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News & Press: Alumni Profiles |
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Helen Mountford '88
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
 It seems it was destiny that landed Helen Mountford ’88 back in France. After all, she was born there. Helen was raised in the U.S. and Scotland (with her family living for some time in Sri Lanka), and since graduating from Maret has lived in Canada, Australia, England, and now France.
Helen currently works for OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in Paris. She is quick to say it is a bit of a “dream job.” While pursuing a second masters degree in environmental economics at University College in London, the OECD approached her thesis advisor for a recommendation of a student who could help them conclude a report on environmentally harmful subsidies. She remembers, “I’d used a number of OECD books in my studies over the years, and really admired the type of policy-relevant analysis they undertook and the manner in which they worked with countries to build common understanding of how to address environmental challenges. So I took the job and now, 10 years later, I’m still at OECD managing our Climate Change, Natural Resources, and Environmental Outlooks Division.”
Helen initially began her studies at McGill and then transferred to the University of Melbourne in Australia to complete her B.A. with a double major in philosophy and history. She notes, “I enjoyed it, but I was always interested in other issues and so I spent a lot of my time involved in various campus groups on environment, women’s issues, human rights….Around that time I found out about a masters course in environmental management at my university and I suddenly realized that I could actually study and work in the area in which I was already so interested. I never looked back—I followed my first masters degree [in environmental studies] with a job managing a recycling firm.”
She admits she works long hours at OECD and confronts frustrating impasses. Helen explains, “For example, it is quite a challenge to get 30 member countries to agree on the costs of policy inaction on climate change. But at the end of the day, I do really believe in what we are doing, and I sometimes think we might be making just a little bit of a difference toward making the world a better place. And that makes it all worth it.”
Helen enjoys meeting people from all over the world in her job since the OECD has delegates attending from each of the 30 member countries, which she says, “makes for a really interesting mix of cultures.” Helen is used to the mix, however, having lived in so many countries and learning first-hand about these cultures. Her husband is from Mexico and she notes that her children hold four passports each and her four-year-old son, Oban, already speaks better French and Spanish than she does. She adds, “My apologies to Mr. Zeoli—he did the best he could with my bad ear for languages!”
She further comments on her education at Maret, “I think the two ways it most benefited me was to teach me to think for myself and question everything (but only if you could build a good argument) and to have confidence in myself. Looking back, I remember it as a place where there was a rather amazingly large amount of time devoted to individual students by teachers who really cared about us, and an atmosphere where everyone was encouraged to voice their views without fear of criticism.”
She fondly remembers a few particular teachers and the positive impact they had on her both as a person and as a student. Helen recalls, “Stephanie Jones was an amazing person and kept me sane through some very hard times….Bob Caiola was someone who fueled my interest in trying to do something to contribute to making the world a better place….Stick Sturtevant was also an inspiration—he was always so enthusiastic about the books he made us read, even if they put me to sleep.”
Currently, Helen and her colleagues are working on a new project looking at the economics of water and analyzing how to achieve sustainable financing for water supply and sanitation infrastructure. They work with the information gathered from OECD’s member countries and, for this project in particular, with a number of non-OECD countries as well. She emphasizes, “getting the economics of water management right is absolutely fundamental if we are to extend access to clean water to the estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide who don’t have it.” She acknowledges that this is not an easy task. She continues, “Water for me is a perfect example of the paradigm of sustainable development—its environmental, economic, and social aspects are all tied together. In terms of the environment, it is a key resource to support ecosystems and life and a renewable resource if it is managed properly.”
Although there are no easy answers, Helen is determined to move the world in the right direction. And, for that, we can be thankful.
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