J. Drew Lanham

J Drew Lanham is a native of Edgefield and Aiken, South Carolina. In his twenty years as Clemson University faculty he has worked to understand how forest management impacts wildlife and how human beings think about nature.

Dr. Lanham holds an endowed chair as an Alumni Distinguished Professor and was named an Alumni Master Teacher in 2012. In his teaching, research, and outreach roles, Drew seeks to translate conservation science to make it relevant to others in ways that are evocative and understandable. As a Black American he's intrigued with how culture and ethnic prisms can bend perceptions of nature and its care. His connecting the conservation dots and coloring the conservation conversation's messages have been delivered internationally.

Drew strongly believes that conservation must be a blending of head and heart; rigorous science and evocative art. He is active on a number of conservation boards including the SC Wildlife Federation. South Carolina Audubon, Aldo Leopold Foundation, BirdNote and the American Birding Association. He is an inaugural Fellow of the Audubon-Toyota Together Green initiative and is a member of the advisory board for the North American Association of Environmental Education. Drew is a Fellow of the Clemson University Institute for Parks and was most recently named a 2016 Brandwein Fellow for his work in Environmental Education.

Dr. Lanham is a widely published author and award-nominated poet, writing about his experiences as a birder, hunter and wild, wandering soul. His first solo work, The Home Place-Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature (Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis MN) will be published in 2016-17.