Sometime in 2008 an unprecedented global demographic transition occurred, the majority of us now live in cites. This fundamental change in where we live will undoubtedly change who we are and how we come to understand natural systems.
About
For over forty years I have explored the connection between people and landscape through both land management and academic research. Serving as Chief of Interpretive Services, Administrator and Assistant Director of the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry offered practical experience in an array of land management issues. After teaching courses in biology, evolution and environmental science for ten years at Upsala College, I joined the faculty at Rutgers The State University part time in 1994 and full time in 2012.
As past president of New Jersey’s Alliance for Environmental Education, past chair of the New Jersey Governor’s Commission on Environmental Education, and past co-chair of the American Forest Foundation Board of Trustee’s Project Learning Tree Operating Committee, I have developed a deep commitment to the tenants of the Belgrade Charter. Developed in 1972 by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization Committee, the charter states the goal of environmental education “is to develop a world population that is aware of and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations, and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones”. If this goal is to be achieved, it will happen by investing in one student at a time.