Jessica Leahy

2020 Peirce and Florence Pitts-Webber Outstanding Forestry Teacher Award

Speech given by Dean Teisl:

“Dr. Jessica Leahy is a professor of human dimensions of natural resources who is a thought leader on integrating social sciences into forestry curricula.

Her article in the Journal of Forestry, “Making Silviculture Matter: The Case for an Evolution in Forestry Education,” encouraged designing higher-education programs that develop “society ready” natural resource professionals.

Colleagues at other universities consistently reach out to Dr. Leahy for guidance on creating their own versions of two courses she developed – “Environment and Society” and “Environmental Communication Skills.” At UMaine, these serve as foundational courses for several undergraduate programs and consistently enroll more than 70 students a semester.

Dr. Leahy continually seeks to improve her already highly-rated courses. “Environment and Society” and “Environmental Communication Skills” are both taught in active learning classrooms where she incorporates many of these techniques to improve student learning outcomes.

She also partners with stakeholders to enhance her courses. Most recently, through a partnership with the Maine Forest Collaborative, Dr. Leahy’s students pursued a grand question about a forest-based rural community in Maine. Over the course of the semester, the students worked towards a final proposal to answer the grand question, “How can their selected rural community use forests to positively impact the community?” The Maine Forest Collaborative is now using the same grand question for a project with 60 high school students from rural communities across Maine.

Dr. Leahy incorporates both community service learning and field experiences into the course “Environmental Interpretation.” She collaborates with other faculty to merge rural sociology and resource economics in the course “Rural Communities,” and integrates engaged research throughout the course.

She also developed an experimental course – “Family Forests in New England” – in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Vermont. The course used a combination of online and in-person sessions at the New England Society of American Foresters meetings. She also developed one-time course offerings in “Social Science Theory for Environmental Sustainability” and “Ecological Forest Management.”

Dr. Leahy serves as the program coordinator for the Master of Forestry program, which has grown from three to 16 students under her leadership. She advises all the students enrolled in the program, which requires students to have a graduate committee and work with community partners on a significant Master of Forestry project. She also advises undergraduate students and has mentored students on their senior capstone and Honors College thesis projects. She has also engaged five undergraduate students in mentored research experiences since 2015. Dr. Leahy’s research graduate students have a strong record of obtaining acceptance to competitive programs for further study, or employment in their fields.

For her many contributions, I am pleased to congratulate Dr. Leahy for earning the 2020 G. Peirce and Florence Pitts-Webber Outstanding Forestry Teacher Award.”