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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University Professor |
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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, and is a sought after advisor on regional climate change. She is an adjunct associate professor in the graduate environmental science program at Pace, and teaches graduate environmental policy at New York University.
Land is known nationally for her leadership of the Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges & Universities. Following her appointment as its first director in 2004, she built the still-growing Consortium into a coalition that now numbers more than 50 institutions, ranging from two-year colleges to research universities. She continues to guide the Consortium in a comprehensive program that ranges from climate change to campus greening to faculty training.
When it came time to appoint a director for the new Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies, Pace University’s first center for excellence, Provost Geoff Brackett had no hesitation. "Michelle Land brings intellect, knowledge and passion to the dual task of leading Pace University's environmental agenda, and galvanizing higher education to help secure our environmental future. Whether analyzing policy, crafting graduate coursework or inspiring colleagues, Michelle has the exemplary blend of talent and skill for the job."
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, which she still co-leads.
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 serves on his Climate Change Advisory Council, representing higher education. She is an advisor on higher education to the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, and is a member of the Board of Directors for MetroPool, Inc., a non-profit organization that fosters solutions for transportation demand management.
Currently, Land’s areas of research interest include the intersection of nanotechnology regulation, environment and ethics as well as 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 for the Environment. 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.
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 Hudson Valley Colleges & Universities, a collaborative of 57 institutions in the Hudson 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).
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.
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 Hudson Valley 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)
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.
While the media largely ignored the climate story until the last several years, Revkin spent more than 20 years immersed in this subject, producing more than 500 magazine and newspaper stories, two books, a prize-winning Discovery-Times documentary, “Arctic Rush,” and hundreds of posts on his blog. His reporting on the politic struggles over climate policy consistently led all competitors. In 2005 and 2006, he exclusively exposed efforts by political operatives to rewrite government climate reports in the White House and prevent NASA scientists from conveying their views on warming. His stories were quickly followed by the resignations of two presidential appointees.
He has been a pioneer in multimedia journalism, blogging, podcasting, and shooting still and video imagery for stories from far-flung places. One of his pictures, of a scientist trudging in darkness and a blizzard on the North Slope, won an Award of Excellence in the Pictures of the Year International competition in 2005. In October 2007, Revkin created Dot Earth, a Times blog on climate, development and the environment (nytimes.com/dotearth). He tweets @revkin. He has also carried his journalism to a new generation. Revkin’s most recent book is The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World (Kingfisher, 2006), the first account of global and Arctic climate change written for the whole family. The Washington Post concluded simply: “Bundle up and read.” It was named both an outstanding science book and social studies book by the Children’s Book Council.
Revkin has written two other books. The Burning Season (1990; 2004 updated edition, Island Press) chronicles the life of Chico Mendes, the slain leader of the movement to save the Amazon rain forest. The prize-winning book was published in 10 languages, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and was the basis for the prize-winning HBO film of the same name, starring Raul Julia and directed by John Frankenheimer. Revkin also wrote Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast (1992), which accompanied the first museum exhibition on climate change, created by the American Museum of Natural History. The Los Angeles Times said the book “takes a devastatingly quiet tone that proves far more effective than the bludgeon-the-reader-with-guilt brand of environmental journalism.” He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship to help shape his next book, an exploration of ways to smooth the path toward more or less 9 billion people.
In 2008, he became the first science writer to receive one of journalism’s top honors, the John Chancellor Award, for more than two decades of pioneering coverage of the science and politics of global warming. His work has won most of the top honors in science journalism, including the National Academy of Sciences Communication Award and two awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His first magazine feature, on the worldwide death toll from misuse of the herbicide Paraquat, won an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. He has been honored in academia for his sustained focus on climate and energy, receiving an honorary doctorate from Pace University, a Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award from Tufts, and the 2007 Sol Feinstone Environmental Award from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Before joining The Times, Revkin was a senior editor of Discover, a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, and a senior writer at Science Digest. He has contributed freelance articles to the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, AARP’s magazine, Conde Nast Traveler and many other publications. Revkin has a biology degree from Brown, a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia, has taught at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and the graducate center for environmental policy at Bard College. He has written two book chapters on journalism and the environment.
He lives in the Hudson River Valley with his wife and one of his two sons. One of his passions is music. A 1997 Times article on a heavy-metal band’s quest to replace its lead singer was the basis for “Rock Star,” a 2001 feature film starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. In spare moments, he is a performing songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who occasionally accompanies Pete Seeger at regional shows and plays in a folk-blues band, Uncle Wade (myspace.com/unclewade ).
University Professor
Nicholas A. Robinson
In 1978 Nicholas Adams Robinson joined the fledgling Pace University School of Law. He taught its first environmental law classes, drafted the Law School’s Constitution and its initial Promotion and Tenure Regulations, and labored to secure its accreditation. Within the Law School, he established Pace’s nationally ranked environmental law program. Methodically, yet with urgency, Robinson:
- designed the Juris Doctor environmental law curriculum,
- recruited faculty members, collaborated with successive law librarians to build Pace’s environmental law research collections,
- structured and secured accreditation of the Law School’s Masters of Laws (LL.M.) and research doctorate (S.J.D.) degrees,
- worked with students to establish the Pace Environmental Law Review,
- launched, with John Cronin and others the award-winning Environmental Litigation Clinic,
- founded the Center for Environmental Legal Studies to do funded research, which has included the Pace Energy and Climate Center,
- collaborated to create the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition,
- launched and nurtured the Law School’s comparative law programs with Brazil,
- pioneered the Environmental Diplomacy Practicum at the United Nations,
- structured joint degree programs with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and
- taught in Pace’s London Law program.
During these 30 years he has made time to collaborate with environmental colleagues in Pace’s Dyson College and other graduate faculties within Pace University. He organized Pace University’s Centennial Conference on “Environmental Law Compliance and Enforcement” at the School of Law in 2006, with 220 participants from 47 nations.
From his academic home at the Pace Law School, Prof. Robinson continued his life’s work to establish and strengthen environmental law. For the Asian Development Bank, he prepared 75 law professors in Asia and the Pacific to teach environmental law and introduce its study into 15 nations’ legal education The World Conservation Congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) elected him twice to Chair the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, which is the highest professional post in the field globally.
Prof. Robinson served under five U.S. presidents as an environmental law delegate to the USA-USSR environmental law cooperation negotiations. He chaired New York Governor Mario Cuomo’s Environmental Advisory Board, was Deputy Commissioner and General Counsel of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and has been appointed to chair three state and local agencies. He drafted several New York State environmental laws and regulations, and several international environmental law treaties and decisions.
Currently, he serves as Legal Advisor to the Asian African Legal Consultative Organization’s Mission to the UN, and was previously Legal Advisor to IUCN for eight years.
Since his own law school days at Columbia University, where he was Articles Editor for the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, he has written and published six books and 68 law review articles or chapters in books, together with more than 150 essays on environmental law. His works have been translated and published in Chinese and in Russian. He edited the proceedings of the historic 1992 UN Conference on Environment & Development, the Rio “Earth Summit,” in six volumes.
By invitation, he has delivered lectures on environmental law at 32 universities in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North & South America. He founded the IUCN International Academy of Environmental Law, a consortium of more than 90 university law schools around the world, and led the organization of its first five annual colloquia. He has mentored ten of Pace’s post-graduates to secure appointments as environmental law professors in the USA and abroad. He delivers a number of public lectures each year. He is at work with colleagues editing the first casebook on the “Law of Climate Change,” for The American Casebook Series (Thompson-West).
He is a graduate of Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa (1967), and Columbia University School of Law, cum laude (1970). He clerked for US District Judge Morris E. Lasker, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (1970-72), and established one of the nation’s earliest environmental law practices in New York City at Marshall, Bratter Green Allison & Tucker, and thereafter practiced with David Sive, Esq., at Sive, Paget & Reisel, and then with Sidley & Austin in an international environmental law practice.
He serves as a member of the Board of the Environmental Law Institute (Washington, D.C.) and the Environmental Advisory Council of the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (London, U.K.). He is a member of the Bar of the State of New York. James Marshall, Esq., moved his admission to the Bar of the US Supreme Court.
Before coming to Pace University School of Law, he was an International Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves on the board of several civic and professional organizations, and is currently Vice President of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks. The Sierra Club has appointed him an Honorary Vice President, in recognition of his services as an elected director and officer, establishing the Sierra Club’s international programs from 1972-83.
The trustees of Pace University conferred the position of Pace’s first University Professor for the Environment on Nicholas A. Robinson on March 11, 2009. As a University Professor, he collaborates across Pace University’s faculties and environmental programs and lectures widely on behalf of the University. His research into how the law can advance climate change mitigation and adaptation cuts across a number of disciplines and contributes significantly to global society.
