Haub School Alumni Highlights

December, 2023

Amber Reimondo (she/her)

Degree: Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Environment & Natural Resources, 2010

Hometown: Rock Springs, WY

 

What position are you currently in?

"I am now the Energy Director at the Grand Canyon Trust."

 

How did you get there?

"It's a long winding story. After graduating from the Haub School in 2010, I took a year off and worked part-time for the Ruckelshaus Institute and applied for graduate schools. I took the LSAT, and I was thinking about going to law school. That's why I originally majored in philosophy to begin with. In the end, I ultimately decided to go the grad school route. I went to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, for a Master of Science in Environmental Science and Policy. I focused on water law, state water law, and energy development. My thesis specifically looked at water use and water policy in Wyoming, how energy development around the city of Gillette impacted their water supplies, and whether or not the regulatory environment in Wyoming was adequate enough to prevent water quantity and water quality issues. 

I graduated from grad school in 2013, and immediately started a job at the Wyoming Outdoor Council based in Lander, Wyoming. My title was Environmental Quality Advocate. I worked there for three and a half years and spent a lot of time working on oil and gas-related statewide and federal rules. I also worked on a groundwater testing rule around oil and gas wells, a state setback rule which determined whether and how far oil and gas development had to be from homes and businesses. I also did a lot of defense work around preventing things like wastewater disposal wells that were used by oil and gas companies to dump toxic waste down old wells into the Madison Formation. 

In 2016, I ended up getting a job at the Trust and moved to Flagstaff in November. I've been there ever since." 

 

How did the Haub School help you prepare for your career right now?

"One of the things that stands out for me that I got from the Haub School is the emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of conservation work. When people think about conservation, they believe ‘Oh, you have some kind of special degree in environmentalism.’ But environmentalism is just an awareness of a multitude of disciplines. It's interwoven into every bit of our life, whether we're talking about geology, the health care system, or the way we source our food, really any area that interests somebody, there's an environmental component to it. That was helpful for me, mainly because it put the real world into perspective at a time when the real world wasn't so much of a perspective after however many years of just book learning. The interdisciplinary education was definitely key. I also gained an appreciation for a multitude of perspectives. The University of Wyoming is a place with a lot of diverse perspectives. People aren’t forced to think through the eyes of people unlike themselves a lot. That helps me, not only in getting the jobs that I've gotten, but in being successful, and actually achieving some of the goals that I've set out to do in my career. It required me to be able to talk to people from the energy industry or, politicians who didn't agree with me any other way, but we can find some common ground to work with."

 

What were some of your most memorable experiences being a Haubie?

"The most memorable time was the capstone class that I took with Harold Bergman. I took it in my junior year, and we spent the whole year studying NEPA. It was a foundational experience for me, especially because of NEPA, it’s a part of everyday life. I take for granted that I even understand what it is. It all started with that class with Harold Bergman. It wasn't just educational, but also helpful for me in the long run. We ended our course in the Bahamas for a week and spent some time on a research island with a lot of hands-on learning about climate change and ocean acidification. I'll never forget that trip and the people that I was on it with."

 

Do you have any mentors or advisors at the university who played a significant role in guiding your career path?

"Nicole Korfanta, Diana Hulme, Courtney Carlson, and Melanie Matthews. Those women were idols for me. At that point in my life, I admired the way that they conducted themselves. They were some of the people that I looked up to at the Ruckelshaus Institute and the Haub School. I still think of them to this day, while I'm wading through a difficult situation, or whatever it might be in my professional life, I think of those women and the good work that they role-modeled for me."

 

Describe the transition from being a student to becoming an alumni of the Haub School, and how has your relationship changed over time?

"As a student, I was very much in awe of everything I was learning. At the Haub school, I remember feeling super engaged in all of the classes. When you're a student, you don't necessarily know what's going to be useful for you going forward or not. It was interesting and exciting for me. Moving into the career world, I’ve gained a lot of appreciation for what I got with the Haub education. Without knowing it, I was getting a lot of a lot of information and experience that would be useful to me for years to come. I've been out of I've been out of school for what, 13 years and it's still proving to be useful."

 

What advice would you give to a current student or recent graduate of the Haub School?

"To be open-minded. When I started school, I came into it with the idea that you have to know exactly what you're interested in doing and only do that. One benefit of the Haub School and the requirement to do a dual degree is that it forces you to open your mind, branch out, and get some experience in a few different areas. As I mentioned, part of my degree was in philosophy, because I thought I was interested in going to law school. I did that to prep for the LSAT, and I took the LSAT. However, in that year between undergrad and grad school, I decided ‘No, law school isn’t really my thing’ and I wanted to go the grad school route. There's a lot more time than you think to pick an area that's interesting to you. If you feel like you've gotten into a little bit of a rut and you're in something that you're not super interested in, don't stay there. Keep feeling around for what feels right, because your career is long. We definitely want to be sure that what you end up spending this time on is something that you'll want to keep pursuing going forward. 

The other thing is imposter syndrome is real. To be honest, every time I got a job, when I got to the council, or I got the job at the trust, my first reaction was like, ‘I don't really belong here. I'm not as good as they think they must think I am.’ That's a very real feeling, it kind of took me letting go of all of that. Realizing that once you're out in the real world, it hits you that we're all people. The people that you look up to and you think are the best at their job, you start to see ways that you're actually very similar and there's nothing stopping you from being as good as the best idol you can picture out there in your career world. So sure, I got the imposter syndrome."

 

What professional or applied experiences did you have in your undergrad? 

"Wyoming Conservation Corps is one of those. That taught me a lot about myself that I wasn't sure I was capable of, like cutting down trees. Whether it was working for the Ruckelshaus Institute in the Haub School or my experience in the class, research skills are something I definitely connect back to my experience at the Haub School."

 

Do you have any advice for joining the workforce or applying?

"Finding ways to get those experiences working with various government entities, whether it's the legislature or congress or date, regulatory agencies, land management agencies, all of that will help you get a better real-world understanding of what you're going into. Beyond getting real-world experience to the extent that you can, unless it's something that's your dream experience, I hope people pay you for what you're doing and spending time on. Also, my understanding of the workforce growing up was that you get to this point where you learn enough in school and you're automatically an expert. You go get a career doing that thing, and it just comes easily. Maybe that was naive, and everybody who read this will say that that was naive. But for anybody who's struggling with that too it’s very normal to have that shell shock when you enter the real world and think ‘Well, I actually don't know exactly what I'm doing at every turn here.’ One of my favorite things about Harold Bergman's class was that he taught you how to find information and figure it out. You didn't always have to know it off the top of your head. The most applicable thing in the real world is understanding you don't have to know everything, you just have to know where to find it."

"I'm a Haubie because I enjoy a sense of purpose in the world and a sense of childlike enjoyment at the same time. The Haub School not only opened the door to a career that helped me to feel purposeful but also through the Wyoming Conservation Corps and other opportunities that I did in high school. I also learned how to be a kid again, in a lot of ways to enjoy time in the outdoors in a very free, liberating sort of way."

 

Amber's highlight has been edited for length and clarity. All image credits go to Amber Reimondo.