GEM Contacts

Victor D. Phillips

GEM Director
Phone: 715-346-4935
Fax: 715-346-4923
Email: Victor.Phillips@uwsp.edu

Ron Tschida

GEM Communications Coordinator
Phone: 715-346-4266
Fax: 715-346-4923
Email: Ron.Tschida@uwsp.edu

Rebecca Vagts

GEM Business Manager
Phone: 715-346-2036
Fax: 715-346-4923
Email: rvagts@uwsp.edu

John Sheffy

GEM Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry
Phone: 715-346-4244
Fax: 715-346-4923
Email: John.Sheffy@uwsp.edu

Wes Halverson, emeritus

Watershed Program Manager
Phone: 715-346-3806
FAX: 715-346-4923
Email: Wes.Halverson@uwsp.edu

GEM Graduate Students

As of June 2009 14 GEM-sponsored graduate students have produced high-quality theses focused on programatic issues and tools in natural resources, such as citizen-based water quality monitoring, water quality indicators and watershed management, organic agriculture and forestry, business planning and micro enterprise development, indigenous knowledge for sustainable development, land use planning for effective resource management, local food producer-seller linkages, self-help food and fuel security for impoverished communities, assessment of sustainable communities, environmental education and more.

Susan Ermer is currently Environmental Education Resources Coordinator and GET Program Coordinator for the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education, a center within the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Rory Griffin, M.S. 2009

Thesis: Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainable Development: Case Studies of Three Indigenous Tribes of Wisconsin

Gwen Herrewig, M.S. 2005

Thesis: The Feasibility of a Student Volunteer Plan at the Central Wisconsin Environmental Station

Clarisa Jiménez Bañuelos, M.S. 2007

Thesis: Public participation and capacity building for healthy watersheds in the upper Rio Grande of the Sierra Norte, Oaxaca

Doris K. Kaberia, M.S. 2007

Thesis: Participatory action research and testing the effectiveness of stinging nettle as a biopesticide in Kenya

Rhea Martinez, M.S. 2007

Thesis: An evaluation of the Productivity of the Native American 'Three Sisters' Agriculture System in Northern Wisconsin

Eric Olson, M.S. (UW-Madison)

Nicholas Syano, M.S. 2008

Thesis: Self-Help Food and Fuels Supplements for Impoverished Communities in Kenya

Nicholas returned to his native Kenya, and is the manager of Nyumbani Village, which will be a self-sustaining community to serve orphans and elders who have been left behind by the “lost generation” of the AIDS pandemic.

Paul Vanderford, M.S. 2008

Thesis: Analysis of the Problems Domestic Water Users Faces as They Work to Participate in Water Resource Management Efforts Within the Kat River Valley Water Users Association, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Steven P. Weiss, M.S. 2007

Thesis: Bioassessment of the West Branch of the Wolf River

Lindsey Wood, M.S. 2009

Thesis: Sustainable Community Development: Case Studies from India and Kenya