Core Faculty
Core faculty members of SUNY-ESF's Department of Environmental Studies include specialists in environmental policy, environmental communication and culture, science and environmental writing and literature, sustainable development, risk analysis, spatial modeling, and other fields.
Janine DeBaise
Instructor and Writing Project Coordinator
Ecofeminism; poetry; composition; contemporary nature literature; nature and popular culture
John Felleman
Professor
Environmental information policy; visualizing environmental processes; impact analysis
Myrna Hall
Research Associate and Director of the Center for Urban Environmental Science
Integrating simulation modeling and geographical information systems for studying the interaction of humans and their environment, natural resources management, sustainable development, graphic information visualization, and foreign language communication.
Dawnelle A. Jager
Instructor
Creative writing and communication
Patrick Lawler
Associate Professor and Director of the ESF Writing Program
Literature of nature; composition and technical writing; creative writing (poetry, fiction, plays, screenplays); Native issues; gender and ecofeminism; media and the environment; popular culture; environmental communication
Jack Manno
Associate Professor
Sustainability theory and practice, Great Lakes policy and institutions
Mark Meisner
Assistant Professor
Environmental communication; environmental thought and philosophy; mass media; global warming discourse; critical language theory and rhetoric; nature and popular culture; representations of nature
Sharon Moran
Assistant Professor
Environmental policy; human dimensions of water/wastewater issues; political ecology; environment-society relations; 'green' and innovative technologies; environmental issues in post-communist countries; qualitative research methods; gender and nature; sustainability indicators.
Brenda Nordenstam
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Studies Coordinator
Risk perception, communication, and assessment of environmental and public health hazards; contextual factors influencing public/expert differences in perception, valuation, and management of environmental risk; social survey design, analysis, and policy applications; environmental justice, equity, and policy; right-to-know information policy and behavioral decision-making theory; eco-tourism: environmental policy and community
Susan Senecah
Professor
Communication aspects of public participation in the formation of environmental public policy/decisions, especially the origins, dynamics, persuasive strategies, and tactics of environmental campaigns; legislative process; environmental public policy; conflict and alternative dispute resolution, consensus building processes; grassroots leadership; social construction of nature; ecotourism; the history, evolution, philosophies, organizations, and current of U.S. and global environmental movements
Richard Smardon
Professor
Wetland assessment and management; landscape management policy; public participation and decision-making; sustainable development, eco-tourism, biosphere reserve management
David A. Sonnenfeld
Professor and Chair
Environmental sociology; environment, development, and sustainability; sociology of science and technology; East and Southeast Asia; qualitative methods
Benette Whitmore
Instructor and Writing Resource Center Coordinator
Composition; technical writing; communication; children's literature; fiction writing
In addition to the core faculty listed above, the Department of Environmental Studies draws on the expertise of additional faculty to enrich its programs.