Destination Conservation

Combining passion for the natural world with community-based conservation to contribute to positive economic, social, cultural, and environmental change. In 2008, my wife and I sold our home and moved to Costa Rica with our two sons to live at a rustic and remote biological station where we worked with endangered marine turtles, reptiles, amphibians and the local community to achieve the conservation objectives of the research station. While living in Costa Rica, I collaborated with Fleming College faculty in the Ecosystem Management Program to develop a unique intestinal field placement in Costa Rica. I now work full-time as a professor at Fleming College’s School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences where I was awarded the Vice-President Academic’s Contract Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2011 and the Brian L. Desbians Community Service Award in 2014. In 2021, I was awarded the Francis R. Cook Mentorship Award by the Canadian Herpetological Society in recognition of a significant contribution to the encourgement and supoport of the next gneraation of herpetologists in Canada. Being sensitive to student needs and abilities while challenging them to take measured risks and expand their comfort zone are key elements of my style and approach to teaching. My philosophy in education is to present challenges that will increase adaptability, creativity, and ingenuity to improve resilience and success in a rapidly changing workplace.