“… Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.”
– Mourning Dove (1888-1936)

Victoria Sutton’s Early love of nature leads to career in teaching, research and shaping environmental policy

The seeds for Victoria Sutton’s “mission” were sown early in life. As a little girl, she learned about her American Indian heritage during regular walks with her grandfather. It was there, in the lush forests and along the verdant riverbanks of Lenoir, N.C., that Sutton discovered the beauty and power of the environment. As a member of the Lumbee tribe, she followed in the footsteps of many of her ancestors who years ago learned plant remedies from their family and friends as a ritual of childhood.

“My grandfather was a large influence on me,” Sutton recalls. “He introduced me to what he had been taught by his father. During walks, he told me stories about collecting clay, making pottery, identifying plants for healing. I guess it was always a part of my life.”

Those early lessons were the foundation for a career dedicated to educating, researching and shaping environmental public policy. From her role as an executive in a private ship bottom coatings company to law school and public service, Sutton’s career has been woven together by a respect for the environment and the desire to protect it.

Currently, Sutton, who earned her master’s degree in public administration from Old Dominion in 1986, is the chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration. She provides legal services and serves as chair of the Ad Hoc Committee for a Regulatory Framework for a Hydrogen Economy and co-chair of the DOT Center for Climate Change and Environmental Forecasting. The position, to which she was appointed by President George W. Bush, marks the third time she’s been tapped for service by a U.S. president. The elder Bush appointed her as special assistant to the Environmental Protection Agency in 1989 and assistant director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy in 1991.

“Every day was pretty exciting in that job,” notes Sutton, who said her role was to work on issues related to global climate change. She remembers one day in particular when she was handed the Clean Air Act to review. “It was about four inches thick and I had a day to review it. There was an incredible number of decisions to be made every day.”

At the White House, Sutton was responsible for coordination of and budgeting for: global climate, high-performance computing and communications, biotechnology, advance materials, and mathematics and science education. “I found that it’s very easy to stop things in Washington, but very difficult to make things happen. We were able to make things happen,” she said.

Making things happen in environmental public policy is what has driven Sutton’s career. After receiving bachelor’s degrees in animal science and zoology from North Carolina State in 1977 and 1980, she went to work as executive vice president for Seaguard Corp., a family-owned business in Portsmouth that manufactured coatings for ship bottoms. She was responsible for compliance with new environmental statutes, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Superfund.

“I never had this planned out,” Sutton said of her career path. “I was driven primarily by what interested me and what I saw as something that would contribute to helping the environment.”
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the country passed the bulk of its environmental statutes and Sutton became interested in helping shape those rules. She entered Old Dominion’s M.P.A. program hoping to combine it with her undergraduate education to understand both sides of environmental policy.

Sutton recalls the late M.P.A. professor Wolfgang Pindur’s dedication and desire to make an impact as a guiding force. “He was a very good but tough teacher. I received the highest grade on his exam and I was very proud of that. He was not the only one, though. Every class I had really made a difference.”

While her plan was to join the federal government after earning her M.P.A., Sutton said the program “opened up a whole new world of how one could address environmental issues at the local level.” She served as assistant to the city manager of both Chesapeake and McKinney, Texas, and as county administrator for Lake Tawakoni, Texas, following her graduation from ODU in 1986. And she went on to earn a doctorate in environmental sciences with an emphasis on regulation from the University of Texas at Dallas in 1989.

In 1990, Sutton joined the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as a senior policy analyst, where she conducted reviews of environmental policies on acid rain, clean air and global change, and analyzed government research strategies.

With an interest in biocontaminants, Sutton took on the roles of executive director of The Ronald Reagan Institute of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University and research associate professor in environmental and occupational health at Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.

Through all of this, though, she wanted to share her knowledge with law students, many of whom would one day be in a position to help shape environmental policy and law.

“I wanted to teach them science and environmental law because I think it’s so essential to have a holistic understanding of both science and the law that regulates it,” said Sutton, who had served as a legal assistant researching environmental statutes while pursuing her Ph.D. But to teach law required a law degree.

So Sutton, who has always followed what interests her, enrolled in law school. She received her juris doctorate from American University in 1998 and accepted a position at Texas Tech University School of Law, where in 2005 she was appointed the Robert H. Bean Professor of Law. She also served as director of Tech’s Center for Biodefense, Law and Public Policy.

“I first became interested in bioterrorism as an issue when I was at the White House,” she explained. “The Soviets had tons of smallpox stockpiled, and bioterrorism was a real threat. I started looking at the legal issues.”

Her experience and research led to the publication in 2003 of a book titled “Law and Bioterrorism,” the first in the field. A follow-up book, “Law and Biotechnology,” is due out this year.

Sutton’s unique ability to combine science and law has made her a sought-after authority. She was appointed as a visiting lecturer of law at both Yale Law School and Yale School of Medicine in 2004. She is currently on leave from Texas Tech to serve at the Department of Transportation.

Through it all, Sutton has never forgotten her heritage. She does pro bono work for the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina and serves on various organizations, including the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, National Native American Bar Association, Federal Circuit Bar Association’s Committee on Federal Indian Law, and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

“I try to give back to my community,” said Sutton, whom ODU honored last year with a Distinguished Alumni Award. “I feel like that’s a very important part of what you do.”

Everything has a purpose, every disease a cure and every person a mission. Victoria Sutton understands this.