Education:

  • B.A. Hiram College, 1980
  • J.D. Case Western Reserve University, 1983

Before COA

Before joining the faculty, Ken served as a Judicial Clerk for Federal Judge Gus J. Solomon in Portland, Oregon; as a Staff Attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco; and as an attorney specializing in municipal, environmental, and land use litigation for Calfee Halter & Griswold in Cleveland, Ohio.

Scholarly and Creative Interests

Ken joined the faculty in 1989 where he teaches a broad range of courses in environmental law and policy. In addition to legal studies and pre-law courses, Ken teaches several interdisciplinary courses that focus on conservation policy within the United States and internationally. These classes include courses on public lands and parks, wildlife protection, wilderness, the history of the conservation movement, land conservation, land use planning, and river and watershed protection. Ken’s international courses focus on wildlife, environmental treaties, protected areas, and water management. 

More Information about my Courses

Most of Ken’s courses are underlain by a pedagogical commitment to the principle that classes that enable students to apply knowledge to real problems can provide superior training for the students and a real benefit for people faced with those problems. Therefore, Ken uses neighboring Acadia National Park, a local watershed, and surrounding communities as the focus of class work and projects. Students in Ken’s courses have developed watershed conservation plans, filed legal documents to protect endangered species, lobbied state and national legislatures, attended United Nations conferences, testified at hearings, changed local zoning ordinances, prepared a plan to revitalize a local waterfront, organized local citizens, and routinely work with local leaders, agencies and citizens.

More About Me

His other interests include whitewater canoeing and kayaking, politics, and wilderness camping.

Community Engagement and Advocacy

Ken has been recently appointed by the US Secretary of the Interior to the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission.

He is a Volunteer Leader for the Sierra Club in Maine and nationally. In this capacity, he has served on numerous state and national committees and stakeholder groups.

Ken is on the board of the Frenchman Bay Conservancy a regional land trust covering the watersheds of the Union River and Frenchman Bay.

Publications

Newlin, W., K. Cline, R. Briggs, A. Namnoum, and B. Ciccotelli The College of the Atlantic Guide to the Lakes & Ponds of Mt. Desert, North Atlantic Books. Berkeley CA 2013.

Ken has done extensive work with local and national river and watershed conservation groups. He has worked on river conservation issues in Maine, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Chile. He presently serves on the national rivers committee of the Sierra Club and has presented at national river conferences. Ken is director of the College of the Atlantic’s Watershed Project a collaborative, community-based curriculum and outreach project. The watershed project recently received a $360,000 grant from the US Department of Education to develop a model for interdisciplinary experiential teaching that utilizes the watersheds in Hancock County and addresses the issues facing the gateway communities surrounding Acadia National Park. Through this grant the College has helped to found a local stakeholder group to protect the nearby Union River and has worked closely with citizen groups, agencies, and local governments to monitor and educate the public about the Union River Watershed.

Presentations

March 2015, Oakland, California George Wright Society “Re- Envisioning the Application of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Within Land Management Agencies” with Chris Buczko from the National Park Service

 

November 2014, Sydney, Australia6th  World Parks Congress Parks Across the Curriculum:  A Multidisciplinary Approach to Protected Area Education”

 

October 2014, Bar Harbor, Maine  Society for Human Ecology Conference “Human Ecology as an Educational Foundation for Protected Area Managers”

 

Oct.  2013, Bar Harbor, Maine  Moderator for Impacts of Climate Change on Acadia National Park Presentation

 

Oct. 2012, Hallowell, Maine. Keynote Address at the Maine Groundwater Summit “The Right to Water.”