Wendy A. Waller, Save The Bay’s staff attorney, knew from the moment she finished her undergraduate education at Johns Hopkins University that she wanted to be a lawyer and environmental advocate. And while she has ended up doing just that, she did not take the most direct of career paths to get there.
Not ready for law school after getting her undergraduate degree, she took a job as a real estate broker. Then she ended up in Lake Tahoe, Calif., where she ran a successful café.
Eventually, however, she decided it was time to go back to school, first earning a Juris Doctor from Roger Williams University School of Law and then a master’s degree in marine affairs from the University of Rhode Island.
While she was studying, Waller further bulked up her resume. She worked for the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council, becoming adept in the nuances of public policy along the waterfront.
And then she worked as an associate attorney at a Warwick law office, Lepizzera, Laprocina & DePalo. Her RWU adviser, Dennis Nixon, had “encouraged me to get experience in a courtroom in order to bring added value to any environmental advocacy group,” Waller said recently.
All the skills that she picked up along her varied occupations undoubtedly have helped Waller in her career, for she has been the staff attorney at Save The Bay for four years, overseeing a staff of 12.
But work isn’t everything for Waller. She’s is also a member of Jamestown’s Harbor Commission and is volunteering her legal skills to help a group of pet owners and breeders who are pushing for an update of the R.I. Rabies Control Board’s regulations. With a brother suffering from a traumatic brain injury, Waller also spends much of her free time raising awareness about such injuries. •
