CAES alum stewards land as Virginia’s secretary of natural and historic resources

Travis Voyles has worn many hats: park tour guide, law clerk, legislative fellow, and now, secretary of natural and historic resources for the commonwealth of Virginia. He credits his rural upbringing and his experiences at the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences for his success.

"A lot of people don't have the opportunity to be exposed to the agricultural community," said Voyles, who earned a bachelor's degree in environmental economics and management from the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in 2011.

Voyles shared his love of the outdoors and the agricultural world with his track and cross-country teammates at UGA. He ran all four years of his CAES career and often invited his teammates to visit and stay at his family's farm, located an hour south of Athens in Jasper County, Georgia.

"My family was an adoptive family for my teammates," said Voyles. "Many of them experienced hunting, fishing and farming for the first time ever with my family."

After graduating, Voyles moved to Atlanta and pursued graduate studies at Georgia Tech. He earned his master's degree in city and regional planning, with an eye toward law school.

"One of my UGA advisors told me to take some time to decide if the legal route was what I wanted to do," Voyles said.

On a hiatus from academics, Voyles took a job at the Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island, Georgia, as a naturalist and land use manager. He gave tours, hosted sunrise outings and helped National Park Service staff maintain the island's rich ecosystem.

After a year, Voyles was sure that law school was the right path. With a desire to stay in the Southeast, he chose Florida State University for its top-performing environmental, energy and land-use law programs. While there, he served as editor-in-chief for the Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law and clerked for the Atlanta BeltLine, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a large law firm and on the largest policy committee for the Florida House of Representatives.

After law school, Voyles earned a position working on the Committee on Science, Space and Technology for the U.S. House of Representatives and moved to Washington, D.C. In 2018, he moved over to the executive branch and used his extensive congressional oversight experience at the EPA, the federal branch dedicated to protecting human health and the environment.

"I got to work with the heads of all of the major program offices - air, water, enforcement, emergency response, research and development - and loved it," said Voyles. "I saw myself having to act as a bridge between the agency, other parts of the government and the public, working closely with EPA senior leadership and providing guidance on issues and investigations that needed to be addressed. I was a few inches deep and 10 miles wide."