In order to help Dr. John M. Clarke write his memoir on the areas of Gaspé and Nova Scotia, Goldring travelled there to collect Devonian fossils.[1][13] Over the first 10 years of her career, she quickly proved her skills, earning different promotions including first Assistant Paleontologist, the Associate Paleontologist, Paleobotanist, and Assistant State Paleontologist.[3] Goldring eventually became the fourth State Paleontologist of New York, and the first woman to hold that position.[4] In 1949 she was elected president of the Paleontological Society (the largest association of paleontologists in the world), the first woman to hold that office and one of only three women to attain that position to this day.[4] Because these were (and still are) male-dominated geological societies, large numbers of men would not have supported her candidacy, underscoring her prominence as a nationally-known geologist respected for the quality of her research, despite prevalent gender prejudices in academia.