I spent 25 years as a professor teaching Fisheries and Wildlife, Sociology, and Sustainability Science at Michigan State University, Warren Wilson College, and Furman University (USA) with a focus on applied and community engaged learning. The Furman University Sustainability Science B.S. program is based on the Sustainability Doughnut framework. From 2021-2024, I participated in the $5M Carolinas Collaborative on Climate Health and Equity led by North Carolina State University and funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Adaptation Partnership program. My focus is on equitable climate resilience and adaptation having worked with African-American communities in Greenville, South Carolina and Bucksport, South Carolina. I also served on the inaugural Statewide Resilience Plan Advisory Committee for the South Carolina Office of Resilience and the Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the American Society of Adaptation Professionals. I launched Equitable Community Resilience LLC in 2024. I serve on the Board of the Connecticut River Conservancy. I am a member of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and the Environmental Business Council of New England. I have earned an Advanced Systems Thinking Facilitation Certificate from the Waters Center for Systems Thinking
In April 2025, my wife and I established Sense of Purpose Properties LLC to provide a home for our vision for an integrated, sustainable, social, civic and economic enterprise. We center the enterprise on the Mermaid Collective LLC. We chose to situate our vision in the historic 1880 building known as the Hotel Pharmacy building at 20 Elliot St, Brattleboro, Vermont. Our plans begin with the main floor Mermaid Collective doughnut social enterprise and follow with development of workforce housing on the remaining two floors. The Mermaid Collective empowers women by providing a supportive community in an inclusive and welcoming professional kitchen and retail shop. The Collective is a tool to personal and economic development, providing a safe environment to learn the art of baking as well as retail skills. The Mermaid Collective exists to nourish community and connection through handcrafted doughnuts and bold, women-centric energy. More than a bakery, we’re creating a space where stories are shared, dreams are supported, and magic happens one gathering and doughnut at a time. We strive to practice and illustrate principles of sustainability (social, environmental, economic) throughout the entire process from deconstruction, design, renovation and operation. Those principles emanate from the Doughnut Economics Action Lab developed by Kate Raworth whose framework seeks A Safe and Just Space for Humanity Through a Distributive and Regenerative Economy by meeting Social Foundations while not exceeding Ecological Ceiling at the Global and Local scales. In order to accomplish such outcomes we will deploy the key sustainability competencies of systems thinking, futures thinking, strategic thinking, values thinking and collaboration.
