SEARCH:

Faculty & Staff

With core strengths across the social sciences and in the humanities, Departmental faculty members support graduate and undergraduate programs in Environmental Studies, and ESF's Writing Program. We participate, as well, in a variety of college-wide programs, including the Graduate Program in Environmental Science, the Environmental and Natural Resource Policy doctoral program, the Minor in Urban Environmental Science, and the ESF in the High School program.

Core Faculty

Janine DeBaise Instructor	M.A. English/ Literature, Syracuse University, 1985	ESF Writing Program; Environmental Studies	Ecofeminism; poetry; composition; contemporary nature literature; nature and popular culture	105C Moon Library, 315.470.4776, jdebaise@esf.edu
Myrna Hall Research Associate and Director, Center for the Urban Environment	M.S., Natural Resources Management, SUNY-ESF, 1995	Environmental Studies; Graduate Program in Environmental Science; Minor in Urban Environmental Science	Integrating simulation modeling and geographical information systems for studying interaction between humans and their environments; natural resources management; sustainable development; graphic information visualization; foreign language communication	112 Marshall Hall, 315.470.4741, mhhall@esf.edu
Dawnelle A. Jager Instructor	M.S., English Education, Syracuse University, 1989	ESF Writing Program; Environmental Studies (undergraduate)	Creative writing and communication; service learning; food and the environment	105D Moon Library, 315.470.6756, dajager@esf.edu
Patrick Lawler Associate Professor	M.A., Creative Writing, Syracuse University, 1981	Environmental Studies; ESF Writing Program; ESF in the High School	Literature of nature; creative writing (poetry, fiction, plays, screenplays); composition and technical writing; Native issues; gender and ecofeminism; media and the environment; popular culture; environmental communication	107 Marshall Hall, 315.470.6914, pjlawler@esf.edu
Jack Manno Associate Professor and Coordinator of Graduate Studies	Ph.D., Social Science, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 2003	Environmental Studies; Environmental and Natural Resources Policy; Graduate Program in Environmental Science	Sustainability theory and practice; Great Lakes policy and institutions; science and policy decision making	211A Marshall Hall, 315.470.6816, jpmanno@esf.edu
Mark Meisner Assistant Professor	Ph.D., Environmental Studies (Environmental Communication), York University, 2003	Environmental Studies; Graduate Program in Environmental Science	Environmental communication; environmental thought and philosophy; mass media; global warming discourse; critical language theory and rhetoric; nature and popular culture; representations of nature	108B Marshall Hall, 315.470.6908, mmeisner@esf.edu
Sharon Moran Assistant Professor	Ph.D., Geography, Clark University, 2000	Environmental Studies; Environmental and Natural Resources Policy; Graduate Program in Environmental Science	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	113 Marshall Hall, 315.470.6690, smoran@esf.edu
Brenda Nordenstam Associate Professor	Ph.D., Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, 1994	Environmental Studies; Environmental and Natural Resources Policy; Graduate Program in Environmental Science	Risk perception, communication, and assessment of environmental and public health hazards; 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	On leave
Susan Senecah Professor	Ph.D., Communication Studies, University of Minnesota, 1992	Environmental Studies; Environmental and Natural Resources Policy; Graduate Program in Environmental Science	Public participation; environmental campaigns; legislative process; environmental public policy; conflict and alternative dispute resolution; consensus building processes; grassroots leadership; social construction of nature; ecotourism; U.S. and global environmental movements	109 Marshall Hall, 315.470.6570, ssenecah@esf.edu
Richard C. Smardon Professor and Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies	Ph.D., Environmental Planning, University of California at Berkeley, 1982	Environmental Studies; Environmental and Natural Resources Policy; Graduate Program in Environmental Science; Minor in Urban Environmental Science	Wetland assessment and management; landscape management policy; public participation and decision-making; sustainable development; eco-tourism; biosphere reserve management	211B Marshall Hall, 315.470.6576, rsmardon@esf.edu
David A. Sonnenfeld Professor and Chair	Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1996	Environmental Studies; Environmental and Natural Resources Policy; Graduate Program in Environmental Science	Environmental sociology; environment, development, and sustainability; sociology of science and technology; East and Southeast Asia; qualitative methods	106 Marshall Hall, 315.470.6636, dsonn@esf.edu
Benette Whitmore Instructor and Director, ESF Writing Program	M.A., Communications, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, 1980	ESF Writing Program; Environmental Studies; ESF in the High School	Composition; technical writing; communication; children's literature; fiction writing; environmental education	105A Moon Library, 315.470.6722, bwhitmore@esf.edu

Professor Emeritus

John Felleman
Environmental information policy; visualizing environmental processes; environmental decision making.

[top]

Visiting Scholar

Zhang Pijing
Associate Professor, Dept. of Economics, Qingdao University, China
Environmental Kuznets Curve, environmental policy, material flows, economic development

[top]

Participating Faculty

Biological Science Applications Option

James Gibbs
Professor, Dept. of Environmental and Forest Biology
Conservation biology, ecological monitoring, population genetics, applied demography, undergraduate conservation education.

Charles Hall*
Professor, Dept. of Environmental and Forest Biology
Systems ecology; synthetic studies of populations and ecosystems, including studies of fish migrations, estuaries, tropical land use change and energetics of both natural and human-dominated ecosystems. Emphasis on measuring and modeling human-dominated ecosystems and geographic modeling as well as biophysical economics.

Karin Limburg
Associate Professor, Dept. of Environmental and Forest Biology
Fisheries ecology, ecosystem ecology, watershed ecology, fish migration, biogeochemical tracers, modeling, ecological economics.

Tsutomu Nakatsugawa
Professor, Dept. of Environmental and Forest Biology
Toxicology; role of liver in chemical defense; chemical ecology and health impacts of nature's chemical warfare; health effects of pesticides and other pollutants.

William Shields
Professor, Dept. of Environmental and Forest Biology
Animal behavior; evolution and genetics; evolution of animal communication and dispersal systems; effects of genetic constraints on the evolution of social behavior; sociobiology and behavioral ecology, the use of DNA in identity testing and conservation biology, the interface between science and the law.

* Coordinator, Biological Science Applications Option, BS Environmental Studies program

Environmental Studies Graduate Program

Colin M. Beier
Research Ecologist, Dept. of Forest and Natural Resource Management (Adirondack Ecological Center)
Forest ecology and management, climate change, ecological economics, public policy

[top]