The leadership experience in environmental consulting
Dr. Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Haack describes why she chose a career in consulting after completing graduate studies and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship. She provides insight into how we can better prepare our graduates for the challenges and opportunities of careers outside of academia.
By Elizabeth Haack and Patricia A. Maurice
17 September 2024, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13753845
Dr. Liz Haack is Director of Assessment and Senior Environmental Scientist for the Canadian consulting company, Ecometrix [1]. She received an undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Trent University and pursued a Ph.D. under the guidance of Prof. Lesley Warren at McMaster University, focused on biogeochemical processes influencing the environmental behavior of trace metals. She then completed a postdoc focused on molecular-scale interactions of metals with soil components including mineral surfaces, microbes, and microbial exudates at the University of Notre Dame, primarily under the mentorship of Prof. Patricia Maurice. Dr. Haack considered job offers in consulting and academia and decided to embark on a career in consulting. She kindly agreed to this wide-ranging interview on the joys and challenges of her chosen career.
What were some of the factors you considered when choosing between academia and industry/consulting?
After my Post-Doctoral Fellowship, I knew that I wanted a career that would give me the best opportunities for personal growth. I was looking for Canadian-based opportunities to start, and I was open to both academic and consulting positions. When deciding between them, I weighed several factors.
The primary factor was that, by nature, I am more of an applied thinker. I have always been happiest and most motivated when I am linking ideas across scientific disciplines and looking for ways to apply new approaches and technologies. Thus, I was looking for an environment open to new ideas and where I would be engaged as part of a team solving practical challenges. I knew I still had a lot to learn, specifically about how to transfer knowledge from academia into policy and environmental management and decision-making. For example, about six months before I started interviewing, I read a paper by Lawrence Kapustka [2] that reviewed the literature pertaining to toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to terrestrial plants, invertebrates and wildlife. Of the more than 325 papers that were reviewed, only 14 papers met the minimum criteria for use in deriving guidelines to evaluate the level of risk those compounds posed in the environment. Although I had spent more than 10 years studying aspects of trace metal toxicity to microbes and aquatic invertebrates using various approaches, I wanted to progress my career by better understanding and working within frameworks for environmental protection. So, when I was offered a consulting role in the human health and ecological risk assessment group at Worley (then WorleyParsons Komex), it felt like the right fit.
I did see some drawbacks to an academic career at the time when I was making my decision (mid 2000s). My PhD and Post-Doctoral supervisors were both women, and I saw the huge workload placed on women within academia, but moreover, that the burden and expectations placed on women professors were different than it was for their male colleagues. I had also experienced what I consider to be lack of professionalism in, for example, the peer review process. During my interview process there was an instance where I was warned by other professors that I would likely face gender-based inequities within the department I would have been joining. In contrast, when I interviewed with consultants, I saw women in all levels of leadership roles that I could envision myself taking on in the future. Over the years in consulting, I have experienced a professional workplace in which half of my colleagues are women, and I have moved into a leadership role.
What is your day-to-day life like as an environmental scientist in consulting?
The day-to-day life of a consultant, like in other careers, evolves with years of experience. The first five years, you learn consulting. You do the field work, reporting, and primarily technical tasks. My experience as a consultant is that you generally have between 5 and 10 clients or 5 to 25 projects that you are working on at a time, which makes effective time management and ability to prioritize very important skills.
As I neared the end of my first five years in consulting, I reconnected with Prof. Cliff Johnston, a Purdue University soil scientist with whom I had collaborated during my Post-Doc. I was feeling like I needed new challenges and was ready for a change in my role. He told me, “This is the way your career is going to be. You’ll experience five-to-seven-year phases that will come to a natural end, and you’ll seek out new ideas, new approaches, a new way of working”. I feel like I’ve lived - and am living- that.
The next five years in consulting, your level of sophistication is increasing. You’re talking with clients, getting to the root of their problems, emphasizing the planning process and utilizing lessons learned from other projects. For example, a big breakthrough for me came when I was talking to a client about a remediation system at a field site I was working on. He stated that the system was a pilot study and proof of concept for using trees (phytoremediation) to clean up contaminants in shallow fractured rock environments. I asked, “How are we going to prove the concept with the data we are currently collecting?” That conversation led to a multi-million-dollar Industry-Academic partnership research and development program supported by the Canadian Federal Government (NSERC [3]) to evaluate the efficacy of the system. Results to date have provided an important field demonstration of the capacity of these systems to degrade contaminant mass over time [4-6]; information that will be used to make management decisions for the project site and can be applied at other field sites. When you’re in the middle stage of your career, you start to pick up on where those types of gaps are, that need to be addressed to meet project objectives.
The third “phase” for me has been the last seven years, that saw me join Ecometrix. The opportunity was put in front of me to work for a small company made up of exceptional scientists, to be in a leadership role, and to have ownership in the company. In my role, I'm responsible for the company's revenue growth, enhancing collective expertise, ensuring product quality, communicating our strengths, and shaping the company culture. I continue to do technical work and am continuously learning. For example, since joining Ecometrix, I have provided technical support to the nuclear and uranium mining sectors, which are sectors I had not worked in previously.
What have you enjoyed the most about your career as a practicing environmental scientist?
The variety of challenges that I get to work on and the people I work with. Often, the challenge is to develop practical solutions for small project with short timelines and little available data. Quickly mobilizing an experienced team that can find pragmatic solutions is key in those situations. On the opposite end, there are sites with long histories and environmental information that spans decades (e.g., a mine site undergoing progressive reclamation). The longevity and phased nature of those projects means there are often opportunities to innovate and to build long-lasting relationships with your team members and clients.
I love that every field site is unique. I enjoy getting my hands dirty, walking around the (often remote) field sites. Often, you are working on field sites where the events leading to contamination (e.g., a pipeline spill) occurred decades ago and decisions made around initial clean-up were not documented as thoroughly as they are today. Thus, every walk-around helps deepen your physical understanding of the site history and current conditions, and conceptual model of contaminant fate and transport in the environment. As an environmental risk assessor, you’re always thinking about how a contaminant behaves, and how it is interacting with the natural world, and how that interaction can be appropriately assessed.
Dr. Haack doing field work as an environmental risk assessor.
I’ve also had the opportunity to inform policy at the global scale as a consultant. For example, in 2021, a colleague and I provided scientific review and quantitative assessment of the threshold setting process for mercury in mine waste materials under the Minamata Convention [7], which is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury on humans and the environment. In communicating our conclusions, scientific concepts and methods had to be explained as straightforwardly as possible as the audience included other scientists, lawyers, policy makers and members of the public. We also had to consider what the implications of our advice could be for countries with less established analytical services and environmental protection and/or regulatory regimes.
What sorts of challenges have you faced during your career?
Balance! Consulting is a fast paced and demanding job that often goes beyond the 40-hour week. Early in my career, balancing life outside of work when I was always in the field was my challenge. There was a lot of time spent away from home. Then, in my mid-career, I became a mother. When my son was a toddler, I still was in the field and/or travelling for meetings and conferences for 2 or 3 months of the year, and my husband travelled a similar amount. We were fortunate to have support, but our energies were completely focused on parenting and working. Now, I say the demands I face are the competing demands of my role of being a leader and using my technical expertise. I’m continuously trying to develop two vastly different strengths (technical and leadership) and it’s challenging but exciting to move – generally multiples times a day – between those roles.
What do you wish you had known before embarking on your current career?
People who are considering moving into consulting as a career should be looking at what’s required to be a professional in your chosen field of work. I earned an undergraduate degree in Chemistry without exposure to professional associations or a formal understanding of a chemist's responsibilities within them. My understanding is that this is different for students in the geosciences and engineering; however, undergraduates in all scientific disciplines need guidance through coursework and mentoring beyond the scientific subject-matter that will be required of them as practicing professionals. These include, for example, environmental law and ethics, regulatory frameworks and compliance, tools and approaches for oral and written communication, data quality objectives, management, and visualization, and how to build networks and develop professionally throughout one’s career.
I’d recommend that women wanting to pursue consulting careers learn a foundational science and adopt an interdisciplinary mindset, not only across the physical sciences but also including the social sciences. The reality of environmental science in practice is that it interweaves western science and different forms of knowledge, including Indigenous Knowledge.
Have you had any formal leadership training and if so, how has it benefitted you?
I’ve been very fortunate in my role as Director at Ecometrix. In my first year here, I took the Leadership Development for Mid Career Women course at the Rotman School of Management [8]. They stressed that you’re not going to be a good leader in a day. You must go through a maturation process and get feedback as you go. Through the course I was introduced to my personal leadership styles and how to make it effective, the importance of grounding business strategy and culture in a strong sense of purpose, and tools and approaches that can be used to make better business decisions.
I also am part of a TEC Canada group of VP-level executives from small to medium-sized companies across industries that meets once a month [9]. Generally, our meeting day is broken into two parts, with a world-class speaker presenting on wide-ranging essential business topics in the morning. In the afternoon, group members present workplace opportunities, challenges, and issues, and we offer feedback to help them chart a concrete path forward. This format forces us to clearly articulate our issues, and the group scrutinizes underlying assumptions. It's almost certain that the initial problem isn't the real one, as there’s usually a subtle aspect that was misunderstood or not fully acknowledged. It is a process that encourages vulnerability and willingness to accept advice. I've noticed that issues in different sectors share many commonalities, reinforcing that leadership is primarily about serving people. I'm grateful that being part of this group allows me to dedicate time each month to reflecting on and challenging my views on leadership.
Both TEC and the Rotman School of Management course have helped me apply practical insight to daily operations, specifically around hiring, delegating, having candid conversations, business accounting, and developing and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) for our business performance. They’ve also taught me to resist the urge to solve a problem immediately. Take the time to articulate it, examine it, explore it. Don’t try to rush solving a problem.
How can academics better prepare our PhD students for jobs outside of academia?
At Ecometrix, we are generally hiring individuals with graduate degrees, and often with PhDs. I look for individuals who are confident, aware of their contributions to science and recognize their role in the bigger picture. I ask about what they have done that shows leadership, their ability to communicate technical content to people who aren’t technical, and I look for signs of entrepreneurship in their thinking and experiences.
As alluded to above, the pace of environmental consulting is fast, and you can’t communicate all the subtleties you can in a thesis. You have to make decisions about what is most important to communicate and do it concisely. Academia provides students with the training that they need to be good scientists, probe into problems, and find creative solutions. Students should understand that their training benefits them in the professional world, but that they shouldn't hesitate to pursue a career that is the best opportunity for growth, even if it means applying their knowledge less directly.
What are some of your plans and goals for the future?
We are now living the climate crisis. I think about my role within it daily. My thinking has shifted to sustainability being at the core of environmental science and business practices. We, as environmental consultants and the clients we serve, must shift our perspectives from a task-by-task/project-by-project emphasis to one that manages actions across operations in a manner that contributes positively to the larger sustainability goals of Canada and the world.
I want to continue to take on more executive functions. It feels like the next natural phase in my career. My focus will shift from my own professional development to building a strong team and ensuring their growth - putting all the pieces in place for them to thrive.
Conclusion and questions for further thought
Liz, as one of your former advisors, I (Patricia) have been honored to watch you continue to grow in your STEMM career, making a ‘real-world’ difference for the environment. For me, the best thing about being an academic has always been how much I’ve learned from those I’ve mentored over the years.
Here are some questions for readers to consider:
· How can we, as academic leaders, better prepare our students and postdocs to lead in a diverse array of STEMM careers?
· How much do you, as an academic leader, know about different career paths outside of academia? How can we help academics to understand the challenges and opportunities of non-academic careers?
· How can we, as academics, work to ensure that our research benefits the world, either directly or indirectly?
References and notes
[1] https://www.ecometrix.ca/knowledge-hub/elizabeth-haack-on-exploring-great-chemistry
accessed July 25, 2024
[2] Kaputska, L. (2004) Establishing Eco-SSLs for PAHs: Lessons revealed from a review of literature on exposure and effects to terrestrial receptors, Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 10, 2, p. 185-205. DOI: 10.1080/10807030490438166.
[3] https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Innovate-Innover/alliance-alliance/index_eng.asp, accessed August 28, 2024.
[4] Wanner et al. (2019) “Assessing toluene biodegradation under temporally varying redox conditions in a fractured bedrock aquifer using stable isotope methods”, Water Research, 165: 114986, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2019.114986
[5] BenIsrael et al. (2019). “Toluene biodegradation in the vadose zone of a poplar phytoremediation system identified using metagenomics and toluene-specific stable carbon isotope análisis”, International Journal of Phytoremediation, 21: 60–69, https://doi.org/10.1080/15226514.2018.1523873
[6] BenIsreal et al. (2019) “Quantification of toluene phytoextraction rates and microbial biodegradation functional profiles at a fractured bedrock phytoremediation site”, Science of The Total Environment, 707: 135890, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135890
[7] https://minamataconvention.org/en accessed July 25, 2024
[8] https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/programs/professional-development-programs/initiative-for-women-in-business/leadership-development-for-mid-career-women-/ accessed July 25, 2024
[9] https://tec-canada.com/join-tec/our-executive-programs/ accessed July 25, 2024
The authors would like to thank Mr. Josh Walker, Copywriter, Motrium BWB, for his assistance (jwalker@motumb2b.com, www.motumb2b.com, @motumb2b).