Leah J. Wilds

Leah J. Wilds, Associate Professor , has been in the department for 20 years.  She received her B.A. in English literature in 1980 (University of Georgia) and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees (Colorado State University) in 1984 and 1988, respectively. Colorado State was one of the first universities in the U.S. to develop a Political Science program that emphasized domestic and international natural resource policy. She also served for four years as a Policy Analyst for the National Ecology Research Center of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  She is currently Director of the department's Graduate Program.  She is also chair of the Nevada Faculty Alliance.

Dr. Wilds' teaching and research agendas are reflective of her interest in natural resources issues. She teaches two of the Department's main environmental course offerings: Global Environmental Policy, and Environmental Policy. She also teaches numerous other policy courses. Her publications include a book on resolving U.S. Water resource disputes (Understanding Who Wins: Organizational Behavior and Environmental Politics, 1990); and numerous book chapters, journal articles and conference papers on natural resource policy in the American West. She recently completed a manuscript on the passage and implementation of Public Law 101-618. This law was the result of a negotiated agreement designed to better manage water resources in the Truckee and Carson River Basins.

Current Research:

Dr. Wilds is currently working on the Walker Basin Project (unr.edu/walker), a major research effort designed to save Walker Lake, one of three desert terminal lakes with a fresh water fishery in the United States. The other two, Pyramid and Summit Lakes, are also located in Nevada.

Additional Information

Current Syllabus:

 

Core Humanities Fall 2003

General Syllabi: