OnlyForNow said:
You're desire to do everything at once is a major problem for people who would hire you, because it shows a lack of specific focus (to me at least but I know more about your history). Teaching-insurance sales-environmental consulting... that's three darts on completely opposite sides of the board.
You need to get into a field and stick with it. Your family took you back to TN I believe, so that's the best place to start. You want to work in environmental consulting, but your latest background (teaching) doesn't support that. Also, specifically for consulting, you lack the years of experience to be a project or program manager so you'd be regulated to field crew duty, which is great for some folks, but it's lower pay and hard work.
IMO, you're best chance at getting out of teaching and into consulting would be previous connections you've made, the Aggie network, and luck (this is what got me where I am now).
Where are you in TN? From your posts i know you're a qualified scientist, and if you're serious about this then there is a possibility I could see if I know anyone that could get you on as a contract employee, but again it isn't glamorous or high paying.
I'm in the Knoxville area. About 30 minutes from Oak Ridge. So, there could be some employment opportunity there. The teaching piece to my career fits in - in that the majority of my career, I've done environmental education (at zoos, preserves, nature centers), which is why I got the Masters in Ed. and my teaching certificate (to make myself more marketable). I also got to do several years of field work (2 years as an intern at a national park while in grad school; 3 years while as a volunteer coordinator at a preserve training interns how to do it).
I really used the teaching cert. to get a job so we could move back to TN. Env. Ed. really doesn't make sense for me any longer, as previously mentioned, that I would have to move around geographically - which is why I'm more interested in field work, working at UTK, etc.