The Environment and You (2nd Edition) - Standalone book

The Environment and You, Second Edition, by Norm Christensen and new co-author Lissa Leege, gives today’s generation of students reason to be hopeful about environmental challenges by emphasizing the role that science plays in environmental problem solving and solutions. The text offers a solid foundation in the science and demonstrates the role that science can play in influencing personal, community and global environmental issues. The new edition has added New Frontiers discussions that emphasize the interaction between new scientific discoveries, ethics, and policy; andWhere You Live activities that invite students to use primary data sources to explore environmental principles and issues in their local community.  A new chapter organization also improves connections between chapters and integrates key concepts with relevant environmental issues.

Lissa Leege is a Professor of Biology and the founding director of the Center for Sustainability at Georgia Southern University. She earned her undergraduate degree in Biology from St. Olaf College and received her Ph.D. in Plant Ecology at Michigan State University. Her ecological research concerns threats to rare plants, including the effects of fire and invasive species on endangered plant populations and communities. She has also conducted 20 years of research on the impacts of invasive pines on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan and the subsequent recovery of this system following invasive species removal.

Lissa was instrumental in the development of an Interdisciplinary Concentration in Environmental Sustainability for undergraduates at Georgia Southern. Under her direction, the Center for Sustainability engages the campus in an annual “No Impact Week” and reaches the community with an annual GreenFest celebration, as well as a robust sustainability speaker series.

Lissa is involved with the environment on a statewide level as a member of the 2013 Class of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership and a founding member of the Georgia Campus Sustainability Network. She serves on a local tree board, and as a board member for Georgia Southern’s Botanical Garden.

Lissa has taught non-majors Environmental Biology for 16 years with an emphasis on how students can contribute to environmental solutions. In 2006, she established an Environmental Service Learning project, through which thousands of Environmental Biology students have engaged in tens of thousands of hours of environmental service in the local community. Lissa was honored with both college and university service awards and has served as a faculty fellow in Service-Learning. She also teaches Principles of Biology, Biology of Plants, and graduate level sustainability courses, as well as Study Abroad sustainability courses in Italy. Her contributions to this book have been inspired by her passion for engaging students in positive solutions to environmental problems.

Author Norm Christensen is not only a world-class scientist (elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is the founding dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment, and served as president of the Ecological Society of America) but is also a gifted and dedicated teacher who has taught the introductory environmental science course for over 15 years and won a Distinguished Teaching Award. He grew up in Fresno, California and received his AB and MS from California State University, Fresno. His PhD is from University of California, Santa Barbara and his research experience spans community ecology, disturbance and succession, ecosystem management, sustainable forest management, and forest fires. He is a professor at Duke University.

AWARDS AND HONORS:
1977 Duke Endowment Award for Teaching Excellence 1989 E.V. Komarek Lecturer, Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference 1991 A. Starker Leopold Award, National Park Service— Yellowstone 1991 Distinguished Teaching Award, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke University 1993 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science 1994 Distinguished Scholar Award, Natural Sciences, California State University, Fresno 1995 Distinguished Alumnus Award, California State University, Fresno 2002-2005 Vice President for Finance, The Ecological Society of America 2004 Honorary Doctor of Science, The College of Wooster, Wooster, OH 2005 Clarence Korstian Award, Duke Forest 2006 Walton Lecturer, University of Virginia 2008 President, Ecological Society of America

BOARDS AND COMMITTEES
1993 National Science Foundation, Long-term Ecological Research Program, Ten-year Review Panel 1993-1999 Chair, National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Environmental Issues in Forest Management in the Pacific Northwest 1993-1995 Chair, Ecological Society of America, Committee on Ecosystem Management 1993-1995 Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project Team 1993-present Board of Trustees, North Carolina Nature Conservancy 1993-present Board of Directors, The Conservation Fund 1994-1995 National Geographic Society Panel on Non-point-Source Pollution and Water Quality 1995 Chair, State of North Carolina Wetlands Task Force 1997 Co-chair, Federal Advisory Committee on the California Spotted Owl 1997-2004 US Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (appointed by President Bill Clinton) 1999-present Board of Directors, Resources for the Future 1999-2004 Board of Governors, The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences 2001-2003 Board of Trustees, The Triangle Land Conservancy 2001-2003 Board of Trustees, The Forest History Society 2000-2008 National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, Chair (2001-2003) 2003-2008 Advisory Panel, State of the Nation’s Ecosystems Project, John Heinz Center. 2003-2009 Board of Trustees, Environmental Defense Fund 2003-2009 Sustainable Forestry Board 2007 U.S National Forest Service Fire Research Program Review Panel (Chair)

SERVICE TO PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
Editorial Board, American Midland Naturalist, 1979-1986 Chairman, Vegetation Section, Ecological Society of America, 1985-87 Awards Committee, Mercer Award, Ecological Society of America, 1988-1989 Editorial Board, Journal of Vegetation Science, 1989-94 Editorial Board, Journal of Wildland Fire, 1992-1996 Editorial Board, Ecosystem Health, 2000-2002 Vice President for Finance, Ecological Society of America, 2002-2005 Governing Board, Ecological Society of America, 2002-2009 President, Ecological Society of America, 2007-8