Faculty and Staff
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Director Michelle D. Land |
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Senior Fellow for Environmental Affairs |
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Program Coordinator Donna Kowal |
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Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding Andrew C. Revkin |
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Research Associate Caroline Craig |
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Consulting Faculty for Academic Affairs Melissa Grigione |
Director
Michelle D. Land
mland [at] pace.edu
914-773-3092
Michelle Land, J.D., B.Sc., is a rare environmental leader in the world of higher education. With expertise that spans environmental law and policy, wildlife biology, interdisciplinary education, and campus sustainability, she is a unique national voice for the emerging role of colleges and universities in environmental affairs.
Land received her Juris Doctor from Pace University School of Law, where she earned a certificate in environmental law and served as editor-in-chief of the Pace Environmental Law Review. She lectures regionally and nationally on environmental policy and ecosystem-based higher education. Professor Land teaches in the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences’ graduate environmental science and undergraduate environmental studies programs at Pace. She is also a lecturer of graduate environmental policy at New York University.
Land is known nationally for her leadership of the Environmental Consortium of Colleges & Universities. Following her appointment as its first director in 2004, she built the still-growing Consortium into a coalition that now numbers nearly 60 institutions, ranging from two-year colleges to research universities. She continues to guide the Consortium in a comprehensive program that ranges from watershed protection to campus greening to faculty training.
Land helped launch the former Pace Academy for the Environment, which has merged into the new Academy, following her graduation from Pace Law School in 2002. As its first program coordinator, she helped found the Environmental Consortium, launch the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, create River Summer, a multi-school faculty enrichment program on the Hudson River, and form the Pace University Sustainability Committee, GreenPace, which she still co-chairs.
Land’s interdisciplinary, hands-on approach was first honed at the World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis, Missouri, where she conducted field studies, managed education programs, and propagated, rehabilitated, and released endangered birds of prey. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree with a specialty in wildlife biology from the Honours Program at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and she has undertaken masters-level study in ecology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
“The environment, more than any other topic, has the power to unite people of disparate interests,” she has said. “It is no longer a question of whether multiple disciplines or multiple perspectives should be part of environmental curricula and programming, but rather how to harness that rich and diverse expertise. This is the exciting challenge ahead for higher education at large, and for the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies.”
Land represents Pace University on the National Council of Environmental Deans and Directors. She was appointed by Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano to the Global Warming Task Force in 2007, and served on his Climate Change Advisory Council, representing higher education. She is also an advisor on higher education to the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries. From 2007 – 2012, she was a member of the Board of Directors for MetroPool, Inc., a transportation demand management not-for-profit organization.
Currently, Land’s areas of research interest focuses on the intersection of animal welfare and conservation policy.
Donna Kowal is the Program Coordinator for Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies. She has been with Pace University since 2003 when she began volunteering her time for Pace Academy. She worked her way to a part-time Student Assistant position, and in 2005 became the Academy’s Staff Associate until 2009 when the University’s first Center for Excellence was created and she was promoted.
As Program Coordinator, Donna helps implement projects and initiatives for the Academy, and oversees the daily operations. The Academy serves as the headquarters for the Environmental Consortium of Colleges & Universities, a collaborative of over 50 institutions in the Hudson-Mohawk River watershed region whose formation was spearheaded by Pace Academy. Donna is also an Associate Member of Pace’s Sustainability Committee, GreenPace, and as a member, helped institute the inaugural offering of the ‘Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility’ at Pace University for the Class of 2009, and continues to be offered each year. Donna participated in Westchester County’s formulation of a Climate Change Action Plan which was launched in 2008, and served as a member of the County’s Climate Change Advisory Council as a representative in the Higher Education Sector.
In 2009, Donna received her BA in Environmental Studies summa cum laude from Pace University. She was the recipient of the Aldo Leopold Environmental Studies Award and the Scholastic Achievement Award from Dyson College of Arts & Sciences. One of her undergraduate accomplishments involved the creation of an educational history trail at Cranberry Lake Preserve, a Westchester County park, which was headlined in the first Dyson Digital Digest (Winter 2006). In 2012 she received a Certificate in Bioregional Studies from Green Mountain College. Prior to her time at Pace, Donna worked for more than seven years for a small law firm after obtaining an AS in the paralegal program from Berkeley College in 1994.
Donna is passionate about the natural world and helping others. In 2007 she received the "Outstanding Volunteer" award from Rockefeller State Park Preserve "for her extraordinary leadership and stewardship on behalf of the Preserve." From 2002-2009 Donna was a member of the Kensico Environmental Enhancement Program, a citizen led volunteer group that worked to develop educational material, organize and implement events and programs to educate the local watershed communities on how to conserve and protect the Kensico Reservoir.
After graduating summa cum laude from Pace University’s Environmental Studies program with a minor in Political Science, Caroline Craig joined Pace Academy as a Research Assistant in June 2012.
While at Pace University, Caroline was selected for the Jeanette K. Watson Fellowship, a competitive 3-year program that provides internships, mentoring, and enriched educational opportunities to promising New York City undergraduates. In Caroline’s first year in the Fellowship, she served as a Teaching Fellow in the Education Department of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo. After that, she interned at the Public Affairs Office of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, where she wrote regular press releases and speeches for the Parks Commissioner. As her final internship in the program, Caroline traveled to Guatemala to work with Semilla Nueva, a non-profit organization specializing in community organizing and sustainable agriculture in the country’s poor rural areas. As the Community Development and Relations Intern, she interviewed indigenous farmers and mapped out communication strategies between the young NGO and its American donors.
As an undergraduate, Caroline was one of the founding student leaders of the Dyson College Green House, a new administrative initiative to get first year students more involved in the school community in a way that also positively connected them to the natural world. In 2009, Caroline was accepted into the Political Science Department’s Inauguration Internship, blogging her experiences with The Washington Center during President Obama’s first inauguration. In her junior year, she spent a semester abroad in Spain, receiving C.E.A.’s Global Education Scholarship. Throughout her academic career, she contributed as a writer to the Pace Press student newspaper and as a photographer to the Aphros Student Literary Magazine. At graduation, she received the distinction of the Aldo Leopold Environmental Studies Award.
Since joining Pace Academy, Caroline has helped oversee the implementation, integration and marketing of the university-wide .007% Campaign, a year-long water awareness initiative inspired by the importance and scarcity of fresh clean water around the world. She has also aided in the preparation of the first Mock Senate Hearing at Pace University, which will bring together undergraduates and Pace Law School students in the aim of improving and modernizing the nation’s Clean Water Act.
In her spare time, Caroline volunteers with the Emergency Rescue of her local Lake Carmel Fire Department and is working on her Emergency Medical Technician Certification.
For 35 years, John Cronin has dedicated his career to public service and the environment. The Wall Street Journal has called him “a unique presence on America’s major waterways,” a distinction affirmed by the breadth of his career. As an advocate, lobbyist, legislative and congressional aide, commercial fisherman, author and filmmaker, Cronin has tackled a wide range of frontline issues, such as Clean Water Act enforcement, disposal practices at Love Canal, estuary and fisheries management, and protection of the New York City watershed.
Cronin is known internationally for his Hudson River work. He began his career in 1974 on the staff of Pipewatch, a program of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and went on to become Clearwater’s environmental director. He served as environmental director for the Center for the Hudson River Valley, which joined with Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference to form Scenic Hudson. He was district project coordinator for Congressman Hamilton Fish, Jr., and then a legislative aide to New York State Assemblyman Maurice Hinchey and the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee. From 1980 through 1982 he worked as a Hudson River commercial fisherman.
Cronin has authored three Hudson River laws and led the investigation of more than 100 water pollution cases, with far-reaching impacts on environmental policy. He served as Hudson Riverkeeper from 1983 to2000, a position that has inspired a legacy of more than 160 Waterkeeper programs on six continents. In 1985, he joined Pace University Professor Nicholas Robinson and Law Professor Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to co-found the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, recognized as one of the most effective environmental legal clinics in the world. For his accomplishments, Time magazine named Cronin a “Hero for the Planet.” People magazine called him “equal parts detective, scientist and public advocate.”
In 2000, while Cronin was serving as Pace University’s first Resident Scholar in Environmental Studies, New York Governor George E. Pataki appointed him to help develop “a global center for river and estuary research.” The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries was founded in 2004 on the shores of the Hudson River with Cronin as interim chief. The board of trustees appointed him its first director and CEO in 2006. Under Cronin’s leadership, the Beacon Institute has adopted technological innovation as a central mission. Its River and Estuary Observatory Network (REON) will monitor the Hudson “source to sea” through a network of sensors and robotics that provide real-time data to researchers, policy makers and educators. REON will be emulated on rivers and estuaries worldwide; collaborating institutions include IBM, Pace University, Clarkson University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Columbia University.
Under the auspices of the new Pace Academy Cronin will head the creation of a science, technology and policy center with Beacon Institute and Pace University School of Law. He will also assist in the creation of external programs for students, and the development of River Semester, the special curriculum designed around the rich environmental and human history of the Hudson River region.
Cronin teaches undergraduate courses on environmental policy and politics, and lectures nationally on environmental innovation and policy. “If the 20th century was the era of environmental brawn, the 21st century is the era of environmental brains,” he tells his audiences. “By harnessing the talent, intellect, and passion that resides in every segment of society, we can harmonize forever the human and natural worlds. This is the greatest challenge of the 21st century.”
Cronin is the founder of the Environmental Consortium of Colleges & Universities. He co-authored, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., The Riverkeepers, published by Scribner with an introduction by Vice-President Al Gore. He has written numerous articles for media including the Op Ed page of The New York Times, and is a regular columnist for InsideOut, a bimonthly magazine. Some of his writings are available at www.johncronin.net. He wrote and co-produced the film “The Last Rivermen,” named an outstanding documentary by the Motion Picture Academy Foundation.
Cronin’s work has earned him many honors including an Honorary Juris Doctor from Pace Law School, the William E. Ricker Award from the American Fisheries Society, the Governor’s Parks and Preservation Award, and the Thomas Berry Environmental Award. He has been the subject of two books, and extensive major media print and broadcast news stories, documentaries and profiles.
Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding
Andrew C. Revkin (2009)
arevkin [at] pace.edu
914-773-3091
Andrew Revkin has joined Pace University as a senior fellow for environmental understanding. A prize-winning journalist, online communicator and author, he has spent a quarter of a century covering subjects ranging from the assault on the Amazon to the Asian tsunami, from the troubled relationship of science and politics to climate change at the North Pole. From 1995 through 2009, he covered the environment for The New York Times.
Andrew Revkin is the senior fellow for environmental understanding at Pace University's Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies and writes the award-winning Dot Earth blog for the Op-Ed section of The New York Times. He has spent three decades covering subjects ranging from the assault on the Amazon rain forest to the changing conditions around the Arctic, from the troubled relationship of climate science and politics to the environmental impacts of rising human populations and resource appetites.
From 1995 through 2009, he covered the environment for The Times as a staff reporter. His quarter century of coverage of global warming has earned most of the major awards for science journalism along with the John Chancellor Award for sustained journalistic excellence from Columbia University. Revkin has been a pioneer in multimedia communication, blogging and shooting still and video imagery in far-flung places. Dot Earth was created under a John Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Revkin has also carried his journalism to a new generation in The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World, the first book on Arctic climate change written for the whole family. His other books are The Burning Season: The Murder of Chico Mendes and the Fight for the Amazon Rain Forest, which was the basis for a much-lauded HBO film, and Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast, which accompanied the first museum exhibition on climate change, at the American Museum of Natural History, in 1992.
At Pace, he teaches courses on blogging, environmental-science communication and documentary video with a focus on sustainable development. He has written three book chapters on communication and the environment and speaks to varied audiences around the world about the power of the Web to foster progress on a finite planet. Revkin lives in the Hudson River Valley with his wife and two sons. In spare moments, he is a performing songwriter who occasionally backs up Pete Seeger and plays in a twangy roots jam band, Breakneck Ridge.
Follow him @revkin on Twitter or Google+ or subscribe to his Facebook feed. More: www.nytimes.com/revkin
Consulting Faculty for Academic Affairs
Melissa Grigione
mgrigione [at] pace.edu
914-773-3509
Melissa Grigione is Associate Professor and Director of Pace University’s Graduate Program in Environmental Science. Her primary research interest is mammalian spatial ecology -- understanding how ecological and manmade elements influence home range size and location for particular species. In her lab, tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing technology, and molecular genetic techniques are employed to better understand these questions.
Professor Grigione’s research emphasizes conservation biology. The species she studies are ones whose populations have been seriously altered as a consequence of habitat degradation and fragmentation. In addition to wildlife biology, conserving these species requires an intimate knowledge of political and legislative systems, and community-level human dimension practices.
Grigione, co-founder of The Bordercats Working Group, has worked with a range of species, including mountain lions, Florida panthers, bobcats, coyotes, and Florida burrowing owls. Her international research includes conservation projects for the puma, guanaco, and vicuna in South America and conservation of neotropical cats (ocelots, jaguars, jaguarundis) along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Grigione holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biogeography and Environmental Science from McGill University, and a Master of Arts in Wildlife Ecology from Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. In 1998 she earned her PhD from the University of California, Davis Graduate Group in Ecology.
