Geographer Stephen Cunha spent ten years as a national park ranger in Yosemite and Alaska. His travel and consulting on mountain and environmental issues includes assignments with USAID, United Nations University, World Bank, IUCN Commission on National Parks & Protected Areas, Myanmar Ministry of Education, and the UK Asylum Law Project. His pioneering field work and scholarship on the Pamir Mountains is recognized as key to the 2002 legislation creating the Tajik National Park and eventual Mountains of the Pamir World Heritage Site. Other publications include a collegiate physical geography textbook, National Geographic’s Our Fifty States, along with journal and book chapters on parks and protected lands, geography education, and Central Asian environmental issues.

As a Cal Poly Humboldt geography professor, Stephen earned university medals for Scholar of the Year and Outstanding Professor. In 2007 he received the California State University system’s highest award for exemplary contributions and achievements in the Social and Behavioral Sciences and Public Service. Stephen holds two undergraduate degrees in geography and natural resources from UC Berkeley (where he captained the intercollegiate swimming team) and a master’s and Ph.D. in geography from UC Davis. He will share his insights gained from decades of travel, research and teaching across the globe.