No Debts

by Elizabeth Beiring

After I came back to Buffalo to consider graduate work in ecology, I looked into various programs. I started considering law school, because I definitely wanted to get involved in the policy angle. I had spoken to a number of Ph.D.s in Washington who said they would bang their heads against the wall because the policymakers never really heeded their advice. They would listen to them, but then they would not use their advice. So they felt that the law degree was the key to being effective in Washington.

After thinking long and hard about this, I decided that I would try to do both degrees. I decided that I would go to Cornell and either transfer to their program or at least take a number of courses there, because they offer a lot in the line of ecology graduate work. At the same time I was applying to law schools. I was accepted at every place I wanted to go.

As it turned out, UB offered an excellent program in the Gilbert D. Moore Fellowship, which allows for the joint pursuit of a Ph.D. and a law degree. The program had never actually sponsored anyone in the sciences before - it's mainly for philosophy types. But they were willing to give me the fellowship to pursue a joint degree in ecology and law.

I wove together my ecology courses and research at Cornell and UB with my law classes at UB. After finishing law school and the bar exam in early 1994, I continued my Ph.D. research on coral growth and reproduction with Professor Howard Lasker until I was finished in 1997.

With the Gilbert Moore fellowship, my tuition was paid and I received a stipend to live on. This meant that when I got out of graduate school after eight years, I didn't have to work at a big law firm in order to pay off all my debts. I had no debts.

That allowed me to go into public service, which is what I had always intended to do. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to work at the Environmental Protection Agency. I wanted to be involved in setting environmental policies. With the help of the fellowship, I was able to do that. Right after finishing both degrees, I began working in ocean and coastal protection at EPA.