We sat down with Maia Reed, a 2018 MENV Graduate, to learn about her experience in the program and her time working with Anthesis Group here in Boulder, Colorado:
What is your background (academic, professional, and/or personal)?
I went to McGill University for undergrad, where I majored in international development studies. Towards the end of undergrad I became very interested in food security and went on to work with the affirmative farming program in Washington DC. I was becoming increasingly interested in the nexus of environmental sustainability and food and ag issues but didn’t want to stay in DC. I went on to work for food and ag think tank in Chicago, ran a food recovery program, and was on board of Slow Food Chicago while also working for a farm to table wedding caterer to get as involved as possible in the food community in Chicago. I also spent three years working for a nonprofit urban farm in the southside of Chicago. I created an amazing community there but realized that my impact wasn’t reaching farther than the community I was living in and I wanted to change that. I wanted to get back to what brought me to food, to expand my horizons to what would make the biggest impact in changing food systems and I realized that that meant getting involved with the private sector because right now that is where change is happening.
Why did you choose the MENV program?
I was looking for something that wasn’t completely academic but also wasn’t as broad as and environmental management master's degree. I was looking for something with environmental sustainability built in but would also give me the skills I needed to go into the workforce immediately after my degree and pivot my career to hit the ground running.
What was your favorite course you took in the MENV Program?
I have two favorite courses! One was Topics in Sustainable Business over in the LEEDS Business School. It was great because we learned how businesses were talking about sustainability and it really helped me put my finger on the pulse of what is trending right now and what people are talking about in boardrooms, what kind of sustainability argument is getting through to corporates and how could I start to see sustainability through the lense that these companies are seeing it through in an effort to be able to get more companies on board with environmental sustainability. My favorite class in MENV was Food Systems Solutions with Pete Newton. It was a great way to get to know my classmates and provided a survey of current food systems topics and opened up really great discussions, it was a great segway into what graduate education looks like versus undergraduate education. It was really engaging and I learned how to make an argument that gets through to people that might not see eye to eye with you on tough topics.
What advice would you give to a new MENV student?
I know it’s been said before, but I’ll say it again. Use your resources, go out of your way to get to know your professors, try to have coffee with people. Connect with classmates in different disciplines, in and out of the classroom, so that you’re getting a more well rounded view of sustainability because none of these things are happening in silos. As much as you can, be completely immersed while you’re in the program because it goes by in an instant. Read the news, see what’s going on, draw links between current events and what you’re learning in the classroom, live and breathe it to get the most out of it.
What is something people may not know about you?
I’ve been getting really into foraging for mushrooms recently. I have a secret morel spot and secret porcini spot in Colorado that I’ve found in burnt areas that I cross referenced with GIS maps to locate because you have to look at the aspect and elevation and how recent a fire was to find them.
Where do you work and how would you describe your role?
I am a consultant with Anthesis Group which is a global sustainability consulting firm based in the UK with headquarters here in Boulder. In my role I do many different things, but I do a lot to help drive corporate sustainability. We’ve just rebranded ourselves as sustainability activators because we’re not only helping companies understand the sustainability landscape but we’re actually helping to incite action and drive continued follow up action so that companies can really address things like their footprint and the circularity of their products and waste streams because it needs to be done yesterday not tomorrow. I learned about my job through two of my current coworkers who came to speak to my sustainable topics in business class at LEEDS. I realized they were right on Pearl Street and were doing all of this cool stuff, and I realized I want to work with them so I applied for a position when I graduated. I learn something new every single day which is pretty great!