While earning his master's degree in architecture from Yale University in 1965, Easton worked on redevelopment projects for the City of
New Haven, Connecticut on the City Plan Commission. Easton thereafter became an architect in
Charlotte, North Carolina in 1968. In 1971, Easton worked as the Program Development Director and the Director of Regional Planning for the Centralina Council of Governments. Easton also worked on various wilderness campaigns, founded the Central Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club in Charlotte, and became the Appalachian Regional Vice President of the
Sierra Club in the later 1970s. Afterwards, Easton worked for the
National Wildlife Federation and became the
chief executive officer of the Institute for Conservation Leadership from 1979 to the 1990s. ==2008 election==