For the last few years I’ve been working to integrate sustainable practices in my daily life, and trying to find my place in the climate action advocacy movement as well. Reconciling my interests with the carbon intensive work in education abroad has made me eager to bring the two together in a way that benefits both our students and the planet! My interests lay very heavily in all things food! The food chain and shortening the route food needs to take to get to us, eating less meat which is a water and carbon intensive industry, and growing my own food, preserving, drying and all the homesteady things!

I’ve spent most of my life in smaller towns and cities where green space abounds.  There are many things that i love about urban life, like diversity in many forms, access to public transportation, and the spontaneity that easily spins off of city adventure.  But, I’m more at home and at peace where the green things are!  I love walking the quiet trails - that is where I find my best thoughts.  I enjoy cups of coffee in my yard with birds singing in the trees and with my dogs running around - that is where I feel the most grounded.  I love breathing the fresh cool air, and feeling the change of the seasons in the breeze - that is when I feel the most alive and happy to be in the moment.  As a father I feel responsible for  the future that is being left to my children.  As an Anthropologist and as a lover of history I am well aware of how much the world has changed in a very short amount of time.  I want people to be able to experience the joy of connecting with nature on our beautiful green planet, but in a few generations the earth will be very different if we do not change the way we act now.  

Loving and caring for the environment started in earnest when I was an environmental science major at Allegheny College. My dreams back then were to champion processes to sustainably grow food by integrating plants, insects, and microorganisms into a harmonious ecosystem - just ask me about aquaponics. I have always done little things to help the environment such as composting and using reusable grocery and produce bags. I am excited to be a part of this committee, whose goal is to enact environmental change at a larger scale.