In more than our decades decades at UConn, I’ve served on, chaired, or co-chaired dozens of committees at the department, college, and university level.  I was elected to  several terms in the University Senate, helped build the Honors Program we now today, and conceived what is now ACES, the university-wide Academic Center for Exploratory Students.

Below are committees within the last five years.

Leadership

2023-2025.   Environmental Literacy.  Co-Chair, Common Curriculum Development and Implementation for Environmental Literary (TOI-4)

2019-2021.   Department of Geosciences.  Interim Head.   Having declined the departmental headship for a five-year term, I led the transition of 13 faculty from seven departments in three colleges into a unified department. I helped write departmental bylaws and procedures, and oversaw the first departmental budgets, hires, annual reports, merit evaluations, and course scheduling. Before that, all this was done in other departments. Officially my role was Interim Head. Administratively, my role was transitional head.   My leadership transitioned the Center for Integrative Geosciences under the leadership of Lisa Park Boush into a Department of Geosciences that hired Tracy Frank as an external department head.

Committee Member

2025-Present.  Faculty Review Board.  This six-person committee, consisting of Full Professors nominated from fourteen of UConn’s schools and colleges, advises the Provost on matters of Tenure, Promotion, and Retention. It’s effectively a final court of appeals for faculty because only the most challenging cases reach the top.  Though the decisions are very difficult and often split, our role is to be a voice for the faculty under consideration.

2024-Present.   Environmental Studies, Board Member, 1990s