Charles splits his time between two very different mountain ranges, the deep Appalachian forests of West Virginia and the wide-open Rockies of Montana. For more than a decade Charles has worked in the overlap of academic philosophy, non-profit administration, and outdoor education – all with a uniting concern to understand and promote environment health.

For his PhD, Charles specialized in the history and ethics of global Rewilding projects.  He kept his hands dirty (literally) running a community agriculture non-profit in West Virginia.

Environmental health and conservation are necessarily interdisciplinary subjects, and Charles’ own education and priorities in teaching are always a blend of science and humanities. He earned an MA in Environmental Philosophy and Natural Resource Conflict Resolution at the University of Montana. While there he worked with the National Forest Foundation, facilitating public engagement for collaborative forest planning efforts in multiple National Forests. And before all that, Charles did a master’s in theology and literature at the University of St. Andrews, focusing on things like personal epiphany and concepts of the Divine in American nature writing.

Charles is currently a visiting professor at the University of Montana. When not teaching, he walks for a month or two at a time in the backcountry.