Women We Love: Robbi Savage

Woman. Daughter. Sister. Mother. Activist. Preservationist. Grandmother. Trail Blazer. These terms, among many others, describe Executive Director of the Rivanna Conservation Society Robbi Savage. Savage is the oldest sister to three brothers and a sister; mother of four children, three boys and a girl; and grandmother to six grandsons. She lives on Greene Mountain Lake in the Blue Ridge Foothills and works in the society’s Downtown Charlottesville office.

Savage has worked in the environmental field since 1973 when her child was born with multiple cardiac defects; the point where she halted her college education.

It was her former husband who inspired the career. “In 1972 he was in the first management intern class at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.,” she notes. “I had to go to work to help pay medical and hospital bills, so EPA was an obvious choice.”

Savage worked in the Office of Solid Waste and the Office of Water. From there she worked for the League of Women Voters on watershed management programs. In 1978, she worked for the 50 state environmental/water quality officials responsible for the day-to-day management of the Clean Water Act. She worked there until 2006.

“In this capacity I was the principal spokesperson for states before the administration and the congress. It was a wonderful experience to have the opportunity to help write several sections of the Clean Water Act, including the nonpoint source, stormwater and state revolving loan fund programs,” she says.

While she hasn’t returned to college—yet—Savage has been awarded academically. In 1996 she received the LA County, Long Beach School System District Alumni of the Year Award and in 1997 she was named the Outstanding Alumni for Lindbergh Junior High. She received a scholarship to attend the Harvard Business School’s Executive Environmental Management Program, as well as a visiting scholar at the LBJ School of Public Policy at the University of Texas.
“When my son died of heart disease in 1977 my career was in full swing,, so I did not return to college,” she says. “Might do that now.”

A typical work day for Savage these days is waking by 6 a.m. to let her 10-year-old dog outside and grab a cup of coffee. She begins work by 7 a.m. “If no meetings scheduled, I have the luxury of working from my home office. My dog likes this a lot,” Savage says.

With such an incredible career, choosing her most rewarding professional experience wasn’t possible. “There have been so many wonderful experiences—as the creator of the 1992 and 2002 Years of Clean Water, President Jimmy Carter hosted the World Water Summit for me at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Having the opportunity to introduce President Carter, former Sens. Edmund Muskie and Howard Baker, U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young and a host of other dignitaries at the event that I was hosting was simply awesome,” Savage says.

“The Youth Watershed Summit at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center on World Water Monitoring Day (a program I created in 2003) was also an amazing experience,” Savage continues. “And then there was the opportunity to serve as the U.S. Earth Day Ambassador to Germany in 2003, the World Water Monitoring Day Ambassador to Taiwan in 2004 and 2005. It was sensational to serve as a U.S. Delegate to the 2003 World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, and be one of only 5 U.S. delegates to the World Health Organization, International Water Association and the European Union’s 2004 Bonn Charter on Water Supply.”

Additionally, she notes: “I was the first woman to make a presentation to the International Sewerage Committee of Japan (in Tokyo) and was co-leader, with Congresswoman Claudine Schneider of the North American Delegation, to the 1991 U.N. Global Assembly on Women in the Environment.”

Savage is facing business and personal challenges right now—as are we all.

“The biggest personal challenge is to maintain a full-time job while at the same time trying to be the best daughter I can be to my 86-year-old father in Nevada, the best parent I can be to my three adult children and the best grandmother I can be to my six grandsons,” she says. “Professionally the challenge is to assure adequate funding for RCS at a time when money is tight in the nonprofit world. Maintaining family relationships can be time intensive and patience challenging, but worth it and fundraising in these days of economic stress is becoming a full-time job.”

Finding balance and taking care of herself are important. “I picture my life as a four leaf clover—family, friends, work and personal growth (this includes volunteering at the Paramount, which is great fun and I’ve learned a lot about opera),” she says. “National and international politics have been a part of my life for more than four decades, so I stay abreast of what’s happening in our country and in countries around the world. One way I do this is to read (or listen to CD) biographies and historic nonfiction books. I also love music (generally classical and folk rock) and old movies. Oh did I mention my 10 year old pooch? She helps to keep me sane except when she disrupts my yoga practice or meditation.”

By this point in her life, she also knows herself well. “Well in an effort to avoid false modesty, I’ll just say that you can’t get to my age without knowing a bit about your strengths and weaknesses,” Savage says. “On the strength side of the ledger I am creative and can come up with and implement big ideas and programs. For example at RCS we are embarking on a huge new project—Water Health for the Commonwealth. Our goal is to create a comprehensive water quality monitoring network of approximately 40 schools. Over the first three years we expect to engage 8,175 student scientists and approximately 415 educators. Participants will be attending or teaching at schools bordering or in direct proximity to the Rivanna or James rivers. This monitoring network will begin at the headwaters of the Rivanna River in the Blue Ridge Mountains, will be expanded over time to include the James River, and will end at the Chesapeake Bay. I also feel strongly that the olders should support the youngers, so I serve on the Board for Pick Up America.”

How about the best advice she’s ever received? “‘If it’s dumb, don’t do it,’ by Tex LaRosa, former director of water programs for the state of Vermont,” Savage says. “And ‘never attribute to conspiracy that which you can chalk up to incompetence,’ by Jean Packard, former chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.”

Her advice for other women considering this line of work?

“When I started my environmental career there was very few women in the field. Most were middle-aged white males who were sanitary and or civil engineers,” Savage notes. “Now women are global environmental leaders and it’s very exciting. In fact, in developing countries the number of woman doing the on-the-ground environmental work is significantly higher than men—particularly in the water field. This is because in these countries women collect, transport and use the family water to cook, clean, wash and irrigate. As for a specific field, female toxicologists working on the synergies between the many chemicals to flow into our waterways are generally in great demand.”

8 Things You Might Not Know About Robbi Savage…

1.  Who is your favorite author and why? John Meacham— he writes a terrific biography—“American Lion” being his most recent. And of course “Game Change” by John Heilemann/Mark Halperin.

2.  Favorite thing about Charlottesville? Summer evenings on the Downtown Mall.

3.  What is your favorite hobby/pastime? I have learned to love kayaking.

4.  What is one of your hidden talents/skills? Tap Dancing/Square Dancing and back in the 50s I was the first Ms. Tunisia in the International Children’s Choir.

5.  What is your guilty pleasure? Raffaello Confections—yummmm.

6.  What is your favorite movie and why? “The Boy with Green Hair,” staring Pat O’Brien, Robert Ryan, Barbara Hale and Dean Stockwell. It came out the year I was born and it’s a parable about public reaction when the hair of an American war orphan mysteriously turns green. And, I love “Same Time Next Year,” with Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn, because it tracks history during my growing up and “Shirley Valentine,” because it focuses on a woman’s personal journey and it’s hysterically funny.

7.  Where did you grow up? I was born in Massachusetts, my family moved to Long Beach, Calif., which is where I went to school (yes, I was a surfer girl). 

8.  What is the greatest invention of your lifetime and why? Me! Oh, was I supposed to say the Internet? Well, I’ve been working on me a lot longer than I’ve been awestruck by the Internet.

Additional links:
National Association of Clean Water Agencies Award

Bonn Charter

Year of the Rivanna