Molly received her bachelor's degree in Wildlife Ecology from Oklahoma State University in 1995. While at school, she began a recycling program for the dormitories.  Her efforts were expanded to include the development and oversight of a campus-wide recycling program with the creation of various positions in the Student Government Association, which she chaired, including: the Campus Conservation Chair of the Student Government Association (1990-1992), Campus Recycling Coordinator of the Residence Halls Association (1991-1992), and the Undergraduate Representative of Campus Recycling Committee (1992-1994). 

From 1992-1994, while a full-time student, Molly worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a Co-op Park Ranger at Keystone Lake near Tulsa, OK. She gained a wide range of environmental experience, including: firefighting and emergency response, natural resource and wildlife management, enforcement of Tile 36 regulations, public presentations, and oversight of leases and permits for thousands of natural gas and oils wells on public lands.

Before starting AWE in 2000, she  worked for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management as as a hazardous waste inspector. Her work involved inspecting hundreds of industrial and commercial facilities for compliance to permits and state and federal regulations, preparing and presenting evidence in enforcement cases, developing and providing training and guidance to the regulated community and the general public, and overseeing  the IDEM recycling program.

Through her enforcement experiences, she recognized that the regulated community faces multifaceted challenges - adversarial relationships with the surrounding community and regulators, pressure from customers and competitors, and unsound advice from consultants all compounded by media focus on "green guilt" and the prevalent belief that compliance with capricious laws in the face of arbitrary enforcement is the best and only business option.  She understood that environmentally sustainable practices beyond compliance had to be a driver for profitability and business expansion to become mainstream and to truly benefit the environment. She has devoted her work as a consultant to meeting this challenge.