animals at the Pittsburgh Zoo, which will turn 125 years old next year.
He’s in charge of the big picture, including long-range planning and working with other zoos on species survival programs, especially for animals that are endangered in their native habitats.
During our tour of the zoo, visitors watched as two young lions — a male and a female — frolicked and wrestled. They
won’t be breeding.
“We don’t breed animals unless we are sure that have a place to go,” he said.
Lions breed prolifically in captivity, he said, so zoos are very careful about producing cubs.
“Most of the animals in the zoo are actually on contraceptives,” Dr. Goodman said.
That’s not the case with the African elephants. There are five at the zoo and five at the International Conservation Center in Somerset County, including Jackson, a bull elephant who has successfully produced a number of offspring.
Jackson is in his late 40s and could live to be more than 60 years old.
“One hundred African elephants are killed every day for their ivory,” Dr. Goodman said. “Life in the wild isn’t fun.”
Which is why Pittsburgh has a breeding program to help the species survive.
Dr. Goodman hasn’t ann o u n c e d any major changes at the zoo. He and his staff and board members are observing and studying how the zoo operates and considering ways to make improvements. That includes the 1,000acre elephant facility. Zoo officials might want to add more species there and are discussing ways that the public might be able to visit.
Fun fact: The zoo farms over 800 acres of hay in Somerset County to feed the many zoo animals that eat hay, which is grass that is dried, cut and baled.
Also breeding in Pittsburgh are clouded leopards, which are endangered in the wild but producing kittens here.
“A pair of clouded leopards are being sent to Australia,” Dr. Goodman said.
He succeeded Dr. Barbara Baker, who retired last year after leading the zoo for 31 years.
Dr. Goodman is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ program management committee and is an experienced AZA accreditation inspector. His close ties to the AZA may be helpful in bringing the Pittsburgh Zoo back into compliance with city lease requirements that include membership in the organization.
Dr. Goodman “will bring new perspective and experience to advancing our AZA accreditation, renewing our lease with the city, creating and updating exhibitions and engaging the community in new ways,” said Donna Hudson, board chair of the Zoological Society of Pittsburgh.