RESIDENCY FACULTY
Even faculty share KP duty at Camp Huntington NOTE: All residency faculty have terminal degrees in their fields. All are mentors at Empire State College.
William J. Ehmann was drawn into environmental thinking through Ranger Rick magazine and family travels to all 50 states. He has a background in both geology (U. Notre Dame, Brown U., and the US Geological Survey) and ecology (Utah St.), with doctoral research on how natural communities are organized. While serving as a faculty member and administrator, he helped set up and refine several college environmental science and policy programs and led a non-profit organization focused on wilderness issues. He knows a few things about jumping spiders, a few more about birds, and quite a lot about terriers.
John Eisler joined Empire State College as an Associate Dean of the Northeast Center in September 2007. For the past decade, he has been a professor of Psychology at the University of North Florida where he taught courses and conducted research in the neurosciences, ecopsychology and environmental/peace studies and was engaged in sustainability and environmental education efforts in the Jacksonville community.
Marlene (Chris) Evans, a geographer with keen interests and background in environmental science and the Adirondacks, brings her longstanding study of Planet Earth and its dynamic processes to her work with Residency students. In addition to her travels to interesting cultural areas and ancient sites around the world, she studies Earth dynamics and natural events that threaten human habitats. Even though retired from full-time mentoring, she continues to work with students at-a-distance in a variety of topics in the geography and environmental disciplines.
Karen Garner joined Empire State College's Northeast Center as a history mentor in July 2005. Garner is the former director of the Women's Center at Florida International University in Miami (1998-2004), where she also taught courses in U.S. and Asian history and women's studies (1998-2005). In 2003, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Vilnius Gender Studies Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania, and published a book titled Precious Fire: Maud Russell and the Chinese Revolution. She also was an assistant professor of history at Alma College in Alma, Michigan (1995-1998). Garner's teaching and research interests lie in the history of the United States, particularly U.S. foreign relations, as well as modern China and Japan, international organizations and the global women's movement.
Elaine Handley is a poet and fiction writer whose writing is often informed by the natural world. She holds a doctorate, Master of Letters, and Master of Arts in American literature and teaching writing. She's a Thoreau enthusiast and an herbalist.
Drew Monthie has been gardening, growing plants and studying plants for over three decades. He is a graduate of SUNY Cobleskill with an A.A.S. in Plant Science/Horticulture and a graduate of SUNY Empire State College with a B.S. in Ecology/Environmental Education and a M.A. in Ethnobotany. He operates a consulting business in Queensbury, NY specializing in native plant design and education.
Wayne Ouderkirk has been interested and involved in outdoor, conservation and environmental issues his whole life. He has been a faculty member at Empire State College since 1985, specializing in environmental philosophy and ethics, an area he has researched, written, published, and made numerous presentations about at national and international conferences. One of the founding faculty of the Environmental/Adirondack Studies Residency, he is senior editor of Land, Value, Community: Callicott and Environmental Philosophy (SUNY Press, 2002) and co-editor of Nature, Value, Duty: Life on Earth with Holmes Rolston, III(Springer, 2007). He’s also an avid hiker who has climbed the Adirondack 46 High Peaks (summer and winter) and the Northeast 111. He’s also been spotted at contra, Cajun and Zydeco dances.
Chris Rounds has been visiting the Adirondacks to camp, canoe, hike and kayak, for 40 years, and he's been with Empire State College for more than half of that time. Rounds is an historian by training and a mentor through experience. His home base is in the Binghamton area.
Duncan RyanMann is an economist by training. He has worked in the health care sector, higher education and as a consultant. His research interests are in the areas of industrial organization and public policy.
Nikki Shrimpton has been studying and/or teaching ecology and forestry, since 1980. She has worked in temperate ecosystems in both the U.S. and U.K., and is currently pursuing her interests in agroforestry and edible forest gardening.
Alan Stankiewicz has a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute and an M.A. from Central Connecticut State University. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. He currently owns a small textile design company and is a part-time mentor with Empire State College.
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