Gene Myers

Olin E. (Gene) Myers Jr. (Ph.D. 1994, Psychology and Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago) is a Professor of Environmental Studies at Huxley College, Western Washington University. His main responsibilities are in the undergraduate and graduate Environmental Education (EE) programs, where he teaches courses including Environmental education; Community based EE; EE Curriculum; Assessment, Evaluation and Research in EE, among others. He is a leader in the field of Conservation Psychology, recently co-authoring the field's first text.

Conversations:

• Great flock of birds

Workshops:

• Natural History & Society

Gene Myers: I actually joke that my nature moment of the day is to walk out of my office and look up at the sky. And in a way, it's silly and not true, but in a way it is true. Because I'm hooked to my job and so it's pathetic that I don't get out more. But the other side is that I think I used to need to see a great flock of birds to have a natural history moment. But to simply experience the sky immediately tunes me in, and maybe I'm not even aware of it because I just pay attention to things. But it enters my everyday work in that I'm working with students who are in environmental education and actually have a thirst for natural history. And I get to introduce them to it. I get to effuse and have these little bursts of emotion, take them out on the hill and then get them involved in learning about it and teaching each other.