When Pam Carter learned about Jane Goodall in the ninth grade, she knew she wanted to be just like her.

Now Carter, who works as the Chimpanzee Forest Area manager at the Maryland Zoo and met Goodall twice, can say the woman who inspired her career left a permanent mark on her.

During a visit in 2019, Carter asked Goodall for an autograph on her back shoulder, just below a tattoo she has of the first chimp she ever cared for and still cares for at the zoo. Although Goodall’s team said she didn’t have time for autographs that day, Carter said Goodall stopped for her and told the team, “No, I’m doing this one.”

The autograph was permanently tattooed on Carter the following morning, she said.

“After you talk to her, you leave having hope,” Carter said. “I would say that’s her legacy.”

Carter is one among many around the world who mourned the 91-year-old Goodall’s death Wednesday. While the British scientist was a global icon, she occasionally visited Maryland, under varying circumstances. Although she often gave lectures in the state, her first documented visit was to a Rockville lab that was testing on chimps. She reportedly cried over the treatment of the animals.

The world-renowned conservationist first made her mark in science when she immersed herself in a Tanzanian rainforest to study the world of chimpanzees at the age of 26. Her early research, in which she discovered chimps could make and use tools, transformed scientific understanding of primates.

As Goodall grew into a well-known figure, she became an advocate for animal welfare and habitat conservation. In March, Goodall sold out the The Lyric in Baltimore immediately after the announcement of her lecture, the venue said. She traveled about 300 days a year to speak to audiences about her career, the environment and political hope, The Lyric said in an announcement for her speech this past spring.

The Lyric said in an email that it was an “unforgettable experience” to see how she inspired a “new generation of young conservationists right here in Baltimore.”

“I was told I’d done everything wrong,” Goodall said about those who first doubted her research during an interview with WMAR-2 News in March. “And you can’t talk about [chimpanzees] having personality, mind or emotion because those are unique to us. All of those things were rubbish.”

Goodall also gave a talk at The University of Maryland, College Park, with the Department of Geographical Sciences in 2022, and another one a decade prior at UMD’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

But Goodall’s history in Maryland goes back as far as 1986 under less rosy terms. That year, Goodall was invited to tour a lab that tested on chimpanzees in Rockville called Bioqual. The tour was prompted by a video released by an animal rights group that showed mistreatment of the animals in the facility. Goodall called the tour “the worst experience of my life,” according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Goodall worked with the lab for a time to improve the conditions for the chimps, but over 20 years later, Bioqual ended its chimp research, The Washington Post reported in 2012. Goodall supported PETA in many of its fights for animal protections, the organization said in a statement on Wednesday.

“This gifted scientist and advocate — who blazed trails for women, animals, underserved communities, and the environment — will be sorely missed,” PETA said in its statement.

In her later years, Goodall often spoke of wanting to inspire young people and holding on to hope. She founded the Roots & Shoots organization to help empower youth around the world to make change, environmental or otherwise, in their communities.

“We’re all human beings,” Goodall said in her interview with WMAR-2 News in March. “We all laugh. We all cry. We all can love. Tragically, it seems we all can hate, but that’s the kind of thing that I hope, because of the Roots & Shoots spirit, that we can start changing.”