Charles H. W. Foster

John F. Kennedy School of Government

79 J. F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-0446 (voice)
617-495-1635 (fax)
charles_foster@harvard.edu

Further Information: http://environment.harvard.edu/henvdir/FOSTER_CHARLES_H_W.html

Associate in the Center for Science and International Affairs
Associate of the Harvard Forest
Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy in the John F. Kennedy School of Government

Dr. Foster was graduated from Harvard College. He holds professional degrees in forestry and wildlife management from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in geography and environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He has been a visiting scholar and consulting professor at Stanford University, a research associate at the University of California (Santa Cruz), a scholar-in-residence at the University of Virginia, an adjunct professor of political science and environmental studies at Tufts University, a visiting research professor at Clark University, and a visiting professor of environmental studies at Brown University. He currently served as adjunct research fellow and lecturer at the Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government and as an Associate of the Harvard Forest (Harvard University).

From 1976-81, Dr. Foster was dean of the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the oldest graduate institution of its kind in the western hemisphere. Prior to that post, he was professor of environmental policy at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and a senior staff member of the management consulting firm of Arthur D, Little, Inc. He has also served as the first professional president of the Nature Conservancy and senior staff member of the Conservation Foundation in Washington, and as the president of the W. Alton Jones Foundation of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Dr. Foster has devoted more than fifteen years of his career to government, serving seven Massachusetts governors in such posts as water resources specialist, commissioner of natural resources and, in 1971, as the Commonwealth's first cabinet-level secretary of environmental affairs. His intergovernmental interests have led to service on seven interstate compact agencies concerned with natural resources. His federal posts have included advisor to the Congressionally-established Public Land Law Review Commission, U.S. fisheries commissioner for the Northwest Atlantic fisheries, chairman of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail Advisory Council, and chairman of the Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission.

Dr, Foster is a past member of the Harvard Board of Overseers; a former trustee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the New England Aquarium, and the Conservation Foundation; and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among Dr. Foster's many articles and publications are four books in a series, Experiments in Bioregionalism, which reflect his special interests in the management of natural resources and environment across jurisdictional boundaries.

Harvard Forest Publications

Foster, C. H. W. (Ed.). 1998. Stepping Back to Look Forward - a History of the Massachusetts Forest. Harvard Forest and Harvard University Press, Petersham and Cambridge.

Foster, C. H. and D. R. Foster. 1998. Thinking in forest time. A vision for the Massachusetts Forest. Harvard Forest Paper No. 24. Petersham, Massachusetts.