Dr. John Fitch
Dr. Fitch has worked as an ecologist, college professor, and advocate for conservation and sustainability for the past 40 years. He received his BA degree in Anthropology and Zoology from the University of Kansas and immediately joined Smithsonian Institution on a biological survey of the Central South Pacific. After receiving his Masters and Ph. D from Michigan State University, he accepted a one year faculty fellowship in the Executive Office of the President during the Carter Administration. There, he worked on environmental science and policy issues as well as the Global 2000 Report, and received a special letter of appreciation from President Carter. After leaving Washington, he taught at Tufts University and worked as the Massachusetts Audubon Society's chief scientist on issues including acid rain, ecosystems conservation, renewable energy, and energy conservation. He then moved to Maine as the founding president of Mainewatch Institute, formed to foster sustainability and conservation in northern New England and southeastern Canada. Mainewatch Institute developed a report on Maine's progress towards a sustainable future as well as a plan to conserve the Gulf of Maine Marine Ecosystem in cooperation with New England states and Atlantic provinces. He moved to Southwest Florida in 1990 as president and CEO of The Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
John worked with staff, volunteers, and other organizations to acquire land for a new state forest, to acquire a critical barrier island to protect Rookery Bay, and to build a regional wildlife rehabilitation facility. He then was hired by the founding president of Florida Gulf Coast University to help build a strong environmental studies program at FGCU. There, he designed and gained approval for the first environmental/sustainability literacy course required of all undergraduates for graduation at a state university. He also founded the Institute for Sustainability, a green building project, an environmental management system for the university, an environmental stewardship council of students, staff, and faculty to advise the university president on environmental issues, the Sustaining Tomorrow Today Project, and developed and taught 20 undergraduate and graduate courses. Although he understands the magnitude of present and future challenges, he works with students and community members to foster sustainable futures in the belief that we have the wisdom to save our species and the other species of the biosphere--what we need is the will!