Primary Interest Areas:
My service on the Darien, Connecticut Environmental Protection Commission influenced my concept on how an environmental education can be used to serve the needs of a community to improve the environment.  One in-depth study resulted in a textbook on onsite wastewater treatment systems and how they can address community sanitation needs and recycle water in an efficient and environmentally-sensitive manner.

I have used and taught GIS to address community issues in watershed protection,  water quality mapping, open space analysis, historic preservation, 3-D analysis of watershed boundaries and air quality analysis.  I have also developed  new methods and techniques to use GIS and have created a website of over 40 GIS instructional videos.

I have trained and led volunteer groups to monitor streams using the Izaak Walton League of America’s Save Our Streams program, training participants to identify benthic macroinvertebrates and perform field-based chemical analysis of the waters.  I have worked with golf courses to help them achieve certification in the Audubon Cooperative Wildlife Sanctuary Program, providing water quality monitoring information

Prior to teaching at Pace, my research was devoted to using scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray analysis to analyze particulates, concentrating on developing a signature to identify the fly ash from coal-fired power plants.

Courses Taught
Environmental Assessment
Environmental Chemistry (in person with labs and field trips)
Geographic Information Systems
Waste Management
Environmental Science (both online with at-home labs and in person)
Consumer Chemistry (online, with at-home labs)
Chemistry of Food and Cooking
Environmental Communications

Recent Presentations:
"Mentoring Graduate Students using iTree Tools." NEARC fall meeting, Saratoga Spring, NY, November 2011
"Editing Videos for Online Instruction"  Technology and Teaching, Pace NY, February 25, 2011
"GPS and ArcPAD with a Netbook"  NEARC fall meeting, Newport, RI, November 10, 2010
"Using ArcReader Documents to Serve Communities" NEARC Spring Meeting, Smith College, May 2010.
“Creating a GIS Hub at Pace University ” 24^th Annual Northeast ArcUsers Group Conference, Nashua, NH, October 2009.
“Synchronizing Photos to Tracklog Points” NEARC Spring 2009 Meeting, Northampton, MA, May 12, 2009.                 
More Presentations

Textbook:
Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems.  M.M. Minnis, B.D. Burks.  Hogarth House, Ltd. 1994. reprinted 2010

Publications & Links to online publications or abstracts.

Mentoring
Graduate Student Theses
This link gives the titles and a description of each of the graduate student theses I have mentored at Pace University.  

Volunteer Work
Since 1986, I have been the contact for US Peace Corps volunteers to obtain free books through Darien Book Aid.  This all-volunteer organization serves over 500 Peace Corps volunteers annually in most the countries that the Peace Corps operates.