St. Croix Watershed Research Station
Sharon Mallman
St. Croix Watershed Research Station
I am the Assistant Director/Office Manager of the St. Croix Watershed Research Station. I
have a B.A. in American History and have worked in historical societies and museums, with
an emphasis on publishing, editing and public relations. I have written and edited works
on local history, including three books, and am currently involved in a project
researching St. Michael's Church in Stillwater, Minnesota. I spent
15 years as a freelance writer/editor, doing newsletters and special publications for
trade associations and businesses. I have been with the research station for nearly 5
years, where I assist director Ron Lawrenz with all aspects of station administration.
These include particularly our newsletter, volunteer efforts, coordination of special
events and programs, computer system administration, and overall day-to-day administrative
needs.
Jim Perry
University of Minnesota
I am a Professor in the College of Natural Resources here at the University of Minnesota.
I served for five years as Deputy Director of the US/AID Environmental Training Project
for Central and Eastern Europe and for nine years as Director of the University's Center
for Natural Resource Policy and Management. For four years, I was Director of Graduate
Studies for Water Resources. I have held a faculty position at Oxford, been an NAS Senior
Fellow in Lodz Poland and Senior Fellow at the American Institute of Indian Studies Delhi
and Madras. Here at the University, I teach a wide variety of classes including Water
Quality Management (to Juniors as well as an advanced version primarily for graduate
students), International Water Quality (primarily for graduate students), Conservation of
Natural Resources (mostly for Freshmen and Sophomores), Meteorology (for Juniors) and a
portion of a class in Field Methods in Water Resources. I have a diverse graduate program
which includes two relevant aspects: it is Team Based, so our population of about 15
students interacts extensively and each person participates in a full curriculum of
monthly, non-credit personal development and human relations-group dynamics skills.
Secondly, on a long term average, about 35% of our research energy goes into the Sr.
Croix. In that program, we work very closely with agency managers and with the Science
Station to design and conduct research that addresses questions of interest to management
agencies as well as other scientists.
Pam Davis
University of Minnesota
As a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, my focus is on decision making in
water resources, in particular water quality. This interest draws from a successful
seventeen year business career as a executive actively implementing management decisions
and sales plans. My Masters work focuses on stream ecology (Is there a correlation between
large woody debris complexity and macro invertebrate community attributes in the St. Croix
River?) and my PhD work involves nutrient / sediment monitoring of a tributary into the
St. Croix River. These monitoring efforts will attempt to connect land use to water
quality on the Snake River. As such this information will be incorporated into a Risk
Assessment on the Snake River and use as an educational tool with the local schools. As a
future professor in Water Resource Decision Making, I want to incorporate field research
methods into the classroom to better understand the importance of monitoring in the
decision making process.
Swee May Tang
Bethel College
I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, Bethel College,
Minnesota. I am a relatively new faculty member, having completed 2 years of teaching. I
teach courses in Ecology, Environment and Humanity, Principles of Biology, and Global
Environmental Changes: Humans as Agents of Transformation. All of these courses except
Ecology are non-Biology major courses. My doctoral research focused on the effects of
alternative forest cutting patterns on the potential for shallow landsliding and wind
damage. My current research interests include theory and application of landscape ecology,
conservation of biological diversity, geomorphic processes and their interaction with the
biota, application of Geogrpahic Information Systems in ecological studies, and effects of
changing environmental factors on the management of natural resources.
