Inspiration and Impact

Endowed faculty positions empower students.

 

By Missy Samp

 

It was a small gesture, but it made a major impression on business student Owen Fink.

He and Kent Noble, a professor in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Management and Marketing, were staffing a table for the Ethics Club in the university’s student union. A fellow club member was leading a tour, and the group stopped at their table. It was a cold day, and one of the members of the tour was not wearing a jacket. As the group started to leave, Noble took off his jacket and attempted to give it to the coatless individual. Fink recalls that he was wearing two coats, but the thought of sharing one did not cross his mind.

“That moment had a profound impact on my life, because I think what we do in the Ethics Club and what Kent does in his position are defined by service and by giving to our community,” says Fink, a senior from Powell, Wyo., who is majoring in finance, economics and management.

 

Kent Noble: It’s All About the Students
Noble serves as the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Service Chair in the UW College of Business (formerly the Bill Daniels Chair of Business Ethics). The position was named for Bill Daniels, a cable television pioneer who believed deeply in ethics and integrity.

Noble started out as a fundraiser at the College of Business. He worked with former Dean Brent Hathaway to secure an endowment from the Daniels Fund so that the college’s ethics program could be permanently funded. The endowed position was created in 2008. Little did Noble know that he would hold the position less than a decade later in 2016.

“I try to make the ethics program really all about the students and their personal development,” Noble says. "I help them create a framework for decision-making and also help them to realize what's important to them ­—what values will guide their decision-making going forward."

 

For many students, college is a time to discover who they are, what they want to become and what they care about. That certainly has been true for Mia Gerig.

She took Noble’s class, Principle-Based Ethics, her first semester of college, when she was undecided about a major. With Noble’s guidance, she and her classmates developed their personal codes of ethics that define their values. Noble shared his personal code with the class.

“A couple (of elements of Noble’s code) I remember to this day — be the go-to person and over-deliver,” Gerig says. “That was super inspiring to see a person who actually lives those out, too. He walks the walk instead of just talking the talk.”

Tristan Patterson also took Noble’s class. One of the highlights for him was volunteering at Laramie Interfaith’s food pantry as part of the class. “Doing good was amazing,” he says.

In addition to learning in an academic setting, many students choose to expand their education beyond the classroom walls through hands-on learning experiences — the UW Ethics Club, the UW Leadership Academy and ethics case competitions, among others. Noble’s position and the endowment support these experiences in varying degrees.

Noble has been the faculty adviser of the Ethics Club since its inception in 2017. Fink, Gerig and Patterson all serve in leadership roles in the club. The club’s signature initiative, SparkTank, engages students in reviewing nonprofit proposals, raising funds and hosting a “Shark Tank”-style event to direct those resources where they’re needed most. Since 2018, SparkTank has awarded $743,000 to Albany County nonprofits. According to the UW Center for Business and Economic Analysis, SparkTank has generated more than $3.2 million in economic output and contributed to the creation of 30 jobs.

“Last year was my first SparkTank, and it was really great,” says Patterson, a senior from Cheyenne. “It was honestly kind of emotional, seeing the work that these nonprofits do. SparkTank is doing a lot, but there’s always more we can do personally, too.”

For Gerig, participating in the Ethics Club has changed her thinking about what her college experience would be like. “I can be impactful as a student and have an impact on my community while also pursuing my degree,” says the junior from Cheyenne who is majoring in marketing and management.

Noble serves as a mentor and program adviser for the UW Leadership Academy, a collaboration between the College of Business and Leadership Wyoming. Students travel around the state, explore various industries and meet with business leaders. Two cohorts of 20 students each have been through the academy, and a third cohort will launch in fall 2026. Fink and Patterson are graduates of the academy, and Gerig hopes to be part of the third class.

“One of the things the Leadership Academy showed me was the power a single person has,” says Patterson, a finance major who has a minor in pre-law. “You can make changes and get stuff done if you really care about something.”

Through Noble’s endowed position, other opportunities also are available to students. Fink has traveled with Noble to promote ethics, attended conferences and participated in competitions, such as the National Ethics Case Competition.

Fink says, “I look at Noble as a mentor, someone to look up to and someone who’s given his life to the university and the Laramie community in a way that I aspire to.”

Whether he is teaching a class, advising Ethics Club members or offering his jacket to someone, Noble helps students on their journey — work he finds deeply rewarding.

“I could retire tomorrow, but the work this endowment makes possible is so meaningful that I simply love doing it,” he says.

 

Tara Righetti: A Purpose Found in Mentoring Students
Third-year law student Chance Harper from Thornton, Colo., aspires to practice in environmental or energy and natural resources law, perhaps in a private practice or with a state or federal agency. 

 

Beyond gaining knowledge from his classes, he’s preparing for his future career through opportunities presented to him by Tara Righetti, a UW College of Law professor and the inaugural Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Policies. The chair is one of two endowed chairs at UW funded by Occidental, a top U.S. oil and gas producer.

A year ago, Harper spoke with Righetti, who teaches courses on oil and gas, energy and climate law, at a Natural Resource Law Club event. That conversation led to some enriching experiences for Harper — starting with his attendance at an international law conference last July. With Righetti’s recommendation, Harper obtained scholarship support to attend the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law’s 71st annual institute in Canada.

“Getting to go to an event that’s purely dedicated to the legal sector that I’m interested in was great for me to build connections and to really get those resources for after law school,” Harper says.

Then, last fall, Harper embarked on a new experiential learning journey — a writing partnership with Righetti that is funded through her endowed position.

“Through the chair, I can provide opportunities for graduate students to work on real research problems,” says Righetti, who has held the chair position since 2022. “I value being able to co-author with students. Unlike in some of the technical disciplines, co-authorship opportunities are uncommon in law school.”

Righetti and Harper have been collaborating on a paper that examines the impacts of energy transition policies on the fossil fuel sector. They have been analyzing federal and state policies with respect to oil and gas production, petroleum refining, coal mining and fossil-fired power generation.

Harper’s role included gathering research independently and drafting various sections of the paper.

“This experience was greatly beneficial to me, helping me expand my professional writing skills now and for future employment tasks,” Harper says. "I'm  so grateful for the experience and the opportunity to really develop professionally. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Tara."

Once finalized, the paper will be published online as part of a legal education resource. 

Through her endowed position, Righetti also has been able to fund students working on developing outreach materials in the energy sector. Recently, she and her students developed guides on carbon dioxide pipelines and on carbon capture and storage for Wyoming communities and landowners.

“In addition to supporting Wyoming citizens through outreach, writing a community guide can be a great learning project because not only are the students doing the research, but they also are developing the critical skill of translating legal research for a popular audience,” Righetti says. “Our hope is that the research will empower people to make better decisions about their resources and to participate in public processes more effectively.”

Online versions of the resource guides are available through the UW School of Energy Resources’ website, and hard copies are available through county extension offices.

In addition to funding student research, Righetti’s endowed position allows her to cover students’ travel expenses to national conferences and to convene events on campus. In 2024, she used chair funds to sponsor a special issue of the Wyoming Law Review on carbon capture and storage. All of the Wyoming Law Review members — eight students — attended a conference in Houston and developed papers with the speakers. Last fall, she hosted an international symposium on subsurface law and the social contract, which attracted researchers from five continents. In March, two UW law students traveled to Houston to represent the university at CERAWeek, one of the largest energy conferences in the world.

An interesting feature of the Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Policies is that it is jointly administered by the UW School of Energy Resources and the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. Because of this structure, Righetti has collaborated on projects with students from both schools in addition to law school students. 

In reflecting on what the chair means to her, Righetti says: “It allows me to spend more time on the activities that provide me with the greatest sense of purpose — working with and mentoring students. My greatest professional impact is not going to be any one article that I published and how many times it got cited. It’s going to be the number of professionals 
I train and the way they serve their clients in their careers.”