Honors and Awards for teaching and outreach

2015–2019: Honored Instructor, selected by students 5 times click here

2018–2020: Faculty co-chair of the UW–Madison Teaching Academy (two terms 2013–2015 and 2018–2020)

2014–2015: Fulbright Award for Sabbatical Teaching / Research (Sweden)

2012: Fulbright Senior Specialist for teaching (Chile)

2010: Fulbright Senior Specialist for teaching (Ecuador)

2010–present: Teaching Academy Fellow for UW–Madison

2004–2018 Keynote speaker or panelist at 14 meetings

2017: Winner of the Clements Prize for Outstanding Research & Education

2018: Nominated for the Indianapolis Prize for Conservation

2010: Award for Best monitoring & evaluation methods, Rainforest Alliance Eco

Courses

Click on blue font titles to download a recent syllabus

NEW !!! Envirst 413:Preserving Nature

Course description: The goals of this course are to understand the theory and practice the skills of effective, scientific, ethical, and legitimate preservation of nature (biodiversity, the atmosphere, water, etc.). Successful students will learn from global lessons in how to intervene against threats to nature, and the roles of ethics, law, and research in preserving nature. Students will gain mastery of terminology and usage so as to communicate professionally about nature preservation. Expected Learning outcomes

• Demonstrate understanding of the environmental provisions in national constitutions and U.S. co-sovereign federal-state-tribal governance as these relate to environmental protection.

• Display mastery of the fundamentals of biodiversity and the atmosphere, and what human activities threaten extinction, climate change, and water quality.

• Summarize the ethical and legal roles - of the public, civil society activist organizations, legislatures, executive branches, the judiciary, and public scholars - in preserving and impairing nature.

• Communicate professionally about effective conservation practice and scientific integrity.

Envirst/Zoo/Bot 260: Introduction to Ecology

Course description and expectations: This course is aimed at first- and second-year students who are considering a natural science major and at older students majoring in other fields who want experience with an interdisciplinary course in the natural sciences. The primary goal of this course is to place ecological thought in an interdisciplinary framework that encompasses the ecology of humans as another unique species evolving and interacting within Earth's ecosystems. We focus on the biosphere (i.e., only superficial treatment of the ecology of water, energy, chemical cycling, inorganic substrates, etc.), and introduce major branches of ecology from community ecology and ecosystems to population ecology to behavioral ecology. In particular, we focus on global sustainability issues and conservation science. We use gray wolf recolonization of Wisconsin as a lens to examine conservation of ecosystems and endangered species worldwide. This course will provide students with a foundation in ecology. After completing this course students will be ready for more advanced work in ecology or ready to apply ecological principles to public policy debates as consumers, voters, and professionals. To integrate human behavior and ecology, and to fully understand ecosystem function and change, we will compare Wisconsin and U.S. ecosystems to ecosystems in several other countries using case studies and discussion sessions. This course has the following desired learning outcomes:

• Develop a conceptual framework for understanding ecosystem process and pattern with humans integral to it.

• Enhance your understanding of how humans interact with nonhuman ecosystem elements.

• Explore how ecological science can help resolve modern environmental problems.

• Integrate new ideas from international and interdisciplinary perspectives on the environment.

• Increase interest in environmental studies and ecology.