Dr. James H. Speer is a Professor of Geography and Geology at Indiana State University. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Arizona in Geosciences and his PhD from the University of Tennessee in Geography. He is a biogeographer who uses tree rings to reconstruct environmental variables such as fire history and insect outbreaks. Through his years of studying environmental history, he has realized that humans are operating outside of the natural range of variability for most natural systems which has motivated him to give back to society by being a champion for sustainability at Indiana State University and in the Wabash Valley. Dr. Speer is a Senior Scholar for the Institute for Community Sustainability, which was established in February 2012. He is the President for Our Green Valley Alliance for Sustainability, on the board for the Terre Foods Cooperative Market, on the Tree Advisory Board for ISU, is a past-president of the Geography Educator’s Network of Indiana, and a past-president of the Tree-Ring Society. He lives in Terre Haute Indiana with his wife who also teaches at ISU with a PhD in Anthropology and their two sons Leif (born in 2010) and Lewis (born in 2012).