Dr. Walter Poleman, Senior Lecturer in the Rubenstein School for Environment and Natural Resources and developer and faculty director of the GreenHouse Residential Learning Community, is an extraordinary teacher/scholar and leader.

Innovation is at the heart of Dr. Poleman’s vision for the integration of scholarship and teaching. His vision of a place-based environmental learning-laboratory through the Ecological Design Collaboratory in the GreenHouse community has allowed hundreds of UVM students to enrich their knowledge of the culture, history, biology, and geology of the Burlington area and to learn through hands-on “design-build” projects that create solutions to pressing local environmental problems.

Dr. Poleman has taken a lead role in redesigning the Rubenstein School’s core curriculum. He led the effort to increase faculty participation in delivery of the School’s core curriculum, created a scaffolded set of learning outcomes across the eight classes, and designed an assessment program that included feedback loops for continual improvement of the curriculum.

An ardent advocate for linking social science and natural science, his recent redesign of freshman courses in Natural History and Field Ecology and Nature and Culture, with high impact learning practices, has stimulated student excitement and helped increase freshman retention. He has been instrumental in building a 3+2 articulation agreement with Vermont Law School, linking the top environmental law program in the country with the Rubenstein School and allowing Rubenstein students to matriculate into their JD program in their junior year.

Dr. Poleman’s endless wealth of ideas, innovations, and energy have truly enriched the Rubenstein School and the entire campus. His selfless commitment to enhancing the student experience has touched the lives of many students.