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1500 Remount Road
Front Royal, VA 22630
Phone: 540-635-0115 (direct)
Web: smconservation.gmu.edu
Administration
Janette Kenner Muir, Interim Co-Director
Cody Edwards, Interim Co-Director
Kathleen Q. Johnson, Operations and Administration
Sonya Kessler, Administrator, Smithsonian-Mason Semester
Miranda Mosley, Administrator, Graduate/Professional Program
Faculty
Professors: Jones, Lovejoy
Associate Professors: Aguirre, Balint, Birchard, Gabel, Jonas, Parsons, Wingfield, Wood
Term Associate Professors: Sklarew
Term Assistant Professor: DeLuycker, Lessard-Pilon, McNeil, Smith, Luther
Affiliate Faculty
Akre, Alonso, Brown, Buff, Christen, Dallmeier, Kolowski, Leimgruber, McShea, Monfort, Pukazhenthi
Coursework
This Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation offers all coursework designated CONS listed in the Courses section of this catalog. All coursework is based at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia.
About Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation
The Smithsonian Institution and George Mason University partnered to establish the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC) to provide innovative education for current and future generations of global conservation professionals, leaders, and practitioners. Already the SMSC has established itself as a benchmark for innovative education, as instruction focuses on analytical and practical skill building to address the changing threats to and opportunities for conserving biodiversity. The SMSC engages undergraduates, graduate students and professionals from around the world in a range of compelling programs in conservation biology focused on developing the knowledge and implementing the practices required to address some of the greatest threats to biodiversity facing society today.
SMSC’s programs, co-developed and co-taught by SCBI researchers and Mason faculty, are delivered at SCBI’s 3200-acre facility along the Blue Ridge in Front Royal, Virginia, one of the premier conservation research facilities in the world, housing innovative research on some of the rarest species on earth. Students live and learn with prominent research scientists, educators, and conservation practitioners. The undergraduate program provides an innovative semester immersion approach to conservation studies in a learning community framework taking advantage of proximity to SCBI’s scientists, laboratories, and charismatic fauna. Graduate programs are based on a one - two week intensive residential course format for geared to working professionals with the opportunity to gain a graduate certificate from multiple courses and a path to graduate degrees. Course topics range from adaptive management and conservation conflict resolution to advanced statistics and R language for ecology and conservation to non-invasive genetic analysis techniques. The SMSC was officially dedicated on October 18th of 2012 opening major new academic, residential and dining LEED gold certified facilities. The residential and dining hall were recently named the G. T. Halpin Family Living and Learning Community.
Undergraduate Program
The Smithsonian-Mason Semester is a 16-credit undergraduate program in which students can earn a Conservation Studies Minor , or apply these credits to certain Mason degrees. There are currently two 16 credit tracks: “Conservation, Biodiversity and Society” and “Wildlife Ecology and Conservation”. See the Programs of Study section of this catalog for details on the minor and the Courses section for details on the courses (select the course prefix CONS). Grounded in natural science, this interdisciplinary semester brings public policy, sociology, conflict resolution, and global awareness to the learning environment. Students majoring in the BAIN program, Biology, Environmental Science, and Global Affairs may be able to fulfill major requirements and/or Mason Core requirements with Smithsonian-Mason Semester (CONS) credits subject to college approval.
Graduate Program
Graduate students can earn an Applied Conservation Science Graduate Certificate . This certificate is designed for early to mid-career conservation professionals working in government, non-governmental organizations, and research institutions worldwide. Courses are offered in an intensive 1-2 week format at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. |
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