Bryant, J. Kyle
J. Kyle Bryant
J. Kyle Bryant is an environmental scientist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Atlanta, Georgia. As a vision-minded, creative, and technically progressive Senior Environmental Scientist/Project Manager, Bryant strives to build innovative techniques between technology, research, public health, and the environment. He has worked across sectors, including an Atlanta-based engineering and consulting firm, the Department of Energy, Property and the Environment Research Center (PERC), and the US EPA.
“We have an important role to play, and must embrace it.” – J. Kyle Bryant, 2005.
J. Kyle Bryant grew up in Waynesville, NC, one of three children born to James L., a law enforcement executive, and Alpha Omega, an engineering firm’s senior executive office manager. Waynesville is in mountainous western North Carolina. Bryant has fond childhood memories of playing with his cousins in the woods, swinging on vines, and drinking fresh water from the mountain streams. These experiences nurtured a lifelong love for the environment and wide open spaces. When Bryant was still young, the family moved to Durham but continued to visit their relatives in the mountains several times a year. Bryant quickly noticed the contrast between urban and rural lifestyles, which sparked a curiosity about environmental impacts on human behavior. Bryant remains interested in finding a balance between those worlds.
Bryant attended college to pursue an environmental career. He went to Fort Valley State University (FVSU)in Georgia because the school sent more African Americans to medical and dental schools than any other college in the state. Almost immediately after beginning his studies, Dr. Bryant got involved with the Cooperative Development Energy Program (CCDEP), a Department of Energy-sponsored initiative that seeks to introduce minorities to careers in the energy field. The summer after his freshman year, Dr. Bryant interned at the Department’s Nevada test site, where he became the first black student to train in health physics and radiological operations.
“I quickly realized that there weren’t many people that looked like me in the field,” Bryant remembers (2005). After leaving his internship and returning to school, Bryant began to observe that there were not many pipelines for minorities to enter into certain careers. “Many young people from urban high schools have never heard of certain careers, like industrial ecology,” Bryant says. “It’s really only through the internships like the one I had that you realize that there are courses that historically black colleges do not offer because they don’t have the resources” (2005).
Bryant graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Biological and Physical Sciences. He completed a Master of Public Administration in Government Affairs from Strayer University in 2017.
Bryant’s first job during a break from college was with the U.S. Department of Energy. He worked as a junior health physicist and industrial hygienist trainee under the Radiological Operations group at the Nevada test site. The job gave Bryant “Q-sensitive” clearance and many of his responsibilities remain classified; however, his main responsibility involved overseeing several radiological programs on the 1,350 square-mile site. He describes his work there as “exciting, state-of-the-art technology…cutting edge research” (2005).
At the end of his stint with the Department of Energy, Bryant had an experience that caused him to rethink his career direction. Bryant now considers this the lowest point of his career. On board a bus departing from the Nevada test site, Bryant drove through a “spirit march” of Native Americans protesting nuclear weapons testing. “It was my first real experience seeing the ‘other side’ of the research I was involved in, the human side,” he recalls. “Being confronted by people who were anti-nukes opened my eyes to how other people might see things. I realized that the work I had been doing—and had been so excited about doing—could be viewed by many as not positive” (2005). The experience humbled Bryant, who opted not to return to the Department of Energy. He decided to finish his degree at Fort Valley and pursue environmental consulting.
After earning his degree in 1995, Bryant became an environmental scientist for an Atlanta-based engineering firm, R&D Environmental Consultants, Inc. While working there, Bryant drew on his lifelong interest in civic activism and began working for various community-based environmental justice programs. Because of his certification and scientific knowledge, Bryant became a resource for “lay citizens” who had difficulty understanding the scientific basis behind some of their community’s problems. As Bryant climbed the professional ladder and became a senior environmental scientist at the firm, he began to use GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology regularly, and soon developed the GIS division at his company. Bryant was quickly appointed Director of GIS and Sustainable Development.
As a result of his experience with GIS, Bryant’s interest in the environmental justice field grew in tandem with his professional career. Almost immediately, Bryant saw how GIS was a tool grassroots organizations could use to tell their stories, just as regulators and polluters alike had been using it to document and defend theirs. Bryant began to use GIS to develop maps from a community perspective. He employed his creative talents to examine how the maps could be used to shape public perceptions of environmental justice issues. “I developed an interest in the subtle use of color, and what colors psychologically imply…the psychophysics of perception, and how we can be deceived by what we see,” Bryant explains (2016). “I tried to employ those strategies in designing maps to identify areas of community concern” (2016). Bryant believes that GIS software opens up a universe of possibilities for communities to define themselves uniquely without others telling them the extent and nature of their problems.
One of Bryant’s career highlights was being selected as the pre-awards coordinator in the Office of Sponsored Programs at Fort Valley State University and returning to his alma mater after years in the business world. Another highlight is his role in managing the town’s Brownfield Redevelopment. “I’m still writing the chapters of the book of my experience. I acquired many of my skills as part of this university, graduated, and then came back as a trained scientist. I love being able to take part in community initiatives and to help determine how they will impact the future of this town” (2005).
Bryant also serves as the Senior Technical Advisor to the Academic Institutions-Communities-Agencies Network (ACA-NET), which strives to foster collaborative relationships between the nation’s historically black colleges and universities and environmentally and economically impacted communities of color. Bryant also started and runs his own environmental consulting company, Synthesis Management Group.
Bryant’s role in the Brownfield Redevelopment Initiative, an opportunity realized with the help of an Environmental Leadership Program, is his most significant achievement. In 2002, Bryant held a decision support workshop in Fort Valley, where he brought diverse stakeholders together to discuss the city’s redevelopment. “They all had sharply contrasting opinions,” Bryant recalls. “I used wireless technology, decision support software, and a mediator, and was able to bring people from different backgrounds to the table to have some meaningful dialogue about what should be done about the future of our town” (2005).
In 2002, while working at R&D Environmental Consultants, Inc., Bryant became a Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program. Bryant left consulting in 2003, and in 2007, he joined the EPA as an environmental scientist. In 2008, Bryant was a fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center. Bryant has had a long and successful career at the EPA. His work includes the E.P.A.’s BRIDGE Program, where he served in the South Section of the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) Division, specifically within the RCRA & OPA Enforcement & Compliance Branch (ROECB).
As a young student just beginning to think about developing a career path, Bryant benefited greatly from the guidance of several mentors. The first, Dr. Isaac Crumbly, was the founder and educator of the CDEP. Bryant credits Dr. Crumbly with the vision of exposing Bryant to a new world of career opportunities. Dr. Crumbly taught Bryant to have a broad vision for the role of science in the world and to re-evaluate his position within the scientific field. “He never let his students settle for being ordinary,” Bryant remembers (2005). The department chair, Dr. Clinton Dixon, and a biology professor, Dr. Deepa Arora, were also mentors to Bryant while in college. They were instrumental in challenging him to pursue his vision of infusing an environmental career with civic responsibility and social conscience.
Bryant says the reason he has remained in the environmental field is unrelated to any particular achievement or campaign. Instead, it has more to do with the fact that few people in the field look like him. Bryant sees himself as an example for young black girls and boys. “We need to have more minorities at the table to help solve our environmental problems. I believe many problems arise because the environmental movement lacks a necessary variety of perspectives,” he says. “I often question the quality of research performed by non-minorities in minority communities and the impact that research has on the community. We need more cultural competence” (2005).
Bryant has only encouraging words for minorities considering a career in the environmental field. “Go for it,” he says. “The world needs you. You will still be one out of many, and you may find few colleagues who look like you, but you must plant the seeds for future generations—be a guiding light to introduce others to these fields. We have an important role to play, and we must embrace it” (2005).
Interview conducted by Multicultural Environmental Leadership Development Initiative staff. 2016. University of Michigan – School of Natural Resources and Environment. Ann Arbor, MI.
PERC. 2023. Kyla Bryant. https://www.perc.org/people/kyle-bryant/
Taylor, Dorceta (Ed.). 2005. The Paths We Thread: Profiles of the Careers of Minority Environmental Professionals. Minority Environmental Leadership Development Initiative, University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment.