Audubon Center: TogetherGreen Event
12/05/2009
Sustainability Teaching Circle
12/09/2009
Florida Solar Energy Center Tour
12/10/2009
Florida Solar Energy Center Tour
1/14/2010
Peter Pritchard - Director, Chelonian Research Institute
1/14/2010
Events Calendar »
Alaina Bernard is the Assistant Director for the UCF Environmental Initiative & Arboretum. She pursued a Graduate Degree in Biology at UCF with her thesis focusing on metapopulation connectivity and the importance of corridor networks in ecological systems. As a grad student, she was tasked with creating a prescribed fire program for the campus, and after completing both the degree and the fire program, was offered a full time position as the Land Manager. Currently, she focuses on an array of endeavors including reducing campus emissions through alternative land-use, green roofs, sustainable land management, partnerships, student involvement, and community service. Ms. Bernard is committed to showcasing the intellectual creative of the UCF community. This commitment led to the creation of Student and Faculty Sustainability Alliances. Each Alliance is dedicated to exploring the environmental, economic and social benefits of the many sustainable and green initiatives at UCF. Through her efforts and the efforts of the Alliances, the UCF Environmental Initiative and Arboretum is able to support service-learning activities, volunteer opportunities, on campus research, and creative learning opportunities outside of classes. profile-ms-alaina-bernard
Shari Hodgson, Ph.D., ABD has been a faculty member at the University Of Central Florida Nicholson School Of Communication for seventeen years. Due to her dedication to the development of innovative teaching methods, she was the UCF 2004-2005 recipient of the “Teaching Incentive Program, TIP” award , and the 2007 Florida Communication Association’s “Outstanding Teacher” award.
Ms. Hodgson’s curriculum development and teaching schedule include “Fundamentals of Oral Communication, Organizational Communication, and Business and Professional Communication” for both traditional and Honors students. For seven years, Ms. Hodgson designed and taught the learning community speech and English cross-curriculum courses. She conducted and presented research on “LINC” students compared to traditional students’ on two variables: quality of learning and reduction of communication anxiety finding significant differences between LINC and traditional student outcomes.
When off campus, Ms. Hodgson is the Owner/Director of Shari Hodgson, Inc. Ms. Hodgson has been an international consultant for the past twenty years. She provides training for organizations, attorneys, professionals, and individuals in a myriad of communication forums. In addition, Ms. Hodgson travels nationwide conducting a weekend seminar to help Federal Bureau of Prison inmate learn to become productive individuals, family, and community members.
In an effort to support the “Unifying Theme” program, Ms. Hodgson’s “Fundamentals of Oral Communication” classes are tackling important environmental topics. Students are researching, designing, and then presenting informative and persuasive speeches on a myriad of environmental issues. Students are compiling extensive lists of reference resources to post on the General Education Program web site, recording presentations and student commentaries on their heightened awareness of environmental challenges, and the new responsibility they feel for becoming better citizens and stewards of our world. The DVD recoding will be a faculty and students resource tool to inspire other program disciplines to get on board with these crucial conversations stimulated by the “Unifying Theme” program.
Ms. Hodgson grew up in Winter Park. She serves on numerous boards such as Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival, WP Leadership Council, Church council, and received the 2003 Chamber of Commerce “Volunteer of the Year” award. Shari’s favorite pastime is playing with her family especially her grandchildren, Shane and Hannah! profile-dr-shari-hodgson
Every week we highlight a UCF professor or student whose work and/or research focuses on environmental issues. For our fourth week, we take a look at Dr. Rita Graham, Professor in the Nicholson School of Communication and Coordinator of the UCF Speech Program. This time we've changed the format a bit and asked Dr. Graham about her favorite conservation strategy. "Here at UCF I bring the environment, especially conservation, energy, and population issues, into my Fundamentals of Technical Presentations classes at every opportunity. I think it is the most important issue of our day…"Educational Background BA in English and MA in Mass Communication from Florida State University and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from University of Florida. Favorite conservation strategy More trees & fewer buildings. I am good at adding trees. I have not yet been very successful in subtracting buildings! My main connection to environmental issues is my own commitment to restoring a native eco-system on my 2 acre homesite in southwest Orlando. This ensures that I get plenty of exercise and also that I get to share life in the country with lots of squirrels, possum, rabbits, hawks, owls, snakes, and butterflies. Here at UCF I bring the environment, especially conservation, energy, and population issues, into my Fundamentals of Technical Presentations classes at every opportunity. I think it is the most important issue of our day and one on which students need to be able to speak, write, and think intelligently. profile-rita-graham
Every week we highlight a UCF professor or student whose work and/or research focuses on environmental issues. For our third week, we take a look at Dr. Linda Walters, Associate Professor of Biology and Director of the Fellers House Field Station, a research facility located within the boundaries of Canaveral National Seashore.
Dr. Walters received her B.S. degree from
Dr. Walters is one of the core instructors for Biology 2010 (Freshmen Biology or Biology 1 for Majors). She also teaches Marine Biology (upper division elective), Marine Conservation Biology (graduate level class) and Tropical Marine Biology (a SCUBA-based, 1-week, intensive summer class based at the Roatan Institute of Science in
The focus of Dr. Walters’ research is human impacts on the marine environment. She, her students and colleagues have and continue to tackle a range of topics that are important to Floridians and the global community. Some of her current projects include: (1) impact of recreational boating on intertidal oyster reefs and restoration using community volunteers, (2) coral-algal-herbivore interactions on coral reefs in areas with algal blooms, (3) ballast water disinfectants, (4) the ecology and dispersal of invasive species, especially in areas with significant land use change, (5) science-based outreach on invasive species to the aquarium industry (retailers and hobbyists), (6) the impact of boat propeller scarring on seagrass beds, and (7) managing and restoring mangroves.
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Every week we highlight a UCF professor or student whose work and/or research focuses on environmental issues. For our second week, we take a look at Dr. John F. Weishampel, Professor of Biology.
John F. Weishampel is Director of the Geospatial Analysis and Modeling of Ecological Systems (GAMES) Lab and Professor in the Department of Biology.
He was educated at Duke University (B.S. in Biology) and the University of Virginia (M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Science with an Ecology emphasis). He served as a National Research Council Research Associate at the Biospheric Sciences Branch at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, a Charles Bullard Fellow at Harvard Forest, and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Remote Sensing at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
Weishampel’s teaching schedule has included undergraduate biology majors, non-majors, and graduate courses in general ecology, biology and the environment, environmental physiology, environmental studies, landscape ecology, ecological modeling, and plant geography.
His primary research interest is in the field of landscape ecology, i.e., how landscape patterns influence ecological processes. Using simulation models coupled with field observations, he explores how the interplay between abiotic conditions (e.g., habitat structure, natural and anthropogenic disturbance regimes) and biotic processes (e.g., competition, dispersal, growth, succession) governs the ecology of organisms at landscape scales. One emphasis of his research is to use models, interfaced with remote sensing (from satellite and airborne instruments) and geographic information systems (GIS), to explore the spatial properties of ecosystems to better understand compositional, structural, and functional biodiversity in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments.
Every week we highlight a UCF professor or student whose work and/or research focuses on environmental issues. For our inaugural week, we take a look at Dr. Martin Quigley, Associate Professor of Biology and Director of the UCF Arboretum.
Martin F. Quigley is Director of the University of Central Florida Arboretum and Associate Professor in the Department of Biology. Currently, he is also the Interim Chair of Biology. He was educated at Deep Springs College, Cornell University (BA, English and Comparative Literature), Utah State University (Master of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning), Harvard University (Graduate School of Design) and Louisiana State University (Ph.D., Plant Ecology).
Quigley’s teaching has included Restoration Ecology, Landscape Graphics and Design, Plant Selection, Basic Biology, Environmental Biology, Ecological Field Methods, and Ethnobotany. He also initiated a field course in Tropical Conservation Biology, under the auspices of the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica.
Quigley is also a licensed landscape architect and an environmental and planning consultant. He has worked on historic landscape renovations, rails-to-trails conversions, vegetation surveys and other environmental analyses, and botanic garden enhancements. His current research focus is stewardship and restoration of fragmented second-growth forests, green roof plantings with native species, the creation of vegetated swales for filtration of urban runoff, and concomitant suppression of woody exotic invasives. His goal for central Florida is to spread a greater awareness of the unique habitats that exist here, their fragility and resilience-and how humans, in our alterations of the landscape, must work with the ecosystem rather than attempt to replace it with an unsustainable image. profile-dr-martin-quigley
