Recently, 1973 Bishop Carroll alum Dr. Renee Martin-Nagle came back to Husky Hill to speak with a few classes. She was also gracious in providing a story of her life and her work with us. She is a global freshwater expert trying to raise awareness of the importance of protecting and preserving that critical resource.
Her life has been full of twists and turns to get her to where she is now. She said, “When leaving BC, I went to Johns Hopkins on a scholarship to study premed chemistry as a first step to becoming a doctor, but during the early 70s hitchhiking around the US seemed much more enticing, so I dropped out after half a semester and followed the call to adventure, which was not a good long-term strategy and ended with my parents rescuing me and my infant daughter and moving us in with them. A year later I started in the nursing program at the Mount as a 21yo divorced mother of a 15-month old. Nursing wasn’t my forte, so I switched to liberal arts, which opened the world of music, art, and philosophy to me and also let me continue learning French. After earning an AA in 1979, I went to SFU, earned a BA in Commerce/Modern Language (business admin and French) with a minor in accounting in 1981, and then went to Pitt law school and earned a JD in 1984. At the time I had naive ethical issues with being a lawyer, so I accepted a position as an international tax accountant in the Dallas TX office of Arthur Young (now Ernst and Young). After two years it was clear that I was incompetent as a tax accountant, so I looked for a legal position. A French-owned helicopter company, Aerospatiale Helicopter Inc (now Airbus Helicopters), hired me in 1986 as its first in-house lawyer in the US. At that time Aerospatiale was one of the four partners of Airbus, so four years later Airbus hired me as its first in-house lawyer in the US, a position I held until January 2011. During that time I was active nationally in aviation-related organizations, especially women’s groups. However, on the day my first grandson was born in April 2007 I heard a strong calling to dedicate my life to preserving the planet for future generations, so, while working full-time and chairing the ABA Forum on Air and Space Law, I started taking night classes at George Washington University Law School in August 2011 to earn an LL.M. (master of laws) in environmental law. I graduated with highest honors in May 2010 and “retired” from Airbus in January 2011, trusting that the Higher Power would lead me in the right direction. Six weeks later my thesis, which was on the laws governing fossil aquifers, won an award for environmental scholarship, which led to an invitation to join the Environmental Law Institute in DC as a pro bono Visiting Scholar, which gave me a platform for publishing and public speaking on environmental issues in aviation and water. In the summer of 2014 the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, invited me to enter its PhD program in water law. Adventure called again, so I sold my house in Oakton VA, moved to Glasgow in March 2015 and lived there until returning to Ebensburg in September 2018 to care for my elderly mother. I received the PhD in 2019, and my doctoral thesis on governance of offshore fresh groundwater was published as a book that has been called ground-breaking and a gift to humanity. In May 2025 an EU-funded program flew me to Oslo to speak at a two-day workshop on the topic of my PhD. Currently I do both paid and pro bono work locally and globally.”
Renee credits Bishop Carroll for helping her in several ways. She said that the ability to speak French began with her classes at BC, which have served her well. She also said that her love of science was nurtured at BC. Most importantly, she commented, “BC gave me a solid belief in the power and benefits of a community and a value-driven life.”
Her main paid position is with the global Fortune 100 company Accenture as its in-house water expert helping the company be resilient to floods and water scarcity in at-risk locations around the world. She is also Special Counsel in the environmental law group at the Pittsburgh-based law firm Eckert Seamans.
Renee is currently involved on a pro-bono basis with several organizations both near and far:
- Board Member and Secretary-General of the International Water Resources Association, which is based in Paris
- Board Member of The Groundwater Project, which is based in Canada
- Chair of the Business and Finance Committee of the Alliance for Water Stewardship, which is based in Scotland
- Board member, secretary, and chair of the Governance Committee of Mount Aloysius College
- Board member of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra
- Secretary-Treasurer of the Ebensburg Municipal Water Authority
- Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute
In addition to all of these organizations and responsibilities, she is on committees planning the 2026 UN World Water Day and the UN 2026 Water Conference that will take place in Abu Dhabi in December 2026.
She has many hopes and dreams for her career and her activities. Renee said, “I hope that people in my spheres of influence will become aware that water is our most vital resource, without which no creature can survive, and will take actions to protect the quantity and quality of that resource. I hope that someday those of us who care about water will reach a critical mass and cause water to be protected for current and future generations of all species.”
She has some great advice for our current and future students: “Follow your passion, lead a value-driven life and career, be flexible, be curious, take risks, but don’t be risky, work hard but have fun, network with like-minded people and organizations, volunteer with organizations that resonate with your interests, help others freely and without expectation of a reward.”
Renee adds that she is grateful for living in a community that has such wonderful values, but also appreciated the area more after being gone from it for 37 years. She encourages our students to explore the world while they are young, both nationally and internationally, but never be afraid to come back.
We thank Dr. Renee Martin-Nagle for not only visiting our classes, but providing such great insights into the wonderful things she has been doing around the world. We are BC proud!