Staff / Contact
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Baylor Johnson - Director/ Faculty 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. |
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Marianne Dawson - Assistant Director/Instructor Course: Cultivating Place: Bioregionalism and Community Engagement Marianne joins the Adirondack Semester with an incredible amount of enthusiasm for the learning opportunities that such a program provides for the students. She received her B.A. in Geography and a HB in Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism from Lakehead University. After a few years in the field, Marianne's passion for teaching brought her back to Lakehead University to complete an education degree. Marianne brings a wealth of field and teaching experience having spent the last eight years working for Outward Bound Canada, Hurricane Island Outward Bound, and the National Outdoor Leadership School. This work has found her running programs in some of the most inspiring landscapes, from the Rio Grande in Texas, the Bonnet Plume in the Yukon, rafting the Ganges and hiking in the Himalayas, India. When she's not working for the Adirondack Semester, Marianne can be found in Driggs, ID doing contract work for NOLS and developing her winter backcountry skills. |
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Steve Alexander - Assistant Director/Instructor Course: Cultivating Place: Bioregionalism and Community Engagement Steve joins the semester as an alumni of both St. Lawrence University where he received a BS in Geology and of the Adirondack Semester, where he was a member of the inaugural program. Steve recently completed his M.S. at Montana State University where he worked with Adirondack Semester students to examine the potential of experiential capstones to bridge the gap between theory and practice. He comes to the semester with a wealth of energy, exciting new ideas, and can be found the other half of the year working as a freelance educator for organizations such as the National Outdoor Leadership School, the Teton Science Schools, and the Wild Rockies Field Institute. |
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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. |
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Mary Hussmann - Faculty
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. |
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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. |
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