Dr. Clare Ginger, Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, received the distinction of Emerita from the University of Vermont (UVM) in May 2024. After 30 years of dedicated teaching and leadership in the Rubenstein School, Clare retired at the end of the Spring semester.
Clare earned her PhD in Urban, Technological, and Environmental Planning from the University of Michigan and joined the Rubenstein School in 1994. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2001. A respected scholar in her field, Clare’s research has focused on the intersection of the public interest with environmental issues through collective processes in organizational settings. She has incorporated dimensions of social justice and equity into all aspects of her teaching and research.
Clare’s dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and student success earned her awards from the UVM Mosaic Center for Students of Color and the UVM Women and Gender Equity Center. Clare was also the recipient of the Marcia Caldwell Award, which recognizes faculty for their commitment and dedication to the students in the Rubenstein School.
"Clare was endlessly supportive of my unorthodox path through Rubenstein, helping me meet requirements and still take the classes most fulfilling to me," said Val Kostelnik '24. "I truly felt like she was out there fighting for me, which meant a lot and gave me the confidence to follow my own path."
A highly collaborative researcher, Clare worked with the Water Resources Institute and the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC). Throughout her career, she has sought to understand how we define and address climate change in watershed and forest ecosystem planning and management. She has published 22 peer-reviewed journal articles and monographs, and she authored numerous technical reports and book chapters. Clare served as Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI on 30 grants and contracts.
“Clare’s service at UVM has been exemplary,” said Allan Strong, Interim Dean of the Rubenstein School. “She has embodied the spirit of the Rubenstein School community, combining an unwavering commitment to justice, equity, and diversity through her expert leadership and environmental problem-solving.”
Clare served as a member of the UVM Catamount Core Curriculum Committee, Coordinator of the UVM/Vermont Law and Graduate School 3+2 Program, a UVM Faculty Senate member for multiple terms, and an original member of the Rubenstein School Diversity Task Force.
“Clare’s work to integrate social sciences and justice into our Core Curriculum in the late 1990s was at the forefront of what we now see as standard practice in environmental and natural resource education,” said Jennifer Pontius, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Rubenstein School. “Whether in her work to recruit new faculty, connect undergraduates with local legislators, or lead new initiatives, her focus on people and purpose has inspired students and faculty alike to find pathways to affect change.”
In her first years at the Rubenstein School, Clare was tasked with designing the Natural Resources Program. She has served as the Natural Resources Program Director for the majority of her 30 years at UVM and has helped the program to evolve over those three decades, most recently by championing a name change in 2021. Now the Sustainability, Ecology, and Policy Program, she has breathed new life into the growing major. Clare will continue to serve as Program Director in the coming academic year.
As a Professor, Clare taught at the graduate and undergraduate level and advised or co-advised 25 M.S. students. For the past 14 years, Clare has served as the Faculty Marshal at the Rubenstein School Commencement Celebration, a role symbolic of her leadership and mentorship among fellow faculty members.
“Clare’s unparalleled knowledge of the School’s academic policy and curriculum has kept us on the right path at many a faculty meeting, and she has long been known as the ‘go-to’ colleague for sage advice about how to mentor students,” said Walter Poleman, Senior Lecturer in the Rubenstein School and Director of the Field Naturalist program at UVM.
“The unique perspectives that Clare brings to our faculty discussions, the commitment she has to our mission, her wealth of institutional knowledge, and attention to relationships among students, staff, and faculty have made her an incredibly effective leader in our school and across the University,” concluded Pontius. “I am thankful that she will continue to lead the Sustainability, Ecology, and Policy program to help mentor the next generation of leaders in the Rubenstein School. I know we will all need to work together to fill her very large shoes.”