After graduating with a B.S. degree in Marine Biology from Corpus Christi State University (now Texas A&M – Corpus Christi) in 1979, AMU student Howard “Tony” Wood decided to make his way in an environmental profession. He already had minors in Chemistry and Geology and didn’t see graduate school as his best option at the time. One of his professors at the National Spill Control School located on campus helped him get the interview he wanted most, with Chemical Waste Management, Inc. Early the following year Tony married Michele Smith and they have since raised two daughters and recently celebrated their 30th anniversary with a cruise to Cozumel.
After a few years, Tony followed a Chemical Waste Management vice-President and mentor into the environmental consulting field. Over the course of his career Tony initially worked with industrial waste disposal, recycling, and environmental business development. But he also enjoyed assessments, field work, and site development and planning. He has sampled mining sites inside the Grand Canyon, helped to close landfills at the Pantex Nuclear Weapons facility, managed safety on a 650 degree confined space entry project, managed or supported work on 14 Superfund sites, trained over 2500 students in hazardous waste management and safety, and served on local, state, national, and international environmental advisory boards. He has been integrally involved with national and international environmental pollution control projects and has a passion for regional water resource management issues. He still serves on the Region L Water Planning Board in Texas and is the current president of Bexar Audubon and past president of the Audubon Foundation of Texas.
Tony was never one to shy away from adventure in his career and when offered the opportunity to work on reconstructing the Iraqi wetlands in the Tigris-Euphrates delta in 2004, he volunteered. That project didn’t develop but later in 2004 he was offered another consulting assignment in Iraq as a consultant to the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment. Before that assignment he had never really considered going back for his Master of Science degree but while in Iraq he was introduced to AMU. In all he has spent 19 months in Iraq and 9 months in Afghanistan, most of it while continuing to pursue the AMU MS degree. He expects to achieve his M.S. in Environmental Policy and Management from AMU by next March. He really appreciates how it fits with his work and travel schedule.
Mr. Wood has been a mentor to other students in the AMU/APUS program over the last year and has enjoyed the opportunity to “give a little bit back” in what he considers a rewarding environmental career. Like his mentoring and being a scoutmaster before his own children were born, he recently came across another opportunity to give back some of the blessings of his career.
A few months ago he was offered the opportunity to apply for the position as Director of the National Spill Control School, the very same place where he had completed his undergraduate academic pursuits and started his professional career in 1979. And he had recently bought a small ranch near Corpus Christi and wanted to begin building a home and constructed wetland on it and planning for his retirement in 10 years or so. He thought that this would be a nice quiet pre-retirement approach to his remaining productive years. His credentials, experience, and references, as well as his current pursuit of his MS degree from AMU, won him the position.
About a week after he applied for the position, the Deepwater Horizon sank to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico and he found himself front and center in the national media. Since that time he has been interviewed by numerous press agencies including the ABC Evening News. He now spends his time developing briefings for senatorial and congressional aids, developing grant applications, and redeveloping the course curriculum of the National Spill Control School to support the scientific research that is expected to follow from the disaster in the Gulf.
While it’s not what he expected when he applied for the position, Tony is up to the challenge. He says it is every bit as demanding as the work in Iraq and Afghanistan and he looks forward to more Federal and State command and control processes being applied to the efforts in the Gulf after BP shuts down the flow. Once the effort changes from crisis management to response and research he knows that communities, volunteers, industrial responders, transporters, and the oceanographic research community will need the kinds of training that the National Spill Control School provides. He anticipates that new regulations will help to propel the NSCS to provide more technically oriented programs that will keep pace with the drilling, transportation, and research efforts that will result from modern deep exploration and production.
For more on Tony’s compelling work, watch his video.
– Guest post by Tony Wood
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