Environmental Science program wins Brotman award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 9, 2004 Contact: Jill Carnell, Public Relations, (253) 692-4536 David Secord, Environmental Science, (253) 692-5659
Environmental Science program wins Brotman award
The Environmental Science Program at UW Tacoma has been selected to receive a Brotman Award for Instructional Excellence from the University of Washington.
This is the first time the prestigious award has gone to a program at either UW Tacoma or UW Bothell. The award comes with a monetary prize of $17,500, to be invested in further fostering the academic strengths of the winning program.
UW officials said the Environmental Science program was chosen for its rich curriculum, community outreach, outstanding student placement and strong faculty.
“We do hands-on science in an interdisciplinary context that allows our students to employ scientific perspectives to tackle real-world environmental problems of the 21st century,” said Dr. David Secord, associate professor in the Environmental Science program.
The Environmental Science program was developed starting in 1996 when UWT hired its first two science professors, Dr. Cheryl Greengrove, an oceanographer, and Secord, a marine biologist. Since then, its growing faculty has worked to integrate environmental education into the broader interdisciplinary structure of UW Tacoma while creating a rigorous program of study. The current group of seven faculty and staff members have built the Environmental Science program from the ground up, establishing a new Bachelor of Science degree in environmental science and a Bachelor of Arts concentration and minor in environmental studies. All of the natural science disciplines on campus fall under the Environmental Science program.
“The Environmental Science faculty at UWT has been extraordinary successful and creative in designing undergraduate curriculum and teaching a rigorous but exciting program that blends fieldwork and experimentation and serves immediate research needs in our South Puget Sound community,” UWT Chancellor Vicky Carwein said. “In the years we had no labs, they used Puget Sound as their lab, involving students in marine research and restoration ecology. They have made the field-based experience a signature of our science offerings.”
Environmental Science professors have taken students far from Tacoma to conduct research. In 2000, Secord led a for-credit course to the Galapagos Islands. Later, a partnership with the Sea Education Association of Woods Hole, Mass., led by Greengrove and Assistant Professor Jim Gawel, enabled faculty and students to do research on a tall ship sailing from Puget Sound to San Francisco. In 1998, Secord and Greengrove taught a marine research field course in Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, and in 2004 Professor John Banks will lead a field course on tropical ecology in Costa Rica. A field course to Australia and New Zealand is in the works in partnership with UWT’s Urban Studies program.
Secord and Greengrove credit the program’s success to its faculty and staff.
“We are fortunate to have assembled a team of faculty and staff who are creative, dedicated and enthusiastic about helping students use multiple disciplines to address environmental issues,” Greengrove said.
The Brotman Award for Instructional Excellence was established in 1998 to recognize collaboration within and among departments, programs and groups that improves the quality of undergraduate education. The award program is named in recognition of a generous gift to the University from Jeffrey and Susan Brotman. Jeffrey Brotman is a UW law school graduate and a regent. Susan Brotman is on the UW Foundation Board of Directors.
The Brotman Award will be formally presented to the Environmental Sciences faculty at a ceremony in Seattle June 9. A Brotman Award will also be presented to the Center for International Studies in Business, part of the Business School on the Seattle Campus.
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