CV
Tom Wessels
Professor of Ecology
Antioch New England Graduate School
40 Avon Street
Keene, NH 03431
603-357-3122 ext. 277
e-mail: twessels@antiochne.edu
GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS
As a terrestrial ecologist interested in alpine, desert, and forest ecosystems, I see myself as a generalist with a strong avocation for teaching and writing. I have over 30 years of teaching experience, from secondary to graduate level. My highly successful book, Reading the Forested Landscape, strongly incorporates my constructivist educational philosophy.
EMPLOYMENT
7/00
Chair of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. This family foundation fosters environmental leadership through graduate fellowships and leadership grants that link Switzer Fellows with environmental not-for-profits following graduation. The foundation grants approximately $1,000,000 annually.
10/95
Ecological Consultant, The Rain Forest Alliance's Smart Wood Program, Northeast United States. I helped develop "green certification" assessment guidelines for timber operations in the Northeast and most recently served on a four member team to assess the forest operations of the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission at the Quabbin Resevoir. My primary role is to help educate foresters about management activities that enhance diversity at the landscape level.
9/92
Professor of Ecology, Antioch New England Graduate School. I currently teach and advise in the Department of Environmental Studies and previously served as chair of the Department overseeing five Masters degree programs serving 175 students. I founded the Conservation Biology program shortly after taking a full-time position at Antioch. This program trains field ecologists with strong organizational skills to conduct research for not-for- profit, environmental organizations. The program accepts 18 students a year, six of whom I serve as thesis advisor.
9/82 - 6/92
Chairman of the Science Department, The Putney School, Putney, VT. My two most important contributions to Putney were the development of the country's first year-long molecular genetics course, that incorporated recombinant genetic technology at the secondary level, and I also developed the junior year Core Curriculum in Environmental Studies that integrated American History, American Literature, Landscape Painting, and Ecology. The main focus of the core curriculum examined historical changes in New England's landscape and the relationship of humans to those changes.
7/82-8/82
Expedition Co-leader in Iceland, The School for Field Studies. I worked with Haraldur Sigurdson to organize a five week research expedition on the Torphajokull region's magma chamber. My role involved teaching
undergraduates majoring in geology how to correlate arctic plant community composition to substrate composition.
6/78 - 8/92
Adjunct Professor, Antioch New England Graduate School, Keene, NH. I started teaching during the Environmental Studies Department's sixth year and had the opportunity to develop a number of the department's science and natural history courses. One of these courses, Plant Communities, is the foundation for my well-received book, Reading the Forested Landscape.
9/76 - 1/79
Assistant Professor of Biology, Windham College, Putney, VT. I was hired just after the college had a financial crisis. For two and a half years, until Windham's closing, I ran a biology program that had 40 majors and developed a field study trip program.
EDUCATION
1976
MA in Ecology, University of Colorado
1973
BS in Wildlife Biology, University of New Hampshire
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
9/93
Bonding with Nature: the Critical Years, Whole Terrain
4/97
Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England,
The Countryman Press, Woodstock, VT
12/97
A Landscape-level Library for the New England Naturalist, Stonecrop
11/99
Into the Field. Third volume of the Orion Society's Nature Literacy Series
5/01
The Granite Landscape: A Natural History of America's Mountain Domes from Acadia to Yosemite, The Countryman Press, Woodstock, VT
1/02
Mast, Whole Terrain
5/02
The Venerable Black Gum, Sanctuary
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
3/91
The Greening of Independent Schools: Integrated Environmental Curricula, National Association of Independent Schools, New York, NY
11/92
Reading the Landscape, Problem Solving Science for Middle and Secondary Schools, The Rhode Island Teachers JASON PROJECT, Narranganset, RI
6/94
Shaping an Education of Place, The Orion Society's Stories of the American Land, Summer Colloquium, Goshen, VT
6/94
Mt. Welch's Alpine Recovery Project, The Northeast Alpine Managers Conference, Warren, NH
10/94
Biodiversity, Ecosystem Fragmentation, Introduced Exotics: Field Studies For Secondary Students, New England Association for Environmental Education,
West Greenwich, RI
6/95
Ecoindicators and Forest Lands Management, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Newbury, NH
9/95
Time Frames, Magnitudes, Perceptions: How to Conceptualize Global
Environmental Change, North American Association for Environmental
Education, Portland, ME
5/98
Cultural Transformation and the Experience of Life, Commencement address,
Antioch New England Graduate School, Keene, NH
5/99
The Nature of Change in Complex Systems, Keynote address, The Adirondack Research Consortium, Saranac Lake, NY
7/99
New England's Ever Changing Landscape, The Amos Fortune Forum, Jaffrey, NH
8/99
Orion Society's Sense of Place Teacher-training Institute, Lone Pine, CA
11/99
Nieman Speaker, The Mountain School, Vershire, VT
2/00
Diagnostics for Ecosystem Health, Keynote address, Ecological Landscaping Association Annual Meeting, Boxboro, MA
3/00
Reading the Forested Landscape, Keynote address, The Convocation of Connecticut Land Trusts, Berlin, CT
6/00
Nature, Culture, and Change, Commencement address, The Conway School of Landscape Design, Conway, MA
7/00
Guest Speaker, The Unitarian Universalist Family Conference, Star Island, NH
7/01
Forest Forensics, Keynote address, The Cullowee Native Plant Conference,
Cullowee, NC
3/02
Reading the Forested Landscape, Keynote Adress, The Lahr Symposium, The National Arboreatum, Washington, DC
8/02
Stories in the Land: Orion Society Institute, Sheffield, MA
6/03
Reading the Forested Landscape, keynote address, The Millersville Native Plant Conference, Millersville, PA
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2002
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