I am Vice President of Tearfund USA, a nonprofit dedicated to international relief, community development, and advocacy. I am a economist who has worked at the interface between development and conservation for 20 years. I have served as a key adviser to numerous evangelical organizations and leaders on development economics, climate change, and poverty alleviation. For the past fifteen years, I’ve spoken about faith, science, and the environment at many colleges and universities, conferences, churches, symposia, and leadership summits, including numerous live broadcast interviews and debates.

I worked in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, designing environmental mitigation and monitoring systems for the International Organization for Migration. I was the President and co-Founder of Flourish, and prior to that I was national spokesperson for the Evangelical Climate Initiative. I also worked for several years for the National Wildlife Federation advocating for incentive systems and institutions to encourage voluntary, market-based conservation on private forests and farm lands. As a full-time faculty member at Emory University I helped create and I taught in the Department of Environmental Studies from 1999 to 2006.

From 1992 to 2002 I was a researcher and science office with two major international research programs that integrated social and natural sciences—the Resilience Alliance, and the Land Use and Land Cover Change program of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.

I’ve taught courses and lectured worldwide in natural resource economics, environmental institutions, public health, resource use and management, environmental justice, ecological economics, and environmental decision-making under uncertainty. I hold degrees from Duke University (B.S., magna cum laude, zoology) and University of Florida (Ph.D., resource economics; M.S., environmental engineering sciences).

I’ve also been at various times a janitor, radio announcer, fruit picker, ecologist, editor, music director, camp counselor, piano accompanist, and construction worker.

I live with my wife Joanna (a native of Scotland) and three children (Angus, Ewan, and Beatrice) in the Atlanta area, where we have worked in church-planting, neighborhood organizing, and community development. I grew up in North Florida and I enjoy birding, fishing, and Southern barbecue.

I serve on the board of the Atlanta Audubon Society (as Vice Chair) and the Race4Birds Foundation (which promotes competitive youth birding events).

Email me if you want me to speak at your event (or to recommend someone else to speak at your event).