Wittenberg is a place that teaches more than classroom learning; it teaches values and ways of thinking both in academic subjects as well as about your fellow students. It’s a caring environment and a place where people are genuinely willing to listen to personal issues, and it’s an ethical environment in the sense of values that you can fall back on in your own life. You find, as I have certainly found in my legal career, that things are not always black and white, and there are challenges that one must confront in terms of deciding the right thing to do.
Being in a place where through the liberal arts you are encouraged to reach back to the basic values you’ve learned and determine what makes the most sense to you has helped me tremendously in my life and career.
What also is interesting is that even in far-flung places, I have found people who know about or who have attended Wittenberg. Given its relatively small size, I am always impressed by the influence of my fellow graduates across the country and throughout parts of the world.
My work in energy and environmental law has also always been interesting to me. As I’ve told my own kids, no job that you are paid to do will ever be fun 100 percent of the time, but you need to find something that engages your interest, that makes you want to do your best work, and that allows you to work with people who share those views. I’ve been able to work in a field that I’m passionate about because of the first steps I took at Wittenberg.
Linda Stuntz is the founding partner of the Washington, DC-based law firm of Stuntz, Davis & Staffier. Recognized as one of the “leading energy lawyers in the nation” by the Legal Times in 2005, she has never shied away from a challenge. Stuntz has a long history of legal work in the area of energy and environmental regulation, including service to the nation as deputy secretary of the United States Department of Energy under President George H. W. Bush. She held that and other senior policy positions at the department between 1989 and 1993, playing a principal role in the enactment of the Energy Policy Act of 1992.
Stuntz received a BA with honors in 1976 from Wittenberg University and her law degree, also with honors, in 1979 from Harvard University. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.