the john muir exhibit - people - barbara mossberg - living people influenced by john muir - john muir exhibit
Barbara Mossberg
- University Educator and Administrator, poet, essayist.
- Dr. Mossberg
is Professor of Practice, Clark Honors College, University of Oregon. Previous positions include: President Emerita of Goddard College, Vermont; Senior Scholar,
James McGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland;
Director and Professor of Integrated Studies at California
State University Monterey Bay, and founding dean of the College of
Arts, Humanities, and Social Science. She has served as as Senior
Fellow for the American Council on Education, U.S. Scholar in Residence
(Federal Appointment), Senior Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer -
Bicentennial Chair of American Studies (University of Helsinki);
and is a leading international education specialist, humanities scholar,
and poet. She performs lectures, poetry, and drama on the topics
of educating for joy and reverence. As an educator promoting the
role of arts and humanities in public policy, she serves on several
local and national boards.
- Barbara Mossberg regularly publishes excellent inspirational essays about John Muir on Huffington Post.
- Dr. Mossberg's poem "John Muir Takes a Sauna with the Finnish Ladies of Kuopio" was Grandprize Winner of the Abbie M. Copps Award, and has been republished in various formats. She has authored several other poems on John Muir as well as essays, and is writing a book about the meaning of his life and work for us today.
- Mossberg states that she has been greatly influenced by John Muir, including "how I look at the environment, read the paper, behold a tree, and in general approach my day and days. There is not a day that goes by that I do not invoke Muir's teachings. I never use the word "glory," "glorious," "behold," without thinking of Muir, and the fact that I use them at all, and so often, shows the influence of Muir on my daily discourse and response to life. I see differently because of Muir's writings. I live differently because of the way Muir lived his life and the choices he made. I invoke his spirit in my talks to educators, media, students, board members, foundations, and the public in general. He is a daily presence to me."
- Dr. Mossberg is a frequent keynote speaker on Muir for conferences
and organizations internationally and in the U.S. ranging from the Washington,
D.C., Sierra Club, Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching
at Miami University, Monterey Historic Garden League, Big Sur Environmental
Institute, CSUMB Watershed Institute, UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School
of Law, University of Utah School of Medicine, Willows Theater, John
Muir Center University of the Pacific, University of Maryland Academy
of Leadership, LeConte Memorial Lodge at Yosemite National Park (Sierra
Club Headquarters), Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, The Forest Hospital
Annual Fundraiser (Truckee, California), and others. In Feburary 2007
she delivered thekeynote at the annual Phi Beta Kappa conference on
John Muir. She addressed Muir's relationship with America's presidents
and the role of his writing in affecting national policy and legislation.
- In 2009, she was inducted into Pasadena's John Muir High School Alumni Hall of Fame, for her work on promoting the environment through the arts. On sabbatical from her university, she later worked with the high school on her drama musical on "Muir, Trees!" -the tree-mendous story of the role of poetry and song in saving our earth. It was produced for their Springfest 2011.
- Dr. Mossberg's
book in progress is University of the Wilderness: What we learn
from the art and science of John Muir -- What the world needs now.
Home
| Alphabetical Index
| What's New