ENVS dept names head
The department of environment and society has officially appointed its two-year interim department head Mark Brunson to take over the department starting in June.
“I think people all across the university are delighted to (have him as the head). I’ve gotten nothing but good reports and people are pleased to be working with him,” said College of Natural Resources Dean Nat Frazer.
Frazer said the decision to appoint him was not difficult.
“I interviewed one-on-one with every faculty member in the department and asked them to name three people who they thought would be a suitable candidate to be the department head … more than one person said ‘Mark, Mark, and Mark’,” Frazer said.
Brunson began with a career in the Air Force, as an enlisted public relations journalist, and later became an editor for a city newspaper, in Montana. There, he worked as a journalist for environmental and natural resources issues, until he moved to Oregon State University, where he earned his doctorate degree in forestry. In 1992, Brunson started a career at USU teaching forest resources and since then has spent almost 19 years doing research and teaching classes. For the past two years he has acted as the interim head of the environment and society department.
“He’s very level-headed, has an even keel, and he is also a very good teacher, himself,” Frazer said.
Along with the respect and admiration he has earned from faculty members, Brunson has been esteemed by many students as an asset to the program.
“Dr. Brunson is truly a renaissance man of the College of Natural Resources,” said college Senator Blake Thomas.
“He has inspired me to become more involved in the college and has patiently fielded a myriad of questions from me along the way,” Thomas said. “He is a phenomenal professor. In addition to facilitating learning and growth, he has an incredible sense of humor in the classroom.”
“I feel he will be an excellent department head because of his skill in considering the students, faculty and the university when making decisions,” he added.
For the past two years, as Brunson has acted as head of the department, much of his focus has been on expanding the department’s programs with distance education. The recreational management degree is now offered across the state at USU’s regional campuses.
“Probably a third of all of our majors are from some place other than Logan,” Brunson said. “They’re in Brigham City, or they’re in Moab. We just had our first student declare their major, who is going to be taking classes in Park City.”
Brunson said the department recently hired a faculty member who lives in in Moab, and broadcasts her courses across the state while field
teaching, in Moab. He said opportunities like these are the result of the expansion effort.
With distance education as one of Brunson’s main focuses, he said he plans to keep the department moving forward in what he called “a steady and sustainable pace,” to get aboard the overall direction of the University.
“Part of what I’m trying to do is to find and maintain a balance of the three missions we have as a university: to provide outreach and information to citizens throughout the state, provide quality education and to do valuable scientific research to solve the environmental problems we have as a state and as a country,” he said.
Brunson said he is also making efforts to reach out to students who may be interested in the environment and society program and would like to learn more.
“One thing I’d like students to know is you don’t have to eat granola and hug trees to be part of our program,” he said. “There are a lot of different things you can do within this field. We have a lot of students that do communication, international development, volunteer work, fundraising. Many students will work directly with policy makers to influence laws, become wildlife conservation officers, park rangers and anything with jobs in an information division.”
— kevin.mitchell@aggiemail.usu.edu