Nancy was born in Long Island, New York in 1956, and moved with her family to Bethesda, Md at six months. She attended Walt Whitman High School, where she founded and led the Environmental Club. She also contributed to a secondary school textbook for hands-on environmental education, and learned the basics of water quality, microbiology, ecology, air quality, soil health, and land use regulation. She also organized a national conference of the Institute for Environmental Education at Catoctin National Park. She received the Environmental Award of Excellence from the President for “outstanding achievement in environmental services” in high school.
Nancy holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Yale University. She also studied physics, engineering, and programming. She co-founded the Women’s Caucus. She attended the University of Virginia law school for one year, then decided to work in environmental policy.
After law school, Nancy traveled for nine months throughout Western Europe. In north Norway, she participated in a civil disobedience occupation of an illegal hydroelectric construction site with the native Laplanders, camping out in -20 degrees F to protect reindeer migration paths.
Nancy worked for 14 years lobbying Capitol Hill on international environmental issues focused on endangered species and family planning. She obtained a two thirds majority Senate commitment to continue US support for the world whaling moratorium, on behalf of Monitor International. Representing the International Fund for Animal Welfare, she mobilized Senate support to stop the clubbing of harp and hooded seals in Canada. Nancy also created and led a five-year national coalition which stopped US clubbing of northern Pacific fur seals in the Pribilof Islands, a threatened species, winning against the State Department, Department of Commerce, White House, and the Canadian government which wanted to continue the clubbing. She served as advisor to United States Departments of State and Commerce delegation at the Tokyo Meeting of the Parties of the North Pacific Fur Seal Treaty in 1985 as the environmental representative.
Nancy founded and led the International Entanglement Network from 1983-85. She created the national legislative strategy; testified at hearings representing the national environmental community; obtained new $1 million line item appropriation in the federal budget, including first international scientific conference. This organization eventually led to the banning of disposal of plastic debris in the oceans under the MARPOL treaty.
Nancy served as the Sierra Club’s Washington Director, International Population Program, from 1990-94. The Program’s goal was to urge Congress and the White House to provide the full US portion of the UN’s international campaign for reproductive health care for women in developing countries. Under her leadership, the campaign achieved the largest non-military increases in international aid programs in US history four years in a row, over half billion dollars in total, for voluntary family planning programs. Nancy created and managed the new program, including political strategy, Congressional and United Nations lobbying, testimony before House and Senate committees, media events (national press conferences, radio, TV), grassroots network, and lobbying the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Nancy was a co-founder of Sustainable Montgomery, with Blair Ewing when he served on Montgomery County Council.
In 1994, Nancy joined Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and later Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), supporting the Immigration and Naturalization Service software systems for 14 years. Nancy moved on to support the Department of Treasury in Enterprise Content Management, performing the 2008 Independent Verification and Validation of Treasury's Enterprise Architecture Self-Assessment. Nancy then worked at DoD for five years, supporting the integration of Item Unique Identification methodology into the enterprise architecture of the Department of Navy and the Marine Corps.
Nancy Wallace currently supports the Department of Commerce as a data coordinator for ecological restoration projects. She is also a process engineer and certified in Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI).
Nancy joined the Green Party in 2003, and began active participation in the Montgomery County group in 2013. She has served as co-chair since February 2015. She has been active in campaigns to save 10 Mile Creek, ban dangerous pesticides in ornamental lawn care, and improve building efficiency standards in the county.
Nancy serves currently on the Board of Directors of the Center for Safer Wireless, a nonprofit mothers’ group educating families and school systems on safer use of wireless technology.
Nancy’s house is 100% wind powered, through the Maryland wind recs program now available through our local electricity generating companies. She is also a member of the Silver Spring Time Bank. She uses natural, organic lawncare with native plants and permaculture on her small amount of land at her house.
She is a volunteer advocate on Vitamin D, bringing modern men’s contraception to market, and zero waste recycling.
She has been a mentor for at risk children for 21 years, and has three mentor children, and two mentor grandchildren.