Key Personnel
Dr. Susan Allen-Gil is an associate professor of biology and coordinator of the environmental studies program at Ithaca College. She received a B.Sc. in Biology and Environmental Studies from St. Lawrence University, a Masters in Environmental Management from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in Toxicology from Oregon State University. As a doctoral student, she was a National Academy of Sciences Young Investigator, and when she finished her degree, she was a NSF Post-Doctoral Fellow with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. While her scientific research focuses on contaminants in fish in arctic environments, she is heavily involved in sustainability education. Dr. Allen-Gil was the PI of a National Science Foundation grant (Applying Science to Sustainability) that launched much of the subsequent related sustainability activities at Ithaca College. She now manages the Partnerships for Sustainability Education, the outgrowth of the NSF project, which fosters sustainability thinking and practice at IC, EVI and in the surrounding region. Most recently, Dr. Allen-Gil received funding from the NATO Science for Peace Program to host an international Advanced Research Workshop on Rethinking Higher Education to Meet the New Challenges of Environmental Security held in May 2008 in Ukraine. For her work in sustainability, Dr. Allen-Gil has received for School of Humanities and Sciences Dean Merit Awards twice, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Best Practices Award, as well as being nominated for a TIAA-CREF Hesbrough Award and for CASE US Professor of the Year.
Dr. Jason Hamilton is an associate professor of biology and on the steering committee for the environmental studies program. He received a B.A. in Chemistry from Grinnell College, an M.A. and Ph.D. in Computational Quantum Mechanics from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a second M.A. and Ph.D. in Plant Ecology also from U.C. Santa Barbara. Before joining the faculty at Ithaca College in 2001, Dr. Hamilton was a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he specialized in ecophysiology and global change biology. Dr. Hamilton teaches ecology, ecophysiology, and environmental awareness at Ithaca College, and gives public lectures on the environmental predicament, global change and sustainability throughout the United States. He is the chair of Ithaca College Natural Lands, a group that oversees the use and stewardship of the college's natural areas, for which they were awarded the R.B. Fischer Environmental Conservation Award by the Town of Ithaca in 2008. Dr. Hamilton is part of a local partnership that recently submitted a proposal to found a charter sustainability-based high school. If accepted, the school will open in 2009 with 50 ninth-grade and 50 tenth-grade students.
Dr. Susan Swensen is an associate professor of biology and chair of the biology department. She graduated from Grinnell College in 1985 with a B.A. in Biology. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in the fields of Botany and Plant Physiology & Genetics. After post-doctoral positions at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Indiana University, she began teaching at Ithaca College in 1996 in the Department of Biology and was granted tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor in 2002. Dr. Swensen specializes in evolutionary biology, with a focus on plant evolution and the evolution of plant-bacterial and plant-insect associations and has recently co-authored a paper that appeared in Science magazine (May 16, 2008). She teaches an introductory biology course for majors and courses in evolution and plant biology. She is an active member of the Environmental Studies Program, serving as a member of the steering committee. Dr. Swensen is actively engaged in Ithaca College’s commitment to sustainability and received a Dean’s Award for her work in developing a building-based sustainability group. She is a member of Ithaca College’s President’s Climate Commitment Committee and co-coordinates Ithaca College’s pilot Finger Lakes Project. She has overseen several student research projects in the area of sustainability science and has presented with her students at national meetings including AASHE and Greening of the Campus.
Additional Ithaca College faculty and staff
- Marian Brown (sustainability specialist, Office of the Provost)
- Mark Darling (recycling coordinator)
- Akiko Fillinger (chemistry)
- Rob Gearhart (online learning program director)
- Nancy Jacobson (biology)
- Astrid Jirka (international programs)
- Susanne Morgan (faculty development)
- Michael Rogers (physics)
- Michael Smith (history)
- Tom Shevory (politics)
- Warren Schlesinger (business)
- and the members of the President’s Climate Commitment Committee, including Vice President Carl Sgrecci