Green Collar Careers Podcast

In this episode ofthe Green Collar Careers podcast, I sit down with Sam Kay, Chief of the AirQuality Planning Branch at the DC Department of Energy and Environment. Sam'spath is anything but linear. He earned a PhD in geography, held assistantprofessor positions at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the University ofWashington, then left academia entirely to join the EPA as an AAAS Science and...

In this episode of the Green Collar Careers Podcast, I sit down with Adam Flint, Director of Clean Energy Programs at the Network for a Sustainable Tomorrow (NeST) in Binghamton, New York. Adam has two sociology degrees from Binghamton University, no engineering background, and co-led the design of a $52 million statewide clean energy program in New York. His story is proof that the biggest barrie...

Keith Brodock, Principal and Senior Engineer at LaBella Associates, told me that in his entire 25-year career, most of his job opportunities came from direct relationships. He's had one of the most decorated careers in environmental engineering. Three patents. Seventeen PE licenses across the country. A canoe guide in Minnesota. A production line worker at IBM. And somehow, all of it led to re...

" I kept looking over my shoulder thinking, surely they're looking for someone else ." That is how Dana Geller felt when she first applied to The Nature Conservancy. After years of leading high-stakes communications in global pharma and humanitarian aid, she felt an internal "compass" pulling her toward climate work—but she didn't think her corporate background would tr...

What does 40+ years of placing people in environmental careers teach you? Everything. Kevin Doyle has spent more than four decades at the intersection of environmental work and careers. As Executive Director of Career and Professional Development at the Yale School of the Environment, and before that, two decades at the Environmental Careers Organization placing students in federal agencies and no...

What does it actually look like to build a career around environmental work when you're 19 years old, hosting a podcast, attending college, interning at NASA, and still figuring it out? In this episode, I sit down with Heidi Pan - host of the 1.5 Degrees podcast and environmental studies student at UPenn - for an honest conversation about climate anxiety, career uncertainty, and what it means...

In this episode of the Green Collar Careers Podcast, I sit down with Stacy Savage, founder of Zero Waste Strategies and the self-proclaimed “Texas Trash Talker.” Stacy’s career path is a masterclass in transferable skills. She went from slinging fajitas and margaritas in Austin to knocking on doors across legislative districts in Texas as a grassroots organizer. Over nine years, she learned how to...

What does it take to build a career that doesn't just advance your life, but changes the conditions of an entire community? In this episode, I sit down with Aaron Mair, the 57th President of the Sierra Club and the first Black person to lead the organization in its history. Aaron's path is one of the most genuinely non-linear on this show: Navy veteran, Binghamton University alum, data sys...

What does it actually take to reinvent yourself - not once, but multiple times - and build real credibility each time you start over? In this episode I sit down with my old friend Pablo Segarra, a Bronx-born, Brooklyn-raised attorney who's been living and practicing law in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for nearly a decade. Pablo's path is genuinely unlike anyone else I've had on this...

What do you do when a successful career stops feeling like yours? And the work you actually want to do is in a field you know almost nothing about? In this episode I sit down with Yvonne Norman, Legal Network Manager at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, for one of the most honest and practical conversations about career pivoting I've had on this show. Yvonne spent...

What does it take to build a career at the center of the clean energy transition? In this episode I sit down with Keith Kinch, climate innovation leader, entrepreneur, and co-founder of BlocPower, for a conversation about breaking into clean energy careers, scaling climate tech companies, and what it means to do this work when your community is on the line. Keith helped grow BlocPower from a Brook...

Job search burnout is real... And it's one of the most undertalked challenges facing professionals trying to break into environmental and climate work. In this episode I sit down for the second time with Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers, for a conversation about what burnout actually looks like, how to catch it early, and the practical strategies that help people stay grounded and keep mov...

What if the green career you're looking for isn't a specific job title...but a mindset you bring to any role? In this episode I sit down with Pete Rose, Director of Stakeholder Relations at Hydro-Quebec, North America's largest producer of renewable energy, for a conversation about his journey from UNICEF and the Government of Quebec to the forefront of the clean energy transition. Pete brings a p...

What does sustainable real estate development actually look like from the ground up, and what does it take to build a career in green building when you didn't start with a traditional path? In this episode I sit down with Dusten Hendrickson, real estate developer and founder of Mailbox Money Real Estate and Private Equity, for a conversation about his journey from working as a roofer to building m...

What separates the professionals who break into environmental law from those who don't? According to Marisa Blackshire, a lot of it comes down to mentorship, and knowing how to use it. In this episode I sit down with Marisa Blackshire, Vice President of Environment & Regulatory Law at Bloom Energy, for a conversation about her journey from aspiring professional to industry leader, why flexibil...

Environmental insurance is one of the most overlooked and underappreciated career paths in the green economy. It's also one of the most essential. In this episode I sit down with Mary Gerding, Managing Director of Environmental Risk at Hylant, for a conversation about what environmental insurance actually is, how it drives the cleanup of contaminated sites, and what her journey from administrative...

What does it actually look like to shape environmental policy from inside a government agency, and how do you build a career that puts you at the intersection of law, regulation, and real environmental impact? In this episode I sit down with Will Kellermeyer, attorney and policy advisor at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, for a conversation about his journey into environmenta...

Higher education is one of the most overlooked pathways into sustainability work, and one of the most accessible for professionals at every stage. In this episode I sit down with Ryan McPherson, Chief Sustainability Officer at the University at Buffalo, for a conversation about how his career evolved into sustainability leadership, why informational interviews are still one of the most underutiliz...

What does it take to decarbonize our economy and how do you build a career at the center of that work? In this episode I sit down with Evan van Hook, Chief Sustainability Officer at Viridi, for a conversation about battery storage, the real challenges of decarbonization, and what he calls finding your "Happy Place"...the intersection of what you're good at, what you care about, and where the work...

What does it actually look like to build an environmental law career inside a major corporation, and what does it take to get there? In this episode I sit down with Jonathan Nwagbaraocha , in-house Environmental, Health and Safety Counsel at Xerox, for a conversation about his journey into corporate environmental law, what skills matter most when you're starting out, and what both recent grads and...

What if the key to finding your green career wasn't more credentials - but finally getting clear on what you actually love to do? In this episode I sit down with Lauren Celano , founder and CEO of Propel Careers, a life science search and career development firm, for a conversation about how the skills and lessons from life sciences translate directly into environmental and climate work, and what...

What does it look like to build a legal career entirely around ESG and corporate sustainability? And how do you get there when your path isn't straight? In this episode I sit down with Christine Uri, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer, and one of LinkedIn's Top 100 Voices in ESG, for a conversation about her non-linear path to law, what it actually means to help companies navigate t...

What does a 25-year career in environmental consulting actually look like? And what does it take to break in? In this episode I sit down with Mark Johnson , Senior Principal at Geosyntec Consultants, for a conversation about what environmental engineers actually do, why the environmental career field is more diverse than most people realize, and what he looks for when interviewing candidates for h...

The environmental and climate fields are among the least racially and ethnically diverse across all disciplines. Cristina Garcia decided to do something about it. In this episode I sit down with Cristina Garcia, founder of Latinxs in Sustainability, Queens native, and environmental engineer, for a conversation about what it actually takes to build pathways for underrepresented professionals into t...

What does it look like to bring sustainability into a corporate legal role - from the inside? In this first episode of Green Collar Careers, I sit down with Kim Alcantara, Head of Legal at BetVictor, a UK-based online betting platform, for a conversation about how she built a career at the intersection of law and sustainability, what it actually looks like to incorporate environmental best practic...