Ask Jessica Riesett ‘10 how she feels about the career she has cultivated in environmental science over the past two decades, and she’ll tell it to you straight.
“I think I got very lucky,” she says.
As a young college student, she was deciding between a teaching career and her current field, both areas where she could make a real impact and be part of something bigger than herself. Ultimately, she was drawn to a career helping identify, manage and remediate environmental issues so she could leave the world a better place, today and for generations to come.
Getting Her Hands Dirty
Riesett started her career working in geotechnical exploration.
“I did soil sampling and data logging, and I migrated from that to remediation and underground storage tank compliance,” she explains.
As she gained more experience, she moved from smaller projects to larger, more complex ones and continued adding to her skill set. She quickly learned that she had chosen the right career path.
“I have had exposure to a wide variety of projects within the environmental area,” she notes. “I credit my satisfaction with having had access to projects with a broader impact.”
After establishing her career with two private firms directly out of college, Riesett landed a position with Maryland Environmental Service (MES), a state agency leading the charge in innovative problem solving within the environmental operations field.
Finding Meaning in Public Service
She began her career at MES as an entry-level environmental specialist in 2007.
“I just stayed in that space and took the opportunity to learn and absorb from folks in the agency around me,” she says.
She quickly gelled with the culture there and enjoyed collaborating with other state agencies in Maryland. As her experience expanded, so did her responsibilities. After several years, she was promoted to assistant environmental section chief. In that role, she was directly responsible for managing agency programs and providing technical oversight for more than $50 million in environmental contracts, including compliance.
“I moved my way up to deputy division chief in the Technical & Environmental Services group,” she says. “I am responsible for managing half of the operating group across a wide variety of projects.”
In the coming year, she’ll celebrate her 20th anniversary at MES.
“When I tell people I started in 2007, it takes them back,” she says. “I feel like I just started yesterday.”
A Love of Continuous Learning
Part of the joy she experiences in her career is from ongoing learning, both from her colleagues and through higher education. She has been fortunate to have had many mentors to lean on and learn from.
“I’ve had too many to list,” she says. “I have learned a great deal from all of them about what it truly means to be in government services—both about hard work and also what an honor it can be.”
She doesn’t just credit veteran colleagues with teaching her new things. She is also passionate about listening to junior staff members and celebrating innovative ways of thinking and problem solving.
“Some of our best ideas come from them,” she explains.
Riesett also headed back to the classroom to earn her Master of Science in Environmental Management in 2010 from UMGC. Encouraged by MES’s generous tuition assistance program, she was drawn to UMGC because it enabled her to continue to gain tenure in her career while furthering her education.
“The program built upon the technical components of the traditional bachelor’s degree and helped me better understand how to lead and manage programs and priorities,” she says. “I do think it had a direct impact on my success at MES.”
Next up is a certificate in public management, which will give her even greater depth and expertise in the public space when she completes it later this year.
Forging Ahead
Now a seasoned environmental services professional, Riesett is ready to tackle some of the most pressing challenges MES is facing. The biggest? The need to do more with less.
“This forces you to be innovative in your approach and employ creative problem solving,” she notes.
She and her team are committed to using their skills and expertise to meet their goals. It’s this steadfastness that is capturing the attention of others at MES. In fact, Riesett and her team were recently acknowledged with the Inspire award for their innovative problem solving and stellar customer service related to a fuel spill in a Maryland harbor last summer. They worked around the clock to help initiate the cleanup in collaboration with the governor’s office and other agencies across the state.
“It was a big effort for us, and we were happy to be able to respond on behalf of our agency,” she says.
Reflecting On Her Success—and Her Best Advice
Riesett was lucky enough to land in a field that sparked something inside her, and she urges up-and-coming professionals to try doing the same.
Jessica Riesett '10 Maryland Environmental Service Acting Division Chief in Technical and Environmental Services
For her part, she’s happy to have followed her own advice more than two decades ago.
“To be able to physically see the results of your work is really rewarding,” she admits. “Knowing it directly impacts the people where you live now and others down the road—that feels good.”
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