34. Paul Tonna

He’s led the Suffolk County Legislature, run a healthcare company, taught religion and philosophy, and now he says that Long Island is broken and we need to fix it. In January 2006, the Energeia Partnership: Academy for Regional Stewardship at Molloy College was born. With funding provided by the college, a select group of “regional stewards” signed up for a two-year program, with the future leaders attending a weekend-long retreat and then spending a full day every other month discussing Long Island’s problems. Tonna’s goal is to help Long Island, as a region, grow into the future and to teach its new leaders about the problems we will be facing. As Energia’s executive director, one can only imagine the power of leading graduates of this program after four or five years.