Baylor Johnson - Director/ Faculty
315 229-5015

Course: Philosophy of the Environment

Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of Outdoor Studies and the Adirondack Semester. In philosophy his principle interests have been in environmental philosophy, and free will and responsibility. He is also a lifelong mountaineer, rock climber, backpacker, skier, and general outdoor enthusiast. He has backpacked and climbed in the eastern U.S. as well as the Rockies, Sierras, Cascades, Swiss and French Alps, and the Himalayas. He was a principle founder of the St. Lawrence University Outdoor Studies Program, including the Outdoor Program and the Adirondack Semester. Among his publications are: The Spiritual Benefits of Wilderness, Ethics in a Tragedy of the Commons, and The Case for the Global Commons, with Faye Duchin.

Rachel Landis - Assistant Director/Instructor

Course: Cultivating Place: Bioregionalism and Community Engagement

Rachel Landis is an alumnus of St. Lawrence University, where she received her B.S. in Biology and Environmental Studies in 2003. Rachel first encountered the Adirondack Semester as a student in 2002 and was so deeply inspired by the program's premise and student outcomes that she returned as the Assistant Director in 2004 and 2005. Rachel's passion for education and belief in community, sense of place, and intentional living have brought her back for another opportunity to participate in, what she believes to be, one of the most unique, rewarding opportunities in higher education. When not working for the Adirondack Semester, Rachel spends her time in the Rocky Mountains as a freelance educator for various institutions including Colorado Mountain College, NOLS, and Deer Hill Expeditions, making sure to leave plenty of time for schussing in the snow.

Calvin Croll - Assistant Director/Instructor

Course: Cultivating Place: Bioregionalism and Community Engagement

Calvin joins the semester after spending the past four years teaching for Outward Bound in the Boundary Waters Wilderness of northern Minnesota. While there he instructed canoeing, backpacking, and dog sledding programs year round. He received his B.S. in Natural Resources Management from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. His studies focused mainly on forest ecology and human impacts on watersheds. As a student he instructed various classes for Cornell Outdoor Education. The Adirondacks were the place Calvin first went backpacking as a teenager, and he escaped to the park whenever he could during college. He is excited about returning to New York and the learning opportunities that this semester program offers.

Glenn Harris - Faculty

Course: Land Use Change in the Adirondacks

Glenn received his undergraduate degree in geology from Wesleyan University, a master's degree in environmental science from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, and a PhD from the College of Human Development at The Pennsylvania State University. He teaches courses on the health effects of pollution, land-use planning, and the foundations of environmental thought. His research specialties are environmental history and policy, and he enjoys integrating the theoretical with the applied. An avid hiker, he loves to teach outdoors. One of his courses is based entirely on fieldtrips and was highlighted in The Chronicle of Higher Education, a major publication about trends in college education. A member of numerous professional and community organizations, including the Adirondack Research Consortium and the Town of Lisbon Planning Board, he has keen interest in the Adirondack Park and the St Lawrence River Valley.

Mary Hussmann - Faculty

Course: Creative Expressions in Nature

Writer and teacher Mary Hussmann, associate professor of English, received her MFA from the University of Iowa and specializes in creative nonfiction and nature and environmental writing. She teaches courses in creative nonfiction, nature and environmental writing, poetry writing, and environmental autobiography, as well as teaching off campus in the Adirondack semester program and being the faculty advisor for the Stump, a student-run alternative magazine.
She has co-edited a book called Transgressions: The Iowa Review Anthology of Innovative Fiction, and has published essays, poetry, book reviews and interviews in anthologies and journals including Southern Cultures, American Nature Writing 2001, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, Brevity and 5Trope, among others.

Dr. Wil Rivers-Faculty

Course: Ecology and Natural History of the Adirondacks

Wil is a faculty member of the Outdoor Studies Department at St. Lawrence University. He has taught at St. Lawrence for seven years and currently teaches courses in biology, geology, outdoor studies, and the first-year program. Wil grew up in Indiana and went to college in Iowa and graduate school in Tennessee. He received a master's degrees in ecology and geology and a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology. Wil's continuing interest and research is in how plant communities change over time, from days, weeks, and years to centuries and millennia. This interest has taken him to the coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest, the rain forest of Puerto Rico, and the northern forests of Michigan and New York. Wil currently has a student studying the 5,000+ year history of Massawepie Mire, one of the nation's largest sphagnum bogs, just a short hike from where the Adirondack Semester is based.