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J. Drew Lanham is a native of Edgefield, South Carolina with a B.A. and M.S. in Zoology and Ph.D. in Forest Wildlife Ecology from Clemson University. He is an award-winning faculty member and was named as Distinguished Alumni Professor and Master Teacher at his alma mater in 2012. Dr. Lanham is a Certified Wildlife Biologist and an active board member in several organizations, including the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, Aldo Leopold Foundation, and BirdNote.
He is a widely published essayist and an endeavoring poet who has contributed to several anthologies with pieces focusing on a passion for place and introspection on the internal and societal conflicts that sometimes put ethnicity and passion for nature at odds. His most recent work, “9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher,” was featured in Orion Magazine and on NPR’s All Things Considered. A member of the inaugural Audubon/ToyotaTogether Green Fellows class and a member of the Whole Thinking Community at Knoll Farm, he views his professional passion and personal missions converging to define environmental sustainability and conservation in new ways. A major focus of this effort is to tell the stories of Black-American connections to nature in the Southeast and beyond. Drew is a lifelong birder, naturalist, and avid hunter living in the Upstate of South Carolina with his wife, Janice. They have two adult children: Kimberly Alexis and Donovan Colby.