Special
Features / January 2008
For the Love of Nature
 Dawn Seeburger
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Dawn Seeburger, owner of Environmental Resources, in Elkview, West Virginia, created a job and business around her love for the environment and the outdoors. Dawn’s personality is somewhat eclectic, half a very detailed business woman and half a wild adventurer. She recently returned from backpacking in Denali National Park and other areas of Alaska. This unique combination makes Dawn a very interesting person and someone all of us need to appreciate in this day of contaminated environments and global warming.
Originally from Michigan, she was an only child. Her father was an outdoorsman and Dawn began hunting and fishingat a very early age. Growing up in a very rural community, Dawn graduated from a small high school with a graduating class of less than 100. Her dream was to become a veterinarian, but her parents were not supportive and felt that the only acceptable professions for a woman was a school teacher or a secretary. I didn’t want to be either,” she said. “My interest was inthe sciences. However, her parents’ viewpoint, and in part the socially accepted viewpoint at that time was that women didn’t really need to have an education past high school. Women were expected to finish high school, get married, and have babies. So, she did just that…got married, had babies, and then at the ripe old age of 32 when the kids were in school full time, she went to college.
Shortly after started college, she went to work for the Dow Chemical Company in their Health and Environmental Sciences Toxicology Research Laboratory, and worked for several years in the Pathology/Histology Laboratory, then several years in the Inhalation Toxicology Laboratory. She carried a full load of classes while working 30-40 hours a week. “I worked, went to college, maintained my house, drove the boys to all their school activities and could usually be seen in the stands during basketball and football games, and wrestling matches with a physics, chemistry, or genetics textbook studying while also watching my sons who were both exceptional athletes,” she said.
She completed her Bachelor and Master Degrees in Biology with a concentration intoxicology. Then, she left the chemical industry to work in the environmental industry where she was involved with assessing and cleaning up contaminated properties which included gasoline stations, industrial sites, and what are called brownfield sites. Dawn started her own business in 2003 where she could be closely involved with her clients, and could provide them with the service and responsiveness they desired.
She also wanted to be able to give something back to the state, and did this in part by writing the majority of the early USEPA Brownfield grants as a pro bono service for communities here in West Virginia. To date, she has helped WV communities receive 2.2 million dollars in federal grant money to address their brownfields sites. ‘Working in the brownfield industry meets the ideals that most of us in the environmental field had prior to entering the industry. By working on federally funded brownfields projects, we not only get to clean up contaminated sites, but we are also highly involved with the communities, and help create new jobs and a tax base that benefits the community, and the state at large. It is a win-win situation for everyone. More communities in West Virginia should take advantage of these opportunities,” she explained.
Today, she is a very successful and highly respected female business owner. She is called upon to clean up contaminated sites that have potential ill effects for humans, and the environment, and has been called upon to provide expert witness testimony in class action lawsuits, and before the legislature on issues relating to toxic exposure.
Dawn commented, “Women who are interested in starting their own business need to have an established reputation, be known for the quality of their work and be responsive to clients. Women or any business person for that matter needs to have the client’s best interest in mind. To be competitive in the working world today, people need to get the most out of their college education. They need a very broad and diverse education that prepares them for the ’hit the ground running’ attitude that we have in the environmental industry. Employers are looking for people who have a strong background in their specialty and who are well-rounded also,” she stressed. “Working in the environmental field is not just a job where you can be outside on occasion which is a great benefit unless it happens to be below zero and you are tasked with bailing wells or you are working with a drilling company; this is a job where there can be huge consequences to yourself and others if you make an error in judgment, not to mention the professional liability. This is a high stress profession, and as such, you need to have an outlet for your stress,” she continued. Dawn maintains a work-hard, play-hard mentality, and de-stresses bymountain biking, skiing, whitewater kayaking, backpacking and hiking. And up until moving to WV, she raced mountain bikes; after moving here she got heavily into whitewater kayaking and running the Class III/IV rapids in the New River Gorge, the Lower Gauley, and the Cheat River. Employers are looking for people who havea strong background in their specialty and who are well-rounded also,” she stressed.
Today, in addition to owning her own business, providing critical environmental work, and being dedicated to her clients, she has raised two sons, age 32 and 29, and is the grandmother of two little granddaughters age 2 and 4. You won’t find her inside. She is living in her element-- mountain biking, hiking, and whitewater kayaking. On the weekends in the winter, she is a ski instructor and was, until recently, teaching graduate level environmental science courses for Marshall University. She lives in a log cabin along a mountain trout stream. She has only one neighbor within a mile, and enjoys the peace, the quiet, and the seclusion of remote living. She is active and truly excited about living and protecting our environment. She is a living example of someone who in authentic, centered, and living her purpose.
Dawn Seeburger is the owner of Environmental Resources located in Elkview, WV. She may be reached at 304 965 9333 or via email at dawnseeburger@envres.net
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