Chancellor John Bardo
http://www.wcu.edu/chancellor/

Provost Kyle Carter
http://www.wcu.edu/provost/

Dr. Paul Evans

Dr. Bob McMahan
Dr. McMahan is Senior Advisor to the Governor of North Carolina for Science and Technology and the Executive Director of the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology. In this role he advises the Governor, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Boards of Science and Technology and Economic Development about science and technology matters and supports and advises the state government on science, technology and entrepreneurship. He also serves as the primary liaison to the University of North Carolina System, the SBTDC, the NC Community College System, other private colleges and universities, key agencies such as the Biotechnology Center and MCNC, and associations such as CED, NCEITA and NCBIO with regard to science and technology matters.

Dr. McMahan received his Bachelors Degrees in Physics and in the History of Art from Duke University in 1982, a Ph.D. degree in Physics from Dartmouth in 1986, and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Harvard University / Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Center for Astrophysics. He has published over forty papers in scientific and engineering journals, sits on a number of state and corporate boards and commissions, and holds multiple patents in the field.
http://www.ncscienceandtechnology.com/Staff/mcmahan.htm


Dr. Rob Young
Rob Young is currently an Associate Professor of Geology at Western Carolina University and Director of the Helen Patton Environmental Research Center, a 10-acre facility in Macon County that provides opportunities for Western students and faculty to conduct field-based environmental research projects.

Dr. Young received his Bachelors at the College of William and Mary in 1987, His Masters Degree in Quaternary Studies/ Geology at the University of Maine in 1990 and his Ph.D. in Geology at Duke University in 1995.  His Dissertation was entitled:  The impact of sea-level rise on the coastal wetlands in Albemarle, Pamlico, and  Carrituck Sounds, North Carolina:  A study of sedimentology, stratigraphy, and wetland dynamics.

Last year Dr.Young and his colleague Andrew S. Coburn, associate director of the Duke University Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, chartered a small airplane and flew over the shattered Gulf Coast communities, from Pensacola, Fla., to Grand Island, La., on Friday, Sept. 3, 2005. What they saw from the air stunned them.

“I have been on the scene of every major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Hugo in 1989,” Young said. “The damage caused by Hurricane Katrina is by far the most damage I have ever seen.”    He was interviewed in October 2005 on the PBS program “Now,” on the wisdom of post-hurricane rebuilding on vulnerable portions of the U.S. coastline.

Dr. Young, who has been studying the impact of hurricanes on the coastline for 20 years, testified in November 2005 at the invitation of U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) before the Congressional Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans.
http://coastalhazards.wcu.edu/ryoung.htm

Dr. Jim Costa

Western Carolina University biology department faculty member James T. Costa is the new executive director of the Highlands Biological Station, a 21-acre interinstitutional facility of the University of North Carolina system.

Dr. Costa will direct all education and research activities conducted at the station, as well as oversee administrative areas such as maintenance and improvement of the station's academic and residential facilities. He had served as interim director of the facility, located in the town of Highlands, since September 2005.

Dr. Costa has been a member of Western's faculty since 1996, advancing through the academic posts of assistant and associate professor to full professor in the biology department. He was named H.F. and Katherine P. Robinson Professor of Biology in 2004, and will continue to hold that title and teach classes periodically at Western.
A native of New York state, Costa earned his undergraduate degree in biology and philosophy at the State University of New York College at Cortland, studying biology and philosophy. He earned his master's degree in entomology and community ecology, and doctoral degree in insect population genetics, at the University of Georgia. He then spent four years at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, first as a postdoctoral research fellow and then as National Science Foundation/Sloan postdoctoral fellow in molecular evolution, before joining Western's faculty
http://www.wcu.edu/as/biology/costa_new/index.html

Dr. Cindy Atterholt
Dr. Atterholt is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of the Chemistry and Physics Department at Western Carolina University.  She received her B.S. from Kent State University in 1977, M.Ba. from Winthrop University in 1987 and her PhD from the University of California in 1996.  Her research involves the study of pheromones used for mating disruption as an alternative method to pesticides.
http://www.wcu.edu/as/chemphys/atterholt.htm

Dr. Peter Bates
Peter Bates is currently an Associate Professor of Natural Resources Management at Western Carolina University.  He received a BS in Forestry from the University of Montana, an MS in Soil Science from Montana State University, and a PhD in Forestry from the University of Minnesota.  For the past 5 years he has been active in developing the Western Carolina Forest Sustainability Initiative whose mission is to promote sustainable forest management in western NC by designing, implementing, and monitoring sustainable forest management practices on family and municipal lands.

Dr. Wes Bonds
In July of 2004 Dr. Bonds began a joint appointment with the Institute and Western’s Department of Chemistry. As director of the university’s genomics education initiative, he is responsible for the commercialization of genomics in the region and continues his innovative work on biotechnology and gene sequencing projects for public school teachers and students in North Carolina.  With a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts at Amhurst, he has served as laboratory manager in the Department of Genetics at the Yale School of medicine and held fellowships in virology and in cancer research at Yale and the University of North Carolina.

 
Dr. Alphonse Buccino
Alphonse Buccino is a Consultant and Independent Scholar with extensive background in executive management, administration, and as a faculty member, especially research management and policy analysis, resource generation, and personnel recruitment and development. He served more than ten years as an academic dean at the University of Georgia (UGA), twelve years in the Senior Executive Service at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and a year on special assignment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). He has been actively involved with science and engineering workforce, policy, research, and education programs and issues. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago, served on several boards and committees, or performed research and support for them, including the Governor’s Professional Standards commission in Georgia and the National Science Board at NSF, and presented executive development programs pertaining to science policy at the Federal Executive Institute, the Brookings Institute. He was also a member of the administration team at UGA that worked closely with the Georgia Research Alliance.

Dr. David Butcher
David J. Butcher is currently Professor of Chemistry and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC.  Prof. Butcher has more than 50 publications in a variety of areas of analytical chemistry, including graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry, diode laser atomic absorption spectrometry, and ion trap mass spectrometry.  He is currently serving as Interim Director of the Western Carolina Forensic Science Initiative.
http://wcuvax1.wcu.edu/~butcher

Dr. Laura E. DeWald
Dr. DeWald’s BS, MS and PhD degrees were earned in forestry from Michigan Tech, Penn State and Virginia Tech, respectively, with a specialization in tree genetics. Her forest genetics research experience includes post-doctoral positions at the Universities of Minnesota and Florida, and genetics faculty positions in forestry or natural resource programs in North Carolina, Washington and Arizona. At Western Carolina University, her research program focuses on individual and population tree genetics, and conservation biology.

Dr. Scott W. Huffman
Dr. Huffman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Physics at Western Carolina University.  He received his B. S. and M. S. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 1994 and 1997 respectively, and his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Rhode Island in 2001.  His research interests are in forensic chemistry, structure and dynamics of liquids, instrumentation development and green chemistry.  Dr. Huffman served as a Research Fellow between 2001 and 2005 at the National Institutes of Health.

Ron Lance
Ron Lance is employed at Chimney Rock Park, where he operates a nursery and serves as Naturalist.  Previous roles at the NC Arboretum and Haywood Community College are segments of his 30 years' experience in natural history and Southeastern vegetation studies.   He is the author of several woody plant guides, and is currently involved in taxonomic research of southern U.S. Crataegus species.

Keith Langdon
Keith is a geographer by training, with a MA from Arizona State University.
He has worked at Shenandoah N.P, Everglades N.P., Hot Springs N.P., Catoctin Mt. Park (where Camp David is) and has been at the Smokies for 20 years.  His job at the Smokies includes coordination of natural resource inventories, monitoring, collaboration with outside research, and environmental assessments.   His interests include distributions of species, ecology of rare species, and invasive species.

Dr. Russ Lea
Dr. Lea is a Professor of Forestry with an appointment at NC State specializing in forested wetland ecology.  Since April 1, 2001 Russ Lea has been serving as the Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs at the University of North Carolina (UNC).   In his current capacity, Dr. Lea serves as the Chief Research Officer for the Consolidated 16-campus UNC System.  

He is a native of New York and Holds Ph.D.s from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and from Syracuse University.  He serves on the editorial board for Environmental Science and Policy Journal.  He serves on the boards of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Institute for Transportation, Research and Education (ITRE), the Small Business Technology Development Center (SBTDC), NC DEA, the Center for Transportation and Environment (CTE), the NC Global Transpark and the NC Association for Biomedical Research (NCABR).
http://www.northcarolina.edu/content.php/apps/directory/profile.php?uid=rlea

Dr. Thomas Martin
Dr. Martin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Western Carolina University. He received his B.S. in Biology from Lincoln Memorial University in 1986, his M.S. in Biological Science from East Tennessee State University in 1980 and his Ph.D. in Zoology from North Carolina State University in 1990.
 
Dr. Martin’s research focuses on the factors that influence community structure and population dynamics in aquatic systems. In recent years, much of his research has been concerned with how humans have influenced assemblages of aquatic organisms; from habitat fragmentation from acid mine drainage, to the stocking of non-native species, to habitat restoration.
http://www.wcu.edu/as/biology/martin_new/index.html

Dr. Kathy Mathews
Dr. Mathews is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Western Carolina University.  She received her B.A. from Harvard University in 1992 and Ph.D. from the University of Texas in1997.

Dr. Mathews’ research specialization is plant systematics and studing problems in taxonomy and evolutionary relationships of flowering plant groups, particularly members of the Gentianales lineage. Her current research seeks to understand rapid speciation and biogeography in the Gulf Coastal plain genus Sabatia. Her research tools include morphological analysis and molecular phylogenetics including DNA sequencing. I am interested in supervising undergraduate and graduate students on projects involving systematics (i.e., taxonomy and evolution) of Appalachian flora.
http://www.wcu.edu/as/biology/mathews/index.html

Dr. Alvin Malesky
Dr. Malesky received his Ph.D. from The University of Memphis in Counseling Psychology in 2002.  He completed his Doctoral Internship at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina where he conducted forensic evaluations and sex offender treatment.  Dr. Malesky completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Forensic Psychology in the Law and Psychiatry Program at The University of Massachusetts Medical School in August 2004.  While at UMass Dr. Malesky conducted court-ordered forensic evaluations addressing issues such as competence to stand trial, criminal responsibility, violence risk assessment, and civil commitment.

Dr. Larry Myers
Dr. Larry J. Myers is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Criminology where he currently teaches courses in the subject matter areas of crime scene investigation, evidence and criminal procedure, computer crime, and technology in criminal justice. He earned his doctorate in Educational Human Resource Development from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. His dissertation research was entitled High Technology Crime Investigation: A Curricular Needs Assessment of the Largest Criminal Justice and Criminology Programs in the United States. In addition, he received his Masters in Criminology from The Florida State University. His research interests include high technology crime investigation, computer forensics, criminal justice technology, and criminal justice education.  Recent publications include two articles on teaching about computer crime in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, as well as a book chapter in the second edition of Criminal Justice Technology in the 21st Century.

Dr Peter Newsome
Peter Newsome is Co-Founder and Co-President of PharmAgra Labs, Inc. a custom synthesis company that provides chemistry research and development services to pharmaceutical, biotech and other industries.  Peter is an alumnus of Western Carolina University and received his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Utah in 1989.  From 1989-1999 he was a Senior Research Chemist in Discovery Chemistry with Rhone-Poulenc in Research Triangle Park, NC.  PharmAgra Labs was founded in 1999 and is located in Brevard, NC.

Dr. Nicholas H. Oberlies
Nick Oberlies directs RTI’s Natural Products Laboratory, where he leads a multidisciplinary effort to identify, isolate, and characterize new drug entities from natural sources, such as plants, mushrooms, and bacteria. Dr. Oberlies is principal investigator on a prestigious Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society to study novel anticancer compounds from mushrooms. He was also principal investigator of an International Cooperative Biodiversity Group planning grant to study the biodiversity of Jordan. Dr. Oberlies was recognized for his technical prowess in 2005 with the Matt Suffness Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP). He was recognized in 2004 by the Triangle Business Journal with their 40 under 40 Leadership Award, which honors accomplishments both in business and in the community.  Dr. Oberlies received his B.S. in Chemistry from Miami University (OH) in 1992, and his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy from Purdue in 1997.

Dr. Sean O’Connell
Dr. O’Connell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Western Carolina University.  He received his B.S. in Biology from Johnson State College in 1994 and his Ph.D. from Idaho State University in 2002.

Dr. O’Connell’s research interests include primarily the surveying of microbial diversity (bacterial and archaeal species) in a variety of habitats ranging from the subsurface to surface environments including soils and streams.   This survey includes not only who is there but also what they are doing and how can we increase our ability to detect and/or culture under-represented microorganisms.  His lab is currently investigating study sites located in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) to characterize the microbial diversity in these sites.
http://www.wcu.edu/as/biology/oconnell_new/index.html

Dr. Mark Powell
Dr. Powell is a Professor and Head of the Department of Biology at Western Carolina University.

His research interests can be broadly classified as elucidating host/pathogen interactions. Presently, the majority of my efforts are focused on Chagas' disease. This disease, caused by a protozoan hemoflagellate, which is endemic in much of Central and South America where an estimated 16-18 million people are infected and another 90 million are at risk. Recently, we have found strong evidence that tissue tropism of the pathogen may be influenced by host genetics, a characteristic previously attributed the organism itself. If it can be fully substantiated, this phenomenon could be the key to understanding why 30-40% of infected individuals develop life threatening cardiac damage, and the remainder do not.
http://www.wcu.edu/as/biology/powell/index.html

Dr. Scott E. Schlarbaum
Scott E. Schlarbaum joined the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries in 1984 as an assistant professor of forest genetics.  In the subsequent years, he progressed through the professorial ranks to professor and was honored by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville by being named a James R. Cox Professor in 2002.   

Professor Schlarbaum was educated at Colorado State University (B.S. and Ph.D. degrees) and the University of Nebraska (M.S. degree).  Professor Schlarbaum is the author of numerous articles on forest genetics, forest health, and plant cytogenetics.  He is currently an Associate Editor for Silvae Genetica, the oldest international journal devoted to forest genetics and forest tree improvement research, and serves on the USDA Crop Germplasm Advisory Committee for Woody Landscape Plants.  Professor Schlarbaum has testified as an expert witness on forestry and forest health issues before various subcommittees and committees of the U. S. House of Representatives.  In December, 2005, he was named Science Advisor to the National Park Service for eastern exotic forest pests.

Jonathan Snover
http://paws.wcu.edu/jsnover/

Dr. John Williams
John A. Williams is currently the Director of Forensic Anthropology in the Dept. of Anthropology and Sociology at Western Carolina University.  He received his B.S. degree from Lake Erie College in 1975; M.A., from Ohio State University in 1976; and Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in 1980.   His research interests include:  Forensic anthropology; paleopathology; death investigation; trauma analysis; digital imaging; bioarchaeology; human decomposition.

http://www.wcu.edu/as/anthro_soc/facpros/Williams.htm