Stephanie Kilgore

I graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Biology in 2013 and entered the consulting industry in 2014. Originally, I wanted to do research for estuaries and coastal regions, but my fish teacher and mentor gave me blunt advice - there's no money in research, and if I wanted to feed my children, I should go into consulting. I'm so grateful for her honesty because I had no idea this role even existed. I started at a local ecology firm doing site assessment remediation, looking for contamination in soil and groundwater. Being a small firm gave me opportunities to take on different roles and build my skill set. I then moved to a slightly larger engineering firm where I did industrial hygiene alongside environmental science. After that, I joined another smaller company that gave me extensive opportunities to expand in both industrial hygiene and environmental science, working with the Florida Department of Petroleum Restoration, military facilities, and local hospitals and schools. As a single mom, I needed flexibility, so I took a remote position that was somewhat of a step down but came with a significant salary increase and gave me more time with my kids during their later high school years. After my kids grew up and left the nest, I wanted to learn more about the corporate side and became an operations manager. When my manager left, I asked if he thought I'd be a good fit for the role, and he said shoot your shot - so I did. I oversaw 15 scientists and engineers across the southeast and central regions of the United States. After about a year, I learned it wasn't quite the position for me because the changes I wanted to make weren't possible at that company. A mentor I had met several years before motivated me to really push with my experience to grow and expand. I started working with her company in September in an assessor and business development role. Now I'm a national program manager at TRC Company (which will be WSP within the next year), overseeing different projects and groups in environmental, industrial hygiene, and learning about the power sector. I'm taking on a mentor in the fall and participating in an internal mentor program within WSP. My approach has always been that when I see an opportunity, I don't say no.